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November 07, 2004
Two articles from APA Monitor on Psychology Nov 2004
Two articles from APA Monitor on Psychology Nov 2004
http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov04/toc.html
Hormones, stress and aggression--a vicious cycle
New research may help explain why, under stress, we are quick to lash out and slow to cool down. A team of behavioral neuroscientists led by Menno Kruk, PhD, of the Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research, has found in rats a fast positive feedback loop between a hormonal stress response and their brains' aggression systems. Given how similar human neurophysiology is to that of the rat (and indeed many other mammals, plus birds and lizards), the finding may ultimately help to explain the self-perpetuating nature of violence. The results, reported in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience (Vol. 118, No. 5), point to possible ways for people--given future research and development--to prevent pathological violence.
Fatal friendships
Social groups, rather than formal organizations, form the backbone of today's most dangerous terrorist organizations. [...] According to Marc Sageman, MD, PhD, an adjunct psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania who analyzed biographical data of more than 400 members of Islamic terrorist groups, these suicide bombers are not brainwashed youth, indoctrinated into religious zealotry at an early age--as is commonly suggested by the media. Nor are they usually disenfranchised and poor, with little to lose, he reported at the June 2004 International Conference on Living with Terror: Psycho-Social Effects, held in Washington, D.C. Rather, the average al Qaeda-type terrorist is married, in his late twenties, upper-middle class and educated. The men in those airport security camera pictures are what they look like: regular people, according to Sageman's research.
Posted by Emma at November 7, 2004 02:36 AM
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