Research Review on Psychological Aspects of Extreme Behavior

摘要

This paper comprises three broad sections. The first discusses and reviews psychological approaches to the identification and definition of terrorism, including its consequences, violence associated with it, the relationship between terrorism and mental health, and the notion of state and non-state terrorism. Different types of terrorism are identified, and a list of the elements which may constitute the boundaries of terrorism are presented. The second section of the report reviews the psychological literature on terrorism, examining the concept of terrorist motivation, the psychological profiling of terrorists, and psychological accounts of the process of terrorism, to include the concept of identification, and the influence of the group. The third section introduces and develops a behavioral approach to the analysis of terrorism, and indicates avenues for future research.