Psychological Influences in Terrorism

Terrorism is a word that has long been associated with heinous and ruthless acts. The psychological causes of terrorism have been the topic of interest to researchers since the 1970's when they began trying to create psychological profiles of terrorists. Their task has been very strong and enduring battle, since most terrorists are not available for psychological testing. People, who found, drive or lead a group forward intellectually or strategically are likely to be different than those that follow Studies report that many experience mild stress reactions and many develop clniically significant psychological problems.The psychology of aterrorist consists of terrorist motivation. Many join terrorist outfits out of boredom and desire to have an action packed adventure. Motivation plays an important role in making terrorists do various acts of ruthlessness. A psychopath cannot be a terrorist as they are unreliable, cannot be controlled and their actions are personal. Terrorists are fanatics as they are cool, logical planning individuals whose rewards are not merely financial but ideological and political. Suicide terrorists have a self destruction ideology which makes them highly dangerous. There are various psychological factors that are needed for conformity of a person to be a terrorist. According to Bandura (1990), there are four techniques that are used by terrorist outfits to separate themselves from the mainstream society. In most terrorist groups women are recruited in a highly sophisticated manner as women tend to more coolin tense situations. Lochte considered female terrorists to be stronger,dedicated and more ruthless in their work assigned to them Thepapertheoreticallywilldoa psychological analysis of terrorist behavior and how far psychological influences are being done to bring up a terrorist and also to utilize in their acts to the public.