Page 25 - Сигурност и отбрана - брой 2 - 2023

Security & Defense, Issue 2, 2023 Scientific journal

1. THE SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL OF THE
TERRORIST.
It is a challenging task to determine the socio-psychological model of
the ‘typical’ terrorist and to define the reasons and mechanisms that turn a
normal person into a member of a terrorist group or a ‘lone wolf’.
In Psychology, there are various theories and models for psychological
analysis of the personality, therefore today the generally accepted view is
that the dynamics/speed of the mental development of a person is not
uniform. Equal in length periods of time can result in changes in the psyche
that are different in magnitude. This means that mental development could
pass through relatively short time intervals during which the changes in the
psyche are relatively significant as new qualities appear, and through
relatively long-time intervals during which the psyche is relatively stable
since the changes are quantitative and consist of changing only the degree of
representation of already existing qualities of the psyche. In other words, the
qualities of the psyche and its capabilities change gradually in stages or
degrees during the personality growth.
The most acclaimed periodizations of mental development are
contradictory to each other. In addition, serious doubts have been expressed
about each of them.
Jean Piaget’s theory of Cognitive development accounts for four stages
in the development of a child and each stage represents a new way of
thinking and understanding the world (Piaget, 1936).
Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory introduces five stages of
human development based on how personality develops over the course of
childhood and defines "oral stage", "anal stage", "phallic stage", etc. (Freud,
1991).
Erik Erikson’s eight stages of socio-psychological development from
infancy to adulthood are based on the emergence of mental qualities that
regulate a person’s behaviour: trust vs mistrust, autonomy vs shame/doubt,
initiative vs guilt, etc. (Erikson, 1963).
Social psychology has its own reserved perimeter in the study of a
person, focusing on his/her mental properties, processes, and states in
interaction with other people. This type of psychology is interested in the
motives that determine the group behaviour of people, i.e. their social
motivation. Social psychology also deals with how individual, or group
behaviour is influenced by the presence and behaviour of others. Thus, social
psychology is interested in the mental mechanisms and effects that unfold in
group interaction, in internal group dynamics, in interpersonal relations in
the group, in the relations between leaders in the group, leadership, etc.

Unlike sociology which deals with large social communities, social
psychology deals with small social communities, including terrorist groups.

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