Applying Behavioral Psychology to Learn about EARONS
Feb 21, 2017 14:35:40 GMT
lobos, NaptimeNancy, and 2 more like this
Post by winters on Feb 21, 2017 14:35:40 GMT
The recent debate on EAR's possible age and socio-economic background has got me thinking, and I wanted some opinions from you all.
When it comes to determining characteristics of the EAR, I've given up on using physical descriptions from witnesses and even the physical sound of his own voice, because all of these things are highly variable as far as age and sound goes. An old person can sound young, and vice versa.
What I've been trying to apply lately is something called Behavioral Psychology, something I learned while studying psychology in school. In a nutshell, the premise is that you can't trust what people say or what it seems like they're doing -- you have to look at their actual actions and, no matter how deceiving people try to be, those actions betray their true characteristics and motivations.
So strip away everything the EAR said, strip away portions of things that he did that seemed intentionally theatrical (though the act of doing those things is data that must be considered), and then strip away all of your preconceived notions and any additional data you might have and try to look SOLELY at his behaviors. What he did and how he went about doing it.
When you are able to identify and outline specific behaviors, you can then draw conclusions about them. Age, socio-economic background, mental state, motivation, etc. If you look at his operation clinically what conclusions can you draw?
I'm certainly not an expert at applying this technique and the difficult thing about it is that EAR intentionally minimized the usefulness of this kind of technique by seemingly sticking to a "script"... but even THAT is a behavior worth analyzing.
Personally, from this type of bird's eye view I see someone who attacks compulsively (he HAS to do this), someone with military thinking or a strong interest and ability in military-type operations (the reconnaissance and geographic elements SCREAM this), and someone who had some sort of experience before he started. There are other conclusions I can draw but I want to turn it over to you now!
When it comes to determining characteristics of the EAR, I've given up on using physical descriptions from witnesses and even the physical sound of his own voice, because all of these things are highly variable as far as age and sound goes. An old person can sound young, and vice versa.
What I've been trying to apply lately is something called Behavioral Psychology, something I learned while studying psychology in school. In a nutshell, the premise is that you can't trust what people say or what it seems like they're doing -- you have to look at their actual actions and, no matter how deceiving people try to be, those actions betray their true characteristics and motivations.
So strip away everything the EAR said, strip away portions of things that he did that seemed intentionally theatrical (though the act of doing those things is data that must be considered), and then strip away all of your preconceived notions and any additional data you might have and try to look SOLELY at his behaviors. What he did and how he went about doing it.
When you are able to identify and outline specific behaviors, you can then draw conclusions about them. Age, socio-economic background, mental state, motivation, etc. If you look at his operation clinically what conclusions can you draw?
I'm certainly not an expert at applying this technique and the difficult thing about it is that EAR intentionally minimized the usefulness of this kind of technique by seemingly sticking to a "script"... but even THAT is a behavior worth analyzing.
Personally, from this type of bird's eye view I see someone who attacks compulsively (he HAS to do this), someone with military thinking or a strong interest and ability in military-type operations (the reconnaissance and geographic elements SCREAM this), and someone who had some sort of experience before he started. There are other conclusions I can draw but I want to turn it over to you now!