Recently in Texas, 19 kids died in mass shooting. It is usual in America to kill kids in school. My question is that What is the psychology behind Mass Shooting and Why it only happens in America?
There's definitely a copy cat factor going on here- we sensationalize these crimes so much (because they're awful) and people know it makes them infamous. It's a vicious cycle and we need better gun laws
In 2006 a coauthored laboratory study on men's responses to guns in the journal Psychological Science with my colleague Tim Kasser and one of our students. We demonstrated that males who interacted with a handgun showed a greater increase in testosterone levels and more aggressive behavior than males who interacted with the board game Mouse Trap.
In the study, each participant dismantled either a gun or the mousetrap, handled its components and then wrote instructions for how to assemble the objects. Then we gave them the opportunity to put hot sauce into water that was going to be consumed by another person. The participants who handled the gun put in significantly more hot sauce -- and were also more likely to express disappointment after learning that no one was going to actually drink the concoction.
Thus, cues tied to threats often won't result in aggressive responses unless testosterone is involved. Elliot Rodger, the disturbed college student whose violent 2014 rampage through Santa Barbara, California, was foretold in a chilling YouTube video, clearly experienced a testosterone surge upon purchasing his first handgun.
"After I picked up the handgun," he explained, "I brought it back to my room and felt a new sense of power. Who's the alpha male now, bitches?"
Mass shooter = low-dominant loser?
Young male violence is most likely to be initiated by young men who don't command respect from others. They'll often feel like slighted outcasts, deprived of what they want or feel they deserve.
British clinical psychologist Paul Gilbert has developed something he calls the Social Attention Holding Theory (PDF). According to Gilbert, we compete with each other to have other people pay attention to us; when other people take notice, we build status. The increased status that comes from having others attend to us leads to all kinds of positive emotions. But persistently being ignored by others produces much darker emotions -- especially envy and anger.
It's no mystery why the media will often describe mass shooters and terrorists as misfits or loners. In many cases, they are.
Nicolas Henin was a Frenchman who was held hostage by ISIS for ten months. Here's how he described his young, murderous, Jihadi captors: "They present themselves to the public as superheroes, but away from the camera are a bit pathetic in many ways: street kids drunk on ideology and power. In France we have a saying -- stupid and evil. I found them more stupid than evil. That is not to understate the murderous potential of stupidity."
Apparently, a lack of attention from others results in a lack of status, resulting in a lack of access to women. Combined with a young man's testosterone, it creates a toxic, combustible mix.
There may not be much we can do to change the structure of the young male mind that evolved over the course of millions of years. However, ignoring or denying its existence doesn't do us any favors.
What I don't understand is that, this is keep happening and political parties are doing nothing to prevent it. Why aren't there strict gun laws in America and why kids own them.
I understand bullying is bad, but it doesn't mean it can give you a license to kill others. There are other ways to tackle bullying.
Why our kids become so violent and aggressive. Is it because of media, junk food and other factors. As a society to find a solution as fast as we can, otherwise kids keep gonna die.
I totally agree with the fact that bullying doesn't give you the right to kill people. However, it is an explanation for why school mass shootings happen. In my opinion, it's good that we're trying to understand the reason behind this so that we can start thinking of ways to prevent it.
As you pointed out- violence and aggression amongst children is a result of multiple factors. Some of the most important things any parent can do is develop a balanced relationship with their child, closely monitor their behavior and introduce them to as many hobbies as possible so that they can direct their energy towards something they're hopefully passionate towards (instead of for example playing violent games which are proven to have an impact on childhood development).
It's devastating that this has become somewhat of a trend in the US. As we can see, the common denominator in almost all these cases is the fact that the offenders feel like outcasts as a result of bullying. It's not hard to imagine that these individuals have a lot of self esteem issues and pent up anger and frustration. I'd suppose they want to get revenge/ feel in control and easy gun access gives them that opportunity.
That's why I agree with Daniella's POV in terms of the confusion about gun ownership. Since this keeps on happening, it's vital for immediate changes to be made in gun control laws.
Aside from this, another way to prevent school mass shootings would be focusing on preventing bullying and promoting good mental health. I bet we can learn a couple of things from countries like Sweden and Denmark.
I've always been confused by why there are so many advocates for having guns in America when these travesties keep happening so I'm very interested in other replies.
There's definitely a copy cat factor going on here- we sensationalize these crimes so much (because they're awful) and people know it makes them infamous. It's a vicious cycle and we need better gun laws
In 2006 a coauthored laboratory study on men's responses to guns in the journal Psychological Science with my colleague Tim Kasser and one of our students. We demonstrated that males who interacted with a handgun showed a greater increase in testosterone levels and more aggressive behavior than males who interacted with the board game Mouse Trap.
In the study, each participant dismantled either a gun or the mousetrap, handled its components and then wrote instructions for how to assemble the objects. Then we gave them the opportunity to put hot sauce into water that was going to be consumed by another person. The participants who handled the gun put in significantly more hot sauce -- and were also more likely to express disappointment after learning that no one was going to actually drink the concoction.
Thus, cues tied to threats often won't result in aggressive responses unless testosterone is involved. Elliot Rodger, the disturbed college student whose violent 2014 rampage through Santa Barbara, California, was foretold in a chilling YouTube video, clearly experienced a testosterone surge upon purchasing his first handgun.
"After I picked up the handgun," he explained, "I brought it back to my room and felt a new sense of power. Who's the alpha male now, bitches?"
Mass shooter = low-dominant loser?
Young male violence is most likely to be initiated by young men who don't command respect from others. They'll often feel like slighted outcasts, deprived of what they want or feel they deserve.
British clinical psychologist Paul Gilbert has developed something he calls the Social Attention Holding Theory (PDF). According to Gilbert, we compete with each other to have other people pay attention to us; when other people take notice, we build status. The increased status that comes from having others attend to us leads to all kinds of positive emotions. But persistently being ignored by others produces much darker emotions -- especially envy and anger.
It's no mystery why the media will often describe mass shooters and terrorists as misfits or loners. In many cases, they are.
Nicolas Henin was a Frenchman who was held hostage by ISIS for ten months. Here's how he described his young, murderous, Jihadi captors: "They present themselves to the public as superheroes, but away from the camera are a bit pathetic in many ways: street kids drunk on ideology and power. In France we have a saying -- stupid and evil. I found them more stupid than evil. That is not to understate the murderous potential of stupidity."
Apparently, a lack of attention from others results in a lack of status, resulting in a lack of access to women. Combined with a young man's testosterone, it creates a toxic, combustible mix.
There may not be much we can do to change the structure of the young male mind that evolved over the course of millions of years. However, ignoring or denying its existence doesn't do us any favors.
What I don't understand is that, this is keep happening and political parties are doing nothing to prevent it. Why aren't there strict gun laws in America and why kids own them.
I understand bullying is bad, but it doesn't mean it can give you a license to kill others. There are other ways to tackle bullying.
Why our kids become so violent and aggressive. Is it because of media, junk food and other factors. As a society to find a solution as fast as we can, otherwise kids keep gonna die.
It's devastating that this has become somewhat of a trend in the US. As we can see, the common denominator in almost all these cases is the fact that the offenders feel like outcasts as a result of bullying. It's not hard to imagine that these individuals have a lot of self esteem issues and pent up anger and frustration. I'd suppose they want to get revenge/ feel in control and easy gun access gives them that opportunity.
That's why I agree with Daniella's POV in terms of the confusion about gun ownership. Since this keeps on happening, it's vital for immediate changes to be made in gun control laws.
Aside from this, another way to prevent school mass shootings would be focusing on preventing bullying and promoting good mental health. I bet we can learn a couple of things from countries like Sweden and Denmark.
I've always been confused by why there are so many advocates for having guns in America when these travesties keep happening so I'm very interested in other replies.