HIST 3721 A3

PART A

Topic: There is always a psychological motivation and collective benefit of terrorism

The question of why individuals or groups commit terrorism acts has been a puzzle that
psychologists have lived to try and explore. The backgrounds of terror individuals in regards to
their education and talents have been unquestionable with most of them emerging as geniuses
with high-level talents in information technology, weaponry, and even in the medical field with
the question being why they choose to break from society and embark on a career of terrorism.
Besides, psychologist tries to unravel if terrorist share common traits and if they have a terror
personality that traces from childhood and if the profile of terrorist can be reliable in helping
the security organs in identifying potential terrorist. According to ……….. (………..), the
psychological factors relating to terrorism are of uttermost importance to the government
agencies, political scientists, as well as security personnel who would want to understand the
mindset of a terrorist to enable them to thwart their potential activities. Besides, the
assumptions that have underlined the psychosocial characteristics of terrorists of several
generations has spurred up the effort to determine the psychometric analysis of data
concerning terrorist and be able to predict there next move. Therefore, it is essential to
examine if there are psychological motivations and a collective benefit of terrorism to the
perpetrators.

Approaches to Terrorism Analysis

To understand the mindset of a terrorist, different approaches can be explored besides the
psychological approach, and they include the multi casual approach, the political approach,
organizational and psychological. First, the multi casual approach emanates from informal
activities relating to religion, the economy, and sociological factors. According to ……….
(………), terrorism is a multi casual phenomenon that cannot be approached simplistically
using a single cause such as the psychological motivation to why a terrorist performs criminal
acts. Based on this approach, casual factors such as revolutions, as well as political violence
are the main courses of terrorism, and these activities include religious conflicts, ethnic
conflicts, ideological conflicts, stresses brought about by moderni9sation, poverty, as well as
government weaknesses and ineptness. Apart from the multi casual approach, another way
to understand terrorists is through a political approach where it is assumed that terrorists are
born with certain traits and desires to become a terrorist and hence the root cause of
terrorism in the world (……….). This approach also roots that the influences of terrorism come
from environmental factors such as the political state of a country or region where terrorists
first become familiar with the Marxist-Lennon revolutionary ideology and, in the end, get
involved in radical activities.

Further, there is the organizational approach to understanding the mindset of a terrorist

where terrorism is seen as a strategic course of action with the idea that is propagated by a
group of people in an organized manner. According to ………. (…………), organizational
theorists believe that terrorism is not committed by an individual but by a group of people
with a standard and collective ideology and belief, although the individual commitment to
the organization is of paramount importance, and it varies among individuals. For instance,
there is inside information about the assigned roles, leadership structures, as well as financial
and operational management that can only be equated to a formal organization. Although
the groupings share a common goal, they have to be kept in check and together, and that is
the reason why like a cult, terror organizations have a single paramount leader who
dominates the group and instills what they believe to be the common interests of the
individual members of the group through radicalism. ……….. (……….) gives examples of such
leaders include Jihadist group Al-Qaeda leadership that comprised of Osama bin laden who
was later replaced by Ahmed Jibril, Shako Asahara, and Abu Nidal who have ensured the
ideology of their founder is adhered to by all members.

Another approach is the psychological approach, which forms the basis of the discussion by
many psychologists and political scientists alike. This approach suggests that two different
substances that are produced naturally by the body with the instigation of the brain and they
include norepinephrine which is a compound produced by the adrenal gland located in mind
and connects to the sympathetic nerve endings that associate with a physiological response
of fight or flight when individuals are in a stressful condition (……………). The second substance
is the acetylcholine produced by the parasympathetic nerve endings that dampen the
response of the endorphins that develop the brain's response to stress. Because of this body
substance that occurs within a terrorists body physiology, it is concluded that the terrorist
violence is usually rooted in the physiological processes of the body part as an outcome of
agitated and stereotyped tissue response to stress brought about by the external
environment (………….). Based on physiology, there is a contagion model that demonstrates
the psychological state of a potential terrorist and the implications of their stability within
the community. In this regard, potential terrorists usually become aroused by violence, and
hence they must have an attitude that enjoys violence.

Psychological Theories

In contrast to political and sociological approaches to terror groups, the motive behind
terrorism can be looked at from a conceptual perspective with the focus on motivation,
recruitment, induction, beliefs, personalities, attitudes, and careers of terror individuals.
Attempts to account for the behaviors of terrorists usually fall into two categories. First is the
top-down approach that seeks to identify the seeds of a terrorist as emanating from political,
economic, and social circumstances, and second is the bottom-up approach that explores the
individual traits that make a person turn out to be a terrorist (…………..). These two approaches
can be summed up into the rational choice theory as well as the psychopathological theory that
considers the interactions between the individuals and the circumstances they find themselves
in that predispose them to terrorism. Besides, it has come apparent that different theories that
explain the mindset of a terrorist can overlap within a given fundamental framework.
Therefore, the theories of terrorism also vary to the extent that they consider the difference in
psychological differences between the terrorists' roles and whether the individuals are
regarded as psychologically heterogeneous or homogeneous. In this regard, the route an
individual takes and the motivation, as well as the benefits attached to terrorism, can be
explained in the theory of rationality and the psychopathological concept.

Rational Choice Theory

In many circumstances, if a terrorist does not meet the mental illness criteria for a psychopath,
then it is concluded that they are rational thinkers, and hence they can make rational choices.
The theory of logical choice derives its premises from the consciousness, rationality, and
calculated decisions that a terrorist takes to commit a specific action through an optimal
strategy to accomplish a given goal (……………). From this theory, one can explain why
individuals incline towards a given behavior such as terrorism through a rational choice that
may be derived from the environment or innate. The concept assumes that the reason that
people are inclined towards a given type of behavior explains the changes in policy and game of
ground rules played by governments and terrorists. The rational theory combines the top-
down, and the bottom-up as the people fighting terrorism have to identify the motive behind a
given terror attack, that is, if it was individually motivated as a beneficial act or it was
reprimanded by other environmental factors such as a difference in ideologies or the
economics of the country (………….). For example, the 9/11 terror attack on the world trade
center in the US capital can be categorized as a rational choice by the Jihadist terror group to
bomb the center with no material benefit but because of ideological difference and the action
of the US government.

Moreover, the theory of rational choice is related to the game concept of strategic choice
formulation that is utilized in the analysis and prediction of behaviors of terrorists. Some
studies support the game theory as a psychological approach to the understanding of the
motivation behind terror attacks that are listed as being quantifiable factors that target being
governments. First, the rationality choice theory captures the nature of interdependency of the
interaction of the individuals and circumstances (…………..). For instance, the mass shootings
reported in the US in 2016 were classified by the government as terror acts that were instigated
by the political as well as the ideological difference between the shooter and the circumstances.
Secondly, the theory helps in the discovery of implications that ensue when each side of the
divide that is the government on one side and the terrorist on the other react according to how
each side thinks of each other. For example, the government thinks of the people committing
these horrors acts as terrorists who need to be killed on sight. On the other hand, the terrorists
see the government as infringing on their space by implementing policies that demean there
belief and ideology and hence the need to revenge on the government actions.

Psychopathological theory

On one end, there is the notion that terrorists are insane, and they should be dealt with the
equal force as their actions on innocent populations. While on the other hand, the minority
think that the terrorists can be redeemed if their motive is understood and addressed. In this
regard, there is a distinction between modern psychiatry that identifies terrorism as a
behavioral disorder and even classified as a significant clinical illness such as schizophrenia or
acute depression (…………). There was a pattern of remorse in regards to human rights termed
as psychopathy in the 1950s, which was classified as the loss of reality and acting in one's favor
despite the consequences. The psychopathological theory uses the basis of insanity to explain
the psychology of terrorists and their motivation. It describes the terror actors as people who
cannot differentiate between right and wrong, or they assume that their actions are always
right and should never be contradicted. However, the concept has little research to support it
as it bases its idea on purely a psychiatric examination that is not controlled by empirical
psychological studies. Also, criticism of the theory suggests that most of the terror acts are well
planned and executed, and hence such individuals cannot fall under people with psychiatric
disorders.

Nevertheless, while terrorist groups, since time in history, are sometimes led by ideologies that
are seen by rationally thinking individuals as bordering insanity, terrorists rarely meet the
criteria of psychiatric patients (…………..). Most of the literature on clinical mental illnesses in
regards to terrorism speaks to the remorse aspects of the personality as psychiatrists see the
terrorists as people with a unique character of remorselessness and attar disregard of the law
and the discourse of nature. For example,………… (………….), describes terrorists, like
psychopaths, as ruthless, outlaws, and individuals who only adhere to a system of values that
are in contrast with the rest of society. Further, the theory holds that terrorists are sociopaths
who are acting in an antisocial manner, given the superego discourse in them that delimits self-
monitoring. However, the idea of a terrorist being sociopathic factor has been advanced
without prior evidence from empirical studies bypassing the essential quest6ion of whether
terrorism is a prosocial behavior or an antisocial behavior has given that individuals who
intentionally harm other innocent people are usually antisocial. For example, the German
students who joined up in the 1970 red army faction and the converts of Christian to Muslims
only to end up joining the radical Islamic cells are individuals who reject and attack their
society. Hence, they can be termed ads antisocial (………….). Therefore, based on the theory, the
psychological motivation behind terrorism can be equated to a psychiatric disorder that
delineates an individual from the reality of society.

Overall, in the profiling of terrorists, some general assumptions can be made on the
psychological motivation and collective benefits of terrorism based on the understanding of
human physiology and how people make decisions. It is clear that there is no single personality
of a terrorist since all the people engaging in terror acts have their motives and the end goal
that varies from one terror individual to another, and this seems to be a consensus among
psychologists as well as political scientists. Besides, the personality of a terrorist may vary from
that of an innocent person within and also differs from other criminals such as robbers. For
instance, the intentions and motivation behind terrorists lie in the ideologies and beliefs and
are not necessarily for material benefits but solace and comfort. While for a common thief or
robber, the motive is entirely for material benefit and not for an ideology, and hence explaining
why a thief can easily be turned back into a good citizen unlike a terrorist who can remain
sound but still rooted in their belief of terror. Therefore, terrorism or the psychology of a
terrorist cannot be diagnosed as psychopathic mental illness patients, but individuals who are
deluded by their ideological view of the world.
PART B

Overview of the Module Activities

The module activities covered varied topics surrounding historical issues as well as
interpretation of the character and nature of terrorism. The module allowed me to illustrate my
understanding of the problems and the theme of terrorism. The assignments and contents of
the module have helped integrate as well as apply the concepts of terrorism as they have
provided a foundation in which the idea is built. First, the term terrorism was understood from
different perspectives that included political, economic, and psychological, with the definition
of terrorism broadly being recognized as a means of coercion that uses threats of violence to
spread fear in a bid to attain political goals and ideologies (……………). Unlike historical terrorism,
modern-day terrorism has been elaborated in law as consisting of attacks, radicalization, and a
change in position from the desired policy. Therefore, besides understanding the nature of
terrorists, the module also helped in demonstrating the challenges that counter-terrorism units
encounter since time in history as they strive to define the mindset, personality, and motivation
behind the terror attacks.

The first module activity on the module was about the psychological motivation of terrorism
and if it has a collective benefit to the terrorist. In this activity, I learned that personality of an
individual plays a critical role in determining the decisions they make, and that includes
committing terror acts. Using the theory of rational choice, I learned that terrorists are sane
people who make choices that seem reasonable to them. Also, I learned about the
psychopathological theory that associates terrorism acts psychopathy and psychiatric disorder
and that a terrorist is an antisocial outlawed individual with no remorse to anyone who does
not prescribe to their ideology (……………). Historically, acts of terrorism could be easily
quantified. Still, there were ordinary acts that described terrorists, such as the use of violence
and intention to spread fear that was directed at the people as a product of a social position.
This understanding is related to the psychological motivation behind the committal of terror
acts.

The second module activity was to examine how racial ideology always underscored terrorism
in the 20th century. In this module, I learned that, historically, certain racial groups, as well as
religious alignments such as Islam, were associated with terrorism in the 20th century. Using a
range of international terrorist acts such as the 9/11 attacks, the module activity was able to
examine how members of a minority ethnic group continued viewed as deviants and the
leading cause of terrorism. Historically, the black community, the Muslims, and other racial
minorities were seen as the challengers to the status quo and hence associated with terrorism
as a revenge mechanism against what they see as oppressive governments (…………..). Racial
segregation and discrimination have build up the ideology of the jihadist terror groups that
consist mainly of Muslims as they are radicalized to believe that the Christians are the leading
cause of the world problems and that they do not follow the tenets of God in regards to
humanity. Therefore, from a perspective of racial ideology, the module helped me understand
the underpinnings and motives of racial terror groups.
The third activity of the module was to demonstrate how liberation terrorism has founded the
concept of a just society. National liberation movements are seen as groupings meant to seek
the removal of different occupancies from their territories. This liberation movement usually
uses force with sometimes leading to a war that sees scores of civilians killed as a way of
occupying power. This acts historically, were beneficial to the natives and was a way that many
nations got independence from there colonizers (…………..). However, with time, the liberation
groups turned into cells of armed mercenaries that helped other governments and people to
take over power from their adversaries hence turning the liberal cause into a terror activity. In
this activity, I learned how terror groupings are formed, the ideology behind them, and how a
terror group can hijack a national agenda of a country. Using the Islamic state and the Al
Shabab of Somalia, the activity demonstrates how the terror groups are organized under the
disguise of liberation.

Overall, my overview thoughts and personal musings on the historical issues introduced in the
activity and learned from the module enable my understanding of the semantics and the
historical development of the terrorism world. Through the analysis of the concept and the
underpinning legal principles concerning international crime and terrorism, it is evident that
terrorism in the contemporary world has diversified, given the advancements in technology and
globalization, and they no longer congregate at common areas. Still, they are spread all over the
globe. Also, I learned that there is a difference in ideology between the terror groupings with
some having the religious belief and strictly follow their religious doctrine while others are out
to revenge for the historical injustices carried out by the successive government on their
people. Nevertheless, the module was informative as it addresses various issues through topical
activities.

References