For this Discussion Forum, identify three topics of the course that added to your
understanding of the psychology of terrorism and explain why. Then list each of your
classmates and share what you learned from dialoging with him/her during these 8
weeks. This is an effective means of pulling together course concepts and reflecting on
meaningful learning and sharing with your classmates what you believe were their
contributions to shaping our classroom experience.
Alert: You shouldn’t consider this one a “fluff” assignment. Please give this thoughtful
consideration. What did you learn and why was it interesting enough to make you want
to discuss it here? Be sure to keep both of these questions in mind while developing your
initial posts.
Psychology of terrorism
Course Wrap Up
There are topics that help in the proper understanding of psychological terrorism.
Some of the topics give meaning to terrorism while some broaden its understanding. Sharing
was vital during the course as my classmates shared their life experiences. Some brought a
different view of terrorism from their experiences in their countries. The following are some
of the topics learned and how they contributed to the understanding of psychology of
terrorism.
The topic “violence” gave a deep meaning of terrorism as a way of violence. It
explains the meaning of terrorism and exploits the relationship between the groups involved
in terrorism. The topic discusses terrorism as threats imposed on non-combatants by some
small groups of people (Chua, 2012). The important message in this section is that terrorism
is a category of violence, but the small group involved are the winners in comparison to the
large group of non-combatants.
The topic “Individual pathology” gives a different view to terrorism based on mental
status. It suggests that the terrorists are people who are not in their correct senses. Individual
pathology asserts that terrorists are people under mental disorder, and this makes them lose
feelings for other innocent people (Chua, 2012). The issue that is striking in this topic is that
PSYCHOLOGY OF TERRORISM 2
it attempts to relate a real life situation of people who live in the same community. It explains
that no one can live in a community without support of other people. This attempts to discuss
terrorists as people who have the ability to survive on their own, which is an ideal situation.
The topic “normal psychology” tries to exemplify the causes of terrorism. It relates
the trajectory by which someone becomes a terrorist as a gradual process. It also explains the
things that people value at the expense of life (Chua, 2012). It identifies that people have
some things of substance that they cannot sacrifice at the expense of the life of another
person. The striking issue is that terrorism is a normal psychology depending on what a
person views as being important in life.
PSYCHOLOGY OF TERRORISM 3
Reference
Chua, J. L. (2012). Tales of decline: Reading social pathology into individual suicide in south
India. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 36(2), 204-24.