Терроризм как социально-психологическое явление. Практикум на английском языке

late the general principles that underlie each group. Discuss the problem, defending or refuting the suggested points of view.

Reports themes

1.Terror acts in the North Caucasus as a result of one highly organized criminal activity of international character organizations.

2.International terrorist organizations.

3.Construction of terrorist organizations: hierarchical, network, and cellular.

4.Interaction of terrorist organizations in political, organizational, material and financial terms.

5.Terrorism is a violent way of criminal activity.

List of references on the p. 90.

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TERRORISM AS A SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON

Unit 5. Psychological mechanisms of involvement in terrorist organizations

The aim: to consider the essence and features of psychological mechanisms of involvement in terrorist organizations.

Competences formed in the class: the ability to use didactic techniques in the implementation of standard correctional, rehabilitation and training programs to optimize the mental activity of a person.

Timeliness of the unit: analytical materials allow us to reveal a common factor in the development of the terrorist’s personality: psychological inferiority, a certain deficit of something in his life, whose roots are sometimes traced from the earliest childhood. Such deficiency of mental development leads to the need for hyper compensation of the deficit during the course of growing up and reaching maturity. From autobiographies and other descriptions it is known that many terrorists in childhood were killed by parents and relatives. As a result, on the one hand, there was a desire for revenge, on the other – the atmosphere of emotional deficit, in which the future terrorist grew.

Theoretical part

Psychologists identify a number of personal predispositions that often become motivating motives for individuals to enter the path of terrorism: super-concentration on the protection of their “I” by projection with a constant aggressive defensive readiness; insufficient personal identity, low self-esteem, elements of personality splitting; strong need to join the group, i.e. in group identification or membership; experiencing a large degree of social injustice with a propensity to project on society the causes of their failures; social isolation and alienation, a sense of being on the roadside of society and loss of life prospects.

However, it can not be said that the above set of these characteristics is some generalized psychological profile of the terrorist’s personality. In some cases, politico-ideological motives for joining a terrorist group are important. But, they are more often a form of rationalization of deeper personal motives – the desire to strengthen personal identity and, most importantly, the need for belonging to the group.

The terrorist group in the psychological sense removes the incompleteness or the split of the psychosocial identity from the individual. It becomes for him a stabilizing psychological foundation, allowing him to feel a complete personality, an important component of his self-aware-

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ness and finding the meaning of life, a powerful mechanism of spiritual, value and behavioral stereotyping.

Terrorist organization, like any other criminal organization, has a complex hierarchical structure and at its different levels there are different people, each of which has certain individual characteristics. But terrorist activity, like any other kind of activity, leads to the fact that people who are engaged in it develop certain typical ways of behavior, typical personality characteristics. And the very inclusion in the terrorist organization already presupposes the existence of certain personality characteristics typical of this or that hierarchical level.

Summarizing various psychological studies of the problems of terrorism, one can propose the following classification of the personality of terrorists:

1. “The organizers – inspirers.”

Within this category, the following types can be distinguished:

a)ideological fanatics is the most dangerous type of terrorist, guided by his own convictions (religious, ideological, political) and sincerely convinced of the necessity of his actions, the rightness of his views, his own infallibility, and the ability to control the destinies of people. As a rule, this category is distinguished by a sufficiently high level of intelligence, the ability to effectively exert psychological influence on other people, eloquence.

b)direct organizers – a more balanced and cooler type, engaged not so much in ideological support and emotional energy, as in the thoughtout and planning of terrorist activities and specific terrorist acts. A leader who prefers to stay in the shadows.

c)demonstrative type

2. “Providers”.

In this category, the following types can be distinguished:

a)recruiters

b)developers of terrorist acts

c)“teachers-educators”

d)technologists 3. “Performers”.

The next basic category is made up of people who did not even think

about terror before, but were involved in the process of terror by someone or some circumstances. Already, being “attached”, they gain confidence,

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often fanatical, in the necessity of their participation in terrorist actions and gradually “enter into the taste” of terrorist activities.

Within this category, the following types of terrorists can be distinguished:

a)aggressive type

b)adventuristic type

c)a fanatical type

d)the zombie type

e)vengeful type

Today extremists are also actively exploiting the idea of a “just state”, simple slogans that are accessible to most people, video messages of militants, videos about mujahideen. And as the leading propaganda space, the Internet has been chosen as the most popular means of mass communication among young people.

Currently, the range of aggressive and violent acts of minors is extremely wide. Along with traditional forms of violence, modern technologies, creating new industrial directions and, as a result, new aspects of self-realization for teenagers begin to play an increasingly significant role. Such completely new forms of behavior, caused by the introduction of new technologies, include electronic commerce and electronic crime, which is also often characterized by an element of violence. One of the most important new forms of abnormal behavior, characteristic only of teenagers, is Internet addiction.

Signs of Internet addiction – the lack of control over the use of the Internet network, significant stress, the conjugation with financial problems, social and educational difficulties, etc.

One form of Internet addiction is the possibility of implementing a pathological identification, which is essentially a mechanism very similar to the achievement of the ideal “I”, the difference of which is the pathological features for the adolescent identifying features inherent in the created image. The most common is pathological identification with the opposite sex. The low frequency of occurrence in the population of such disorders as transsexualism is in sharp contrast to a significant number of cases of pathological autoidentification on the basis of sex in the network.

The main signs of Internet crime have the same roots as crime in general, but they have a number of features that allow attributing its manifestations to a special type of “high-tech crimes”. Most of the crimes of this

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category can be formally assessed as fraud, illegal financial transactions, consumer fraud, etc.

To the category of Internet crimes, it is possible to refer to a certain stretch the distribution of pornography, the advertising of prohibited services (for example, prostitution), the dissemination of information about the manufacture of drugs, weapons, etc. In this case, the Internet manifests its role more as a universal means of communication than arenas and the instrument of the actual illegal activity.

Investigation of Internet crimes is extremely difficult. In most cases, they remain undisclosed. However, it is very difficult for a criminal to take advantage of the results of his activities.

Unfortunately, at present, the issues of preventing Internet addiction are practically not developed. In a number of foreign works, the authors propose using online psychotherapy to prevent Internet addiction.

It is likely that the search for methods to correct Internet addiction will continue, in parallel causing numerous controversies due to the uncertainty of the very concept of “Internet addiction”.

The problem of organizing effective information counteraction to terrorism and extremism is at the center of attention of modern specialists in the sphere of national security.

Among the problems that reduce the effectiveness of information counteraction to extremism and terrorism, one can single out: insufficient elaboration of the mechanism for monitoring the regional situation; low efficiency of using the potential of the media and Internet channels of information in the process of preventing and countering extremist and terrorist manifestations; weak “targeting” of measures to counter information on extremism and terrorism; passivity of non-state structures in the process of ensuring public security.

As part of the implementation of these areas is necessary in order to form a system of “targeted” counteraction to extremism and terrorism:

a) organize an annual diagnostic of the regional specifics of manifestations of extremism and terrorism, including the establishment of causes, conditions and factors that stimulate the development of extremism, the dynamics of its manifestations; the definition of the objects of influence of extremist organizations and leaders; analysis of the composition, structure of extremist groups, organizations, leaders, activists, their “street human resource” capable of provoking mass riots;

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TERRORISM AS A SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON

b) on the basis of the diagnostic work out, to develop a system of measures of “targeted” prevention among groups most susceptible to the negative influence of extremists, in particular for young people it is necessary:

•todeveloparegionaltargetedprogramaimedatpreventingextrem- ist manifestations in the youth environment;

•to create a thematic Internet resource dedicated to the prevention of extremist behavior.

Issues for discussion

1. Motivation for individuals to enter the path of terrorism.

3.Psychological mechanisms of the formation of Internet addiction.

4.Generalized psychological profiles of the terrorist’s personality.

5.Socio-psychological features of the organization of propaganda through the Internet, aimed at building loyalty to extremist ideas and moral legitimization of violence.

7.Investigation of the phenomenon of terrorism in the context of the ongoing processes of informatization and the globalization of threats.

8.Effective use of information resources in order to optimize an- ti-terrorist impacts and develop a system of information and psychological opposition to the ideology of extremism and terrorism.

Methodological recommendations

1.Form a group of participants, trying to ensure the heterogeneity of its composition.

2.Think about all aspects of the problem, avoiding template, typical solutions. Try to use not only critical thinking, but also imagination, not hesitating to express even “absurd” ideas.

3.All participants should be provided with an equal opportunity to express their ideas; relations between them should be based on the principles of tolerance and mutual respect. The teacher, as necessary, should ask leading questions that will allow to give a new direction to the participants’ thoughts and prevent the repetition of similar ideas.

4.The procedure of brainstorming is not considered effective without subsequent examination of ideas. Experts group similar ideas and formulate the general principles that underlie each group. Discuss the problem, defending or refuting the suggested points of view.

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The damage is caused by socio-economic factors: a low level of people’s lives and a related desire to “take away and share” – both within the framework of one country, and in the relationship between the “poor” (developing) and “rich” countries. The scarcity of education and information also creates a destructive, destructive attitude towards other cultures, beliefs and beliefs.

It is possible to analyze for a long time the various spheres in which this or that deficit arises, leading to some kind of defectiveness. This is personal, and family, and social, and economic, and political varieties of inferiority. Accordingly, they give birth to different psychological roots of terror. However, there is a basic common factor that unites different options into a single mechanism - it is an internal impossibility, an inability to overcome this deficiency.

The defectiveness is not terrible by itself. It is overcome through various mechanisms, in particular, through the mechanism of adequate, positive, constructive hypercompensation, in which deficit is eliminated with the use of funds from the same sphere in which it arose. The paralytic, who survived poliomyelitis in childhood, is able to become an Olympic champion – for this purpose one must continuously engage in sports. A person who receives a small salary starts to work more, find a second job, etc. But, neither one nor the other do not grab the gun and do not make explosions. Terrorists become when there are not enough forces to hypercompensate the deficit with adequate means. Then, hypercompensation becomes inadequate, negative and destructive. Then the defectiveness turns into terror.

There is no doubt that terrorists are recruiting socially maladjusted, unsuccessful people. They did not go well in school and university, they could not make a career, achieve the same as their peers, always suffered from loneliness, they did not have relations with representatives of the opposite sex. In a word, everywhere and always they were outsiders, neither in the family, nor at work, nor in a friendly company did they really feel “theirs”. In other words, these are people who are pursued by failure. Meanwhile, one cannot simplify the situation and be naive, believing that terrorists are simply trivial poor students who have difficulty graduating from high school and who have not lost their naivety in time. A modern terrorist is not just a criminal, not just a deviant teenager and not even some kind of “revolutionary rabble”, as it was in the nineteenth century.

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TERRORISM AS A SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON

Whatever final role he played in the very activity of terrorism is, one way or another, a well-formed, psychologically prepared person.

It seems that the individual does not have, and there cannot be innate terrorist properties, they are all acquired in the process of human activity under the influence of the social environment, the immediate environment; their formation is facilitated by social conditions. It is logical to assume that the formation of the personality of a terrorist passes through two age stages. At the first, youth stage, a person is involved in some sometimes even quite legitimate protest behavior, in the overwhelming majority of cases related to the possibility (or reality) of using violence in defending certain views. At the second stage, more or less mature citizens are already involved in terrorist activities, primarily on the basis of the formation of that personal attitude that they do not and cannot have in the life of another path.

One can single out a number of personal predispositions, which often become motivating motives for individuals to enter the path of terrorism:

–an aggressive concept of the external environment (i.e., a stable belief that surrounding people desire evil, are incapable of understanding, etc.)

–super-concentration on the protection of his “I” by projection with a constant aggressive defensive readiness;

–reassessment of one’s own importance, unstable mood, desire to avoid social control;

–insufficient personal identity, low self-esteem, elements of personality splitting;

–an inner emptiness that pushes for the search for thrills in the form of a game with death;

–Strong need to join the group, that is, in group identification or membership;

–experiencing a large degree of social injustice with a propensity to project on society the causes of their failures;

–social isolation and alienation, a sense of being on the roadside of society and loss of life prospects.

So, the most important component of the psychological characterization of the terrorist’s personality is typical features, but it should be noted that the above set of these features is not some generalized psychological profile of the terrorist’s personality.

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People who surround your students are mostly good, law-abiding citizens. However, among them may be dangerous for the child and adolescent.

The following persons need the greatest vigilance:

1.Losers. They are, as a rule, embittered, resentful, vindictive. External signs of them: a physical defect, a low position occupied in adulthood, gloominess.

2.Silent people. They are difficult to predict, because there is little to learn about them.

3.Hysterics. They are capricious, touchy, act according to their mood, easily lose control of themselves. A sign of psychopathy is the tendency to be in sight. This can be manifested in extravagant clothes and hair, tattoos, fanciful manner of speaking, decorations, specially inflicted scars, noisy “offending” behavior, striving for leadership.

4.Enthusiasts. They are careless and can plunge other people into trouble.

5.Insulting animals. Who does not torture animals; he has a moral barrier that can work in relation to a person. Anyone who likes to make fun of a cat or a dog does not have such a barrier and, in relation to people, too, can show the traits of a buckler.

6.Needless to say. They can sacrifice everything, including people, their health, life, well-being for the sake of principle.

7.Persons with easily raised psyche. They may be in a state of aggression to lose control of themselves. The main sign of predisposition to arousal is the inability to remain in immobility for a long time. Such people spin on the spot, shake their legs, drum their fingers, and twist a pen, a pencil in their fingers, tinker, pick or break. They are prone to scandals, easily lose their temper.

8.Particularly helpful. The normal attitude towards us of strangers is a poorly concealed indifference. If someone with someone is very polite, then he needs something and he will impose himself with some request or adjust the trap.

Internet addiction in adolescence.

Currently, the range of aggressive and violent acts of minors is extremely wide. Along with traditional forms of violence, modern technologies, creating new industrial directions and, as a result, new aspects of self-realization for teenagers begin to play an increasingly significant

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role. Such completely new forms of behavior, caused by the introduction of new technologies, include electronic commerce and electronic crime, which is also often characterized by an element of violence. Consider one of the most important new forms of abnormal behavior, characteristic of almost exclusively adolescents, Internet addiction.

We do not set ourselves the goal of fully highlighting the role of individual factors in the formation of Internet addiction in adolescents and exhaustively characterize the options and forms of this phenomenon. It is rather an attempt to comprehend a number of provisions and outline the main directions of future work.

Signs of Internet addiction: uncontrolled use of the Internet network, significant stressful effects, coupled with financial problems, social and educational difficulties, etc.

Questions arise: is the Internet a qualitatively different form of interaction between the adolescent and the environment, and if so, what pathological options can arise in this case, and are there any ways to prevent them?

Let us dwell on the factors predisposing, in our opinion, to Internet dependencies, and we will try to analyze some variants of its implementation.

A few studies in the field of Internet addiction outline the goals and tasks facing the researchers facing a new problem. In one, researchers are unanimous: Internet addiction is a problem almost exclusively among young people.

The information resources available to Internet users are truly limitless. Each user can find for himself in the network the information he needs, presented in any of the technically existing forms of text, audio and video formats. Information can be of a strictly private, scientific, public nature.

One of the main problems of obtaining information on the Internet (as well as in other information systems) is the ability of the user to assess the reliability of the information received. This is especially important, since most sources of information on the network do not yet have the reputation of official sources (newspapers, television, publishing houses, radio channels) for a long period of their existence.

Undoubted advantage of the network is the potential of each user to post and make their own information available to an unlimited number

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