“The psychology of a Jared Loughner” plus 1 more |
| The psychology of a Jared Loughner Posted: 18 Jan 2011 03:10 AM PST STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Editor's note: Saul Kassin is distinguished professor of psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Massachusetts professor of psychology at Williams College. He is the author of several textbooks and has written extensively in the areas of social and forensic psychology. (CNN) -- Twenty-two-year-old Jared Lee Loughner is the latest in a long line of young men to capture infamy. Mercifully, his name, though never the deed, will soon be forgotten. From the University of Texas massacre of 1966 to Columbine, Virginia Tech, Fort Hood and countless others of more recent vintage, the names, dates and places may change, but the underlying problems are very much the same. Nineteen people were shot in the heinous Tucson, Arizona, massacre, six fatally. The most critically wounded survivor was Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Each victim's story is its own tragedy. Each leads Americans to wonder why it happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. This past week, news commentators and bloggers have scrambled to lay blame on America's culture of violence, its failing schools, a lack of family values, hate-filled political rhetoric, financial cuts to mental health services, a lack of security for lawmakers, and easy access to assault weapons, to name just a few culprits. As with any complex event in human behavior, this one cannot be explained by any simple univariate theory. There is a kernel of truth in much of what's been written, which is precisely why none of it provides a correct or complete explanation. Over the past 100 years, research psychologists have studied the root causes of aggression. The list is so long that it begs two sobering conclusions: First, some degree of aggression is inevitable to the human condition. Second, certain types of individuals and situations increase that risk -- sometimes with perilous consequences. Let's start with the types of individuals prone to violence, which might stem from a genetic predisposition or past experiences. Research shows that men who are diagnosed with psychopathy betrayed signs of antisocial behavior as children by cutting school, setting fires, harming animals and the like. As adults, they lack empathy or anything that resembles a conscience. They remain calm in the face of electric shock or images of crying children, an attribute that makes them fearless. This is not meant as a diagnosis of Loughner -- a young man who had become isolated from friends. In high school, we are told, Loughner drank excessive amounts of alcohol, a lubricant of disinhibition, sometimes to the point of passing out. He also used other illegal drugs. His behavior further indicates paranoia and a deep-seated mistrust in government -- in his mind, the perpetrators of 9/11. When he tried to enlist in the military, he was rejected. It is important to realize what everyday observation tells us as a matter of common sense: Historically and universally, men are more violent than women and responsible for the vast majority of homicides. In the United States, all but two in the rash of school shootings were perpetrated by young men. This gender difference is stable over time and place and has led many researchers to examine the link to testosterone. Studies with animals and humans have shown a positive correlation between testosterone levels and aggression, hence, the "roid rage" too often seen in men who take anabolic steroids. Still, most people who are prone to aggression never lash out in a mindless determination to annihilate everyone in sight. A predisposition needs a trigger to spur action. One classic theory states that frustration increases the drive to violence, either directed against the source of that frustration or at innocent scapegoats if the source is not available. Frustration can stem from personal, social or economic failure. Road rage is a prime example. In someone who is predisposed, other noxious triggers include physical pain, excessive heat, insult, jealousy, loss of self-esteem and social rejection. Social rejection is a particularly major risk factor for violence. Being bullied in school, excluded, neglected or otherwise ostracized are significant sources of frustration. In school shootings, many of the perpetrators were social outcasts, rejected by the classmates they targeted. The rampage in Arizona is a simple act demanding a complex explanation. A U.S. Secret Service study of 37 such shootings showed they were not impulsive acts but carefully planned out. As in this case, almost every attacker had done something before the shooting that concerned at least one adult. Many talked of their plan to classmates who, tragically, did not alert parents or teachers. It is often said that life imitates art. When it comes to exposure to depictions of graphic violence in movies, video games and YouTube videos, people, especially children, are suggestible. The constant exposure not only makes acts of violence seem more acceptable but has a numbing effect on our tolerance levels. People learn by example, which is why seeing someone preach or model violence, often drawing praise from others, can set off a contagion of copycat crimes. It is why certain high-profile types of violence, such as school shootings, tend to happen in clusters, with each event serving as a catalyst for next. Then there is the matter of guns. The finger pulls the trigger, we are told. Guns don't kill people, people do. Yet in laboratory experiments, subjects administer more painful electric shocks to an innocent stranger when a weapon is visually present than when it is not. This is an effect that has led social psychologists to conclude that "the trigger may also be pulling the finger." To complicate matters further, recent studies show that merely handling a gun can increase a man's testosterone level. These findings are reinforced by the correlation that shooting death rates are substantially higher in states that boast the highest per capita rates of gun ownership than in states with the lowest rates. The rampage in Arizona is a simple act demanding a complex explanation. Loughner was troubled and therefore vulnerable. He had a motive, possibly incited by the tone of the politics of our time. He had opportunity by virtue of his access to an assault weapon. None of this by itself can be blamed in a postmortem rush to judgment. Rather, this worst aspect of human nature happened in a complex web of known forces yet to be uncovered. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Saul Kassin. 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| Inside the Ski Racing Mind: Demystifying Sport Psychology Posted: 18 Jan 2011 08:17 AM PST  
Despite its obvious importance, the mental side of sport is most often neglected, at least until a problem arises. The mistake racers and coaches make is that they don't treat their mental game the way they treat the physical and technical aspects of their sport. Racers don't wait to get injured before they do physical conditioning. They don't develop a technical flaw before they work on their technique. Rather, racers do physical and technical training to prevent problems from arising. They should approach the mental game in the same way. Also, racers, coaches, and especially parents seem to hold sport psychology to a different standard than the physical and technical aspects of ski racing. Many in our sport seem to have the impression that sport psychology can produce miraculous results in a short time. For example, I frequently get calls from parents two weeks before the JOs asking me to get their child racer ready for the big races. Though I consider myself very good at what I do, I am definitely not a magician. Racers don't expect increases in strength by lifting weights a few times or an improvement in technique by working on it for a few hours. The only way to improve any area, whether physical, technical, or mental, is through commitment, hard work, and patience. But if racers make the same commitment to their mental training as they do to their physical and technical training, sport psychology can play a key role in helping them achieve their goals. So, to help demystify sport psychology and what it can offer, I thought it would be helpful to describe what I do in my work with ski racers, so everyone in the ski racing community can consider sport psychology in its proper context and, as a result, maximize its benefits. What I Do Let me begin by saying that there are many sport psychology consultants out there, some of whom work with ski racers; I don't know what they do or how they work. All I can tell you is how I work with racers. I follow two paths in my consulting work with racers. The first path emphasizes the development of the five psychological areas in my Prime Performance Pyramid (motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, and emotions) through the teaching and use of mental-training strategies, for example, goal setting, positive-thinking skills, intensity-control techniques, focusing techniques, mental imagery, and routines. This mental training occurs in two settings. First, I introduce these concepts in either an indoor group setting to a team or an office setting to an individual racer in which I describe their meaning and value to ski racing performance, assess racers' relationship to the five factors, and describe the best strategies for developing these areas.
The second path explores any obstacles that may have been put into place that prevent racers from skiing their best, for example, habitual negativity, perfectionism, and fear of failure. I help racers understand why these obstacles interfere with their ski racing efforts, how they developed, and provide insights and tools to remove the obstacles and allow racers to continue on the path toward their goals. This work occurs generally in an office setting, but I have also been productive in exploring these issues while skiing. For example, racers can be very receptive to this exploration while, for example, riding a chairlift or talking on the side of trail. I believe that this openness occurs because, on the hill, racers are in a setting in which they are comfortable and confident, and they feel less pressure to "figure things out." I also want to note that if I recognize that these obstacles are grounded in more serious psychological issues, I will make a referral to an appropriately trained mental health professional and may or may not continue to work with the racer depending the how those issues impact the pursuit of the athlete's goals. Getting Results I'm often asked how quickly racers can expect results from a commitment to sport psychology. Positive change varies widely depending on the individual racers and the issues that are present. For example, issues related to mental-skills training, such as relaxation or focusing, can be improved relatively quickly. I have found that racers can expect to see improvements in their mental skills and skiing within six to eight weeks. In contrast, issues related to the obstacles I described above, such as perfectionism and fear of failure, take more time. Racers can expect to see positive changes in these deeper issues within three to six months. Getting buy-in on psychological side of ski racing is the first and most challenging step in my work. A question I often ask racers to help create that essential commitment is how much faster I would need to guarantee they would go for them to really commit to the mental side of ski racing. Without doing the math, they'll toss out, say, 30 percent or 10 percent. So, now let's do the math. Let's say you have a two-run GS totally 100 seconds. Thirty percent of 100 seconds is 30 seconds, obviously an impossible amount of improvement. Even a 10 percent improvement, ten seconds, isn't going to happen. I then ask them if they would make a commitment to sport psychology if I would promise that they would go just one percent faster. That number seems so small that racers are often skeptical. But, again, when we do the math, one percent on a 100-second course is one second, an eternity in ski racing and, racers usually agree, well worth the commitment of time and energy given the rewards. So there you have it; what sport psychology entails and what I do in my work with racers. I hope this article takes some of the mystery out of sport psychology and helps readers to better understand what sport psychology can and cannot do, and how it can help ski racers, whether J5s or Olympians, achieve their goals. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Watch my 2010 Winter Olympics Discovery Channel interview on fear in high-risk winter sports here. Dr. Jim Taylor drjimtaylor.com, This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
Whenever I talk to racers and coaches, I ask them what aspect of ski racing seems to have the greatest impact on how they perform. Almost unanimously they say the mental part. I then ask how much time they devote to their mental preparation and their answer is almost always little or no time.
Second, and most powerfully, I then work with racers on-snow and show them how to use the mental skills while they are actually free skiing and training. I have found that this "real time" experience with mental training enables racers to ask questions, experiment, get feedback from me, and see the direct connection between doing the mental skills, being more mentally prepared, and, most importantly, skiing better and faster. If racers see that connection between doing mental training and seeing improvement, I know that I will get buy in from them. My goal on this path is to strengthen the five Prime Performance Pyramid factors and give racers a "toolbox" of mental skills that they can use so that they can gain the most benefit from their training and be maximally prepared to ski their best in races.| You are subscribed to email updates from Psychology - Yahoo! News Search Results To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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