Final Exam Study Guide for Psychology

- "Recent": 1966 to present

- "Mass Shootings" or  "Rampage Killings": The use of a lethal weapon to attempt to kill more than one person. 

- "U.S.": American schools (elementary, secondary, & higher education) and the shooter is or was a part of the school. 

- There was a dramatic increase in the 1990's

- All individualistic countries

-Typically white males in their 20's from rural or suburbam communities. Low percentage from urban (city).

- 1927 Bath School Disaster (most deadly)

• Andrew Keehow
• Killed 38 children and his wife
• Bomb in school

- 1966 Texas Tower Shooting

• Charles Whitman
• Clock Tower in UTAustin with sniper
• 16 people killed

- 1999 Columbine School Shooting

• Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris
• 99 explosive devices in school cafeteria but fortunately didn't go off
• 12 children killed and 1 teacher

- 2005 Red Lake High School Shooting

• Jeffrey Weise
• Killed grandfather (police officer) and stole his guns.
• 9 people killed in total

- 2007 Virginia Tech University Shooting

• Seung-Hui Cho
• Killed his mom and wife
• Killed 32 people killed

- 2012 Sandy Hook School Shooting

• Adam Lanza
• Killed 20 students
• Very hot day

- Less than 1 in 2 million

- Charles Whitman: responsible for the Texas Tower Shooting in July 3, 1966.

• Was the youngest eagle scout in America (12 years old). By 12 he was an expert in shooting guns because his dad was abusive and strict.
• "After my death I wish that an autopsy would be performed on me to see if there is any visible disorder". And it turns out that he had a brain tumor affecting his amygdala.

- Eric Houston (1972-present)

• 1992 Lindhurst High School Shooting in California
• Brain damage due to early sickness and physical abuse.

- Brenda Spencer (1962-present)

• 1979- Killed 2 adults in elementary school and wounded 8 children in California.
• Had a seizure disorder and brain damage.

- Learn through media, mental scripts, and can be influenced by movies.

-Movie: Basketball Diaries- Leonardo DiCaprio

- Book: Rage (1977) by Stephan King (Richard Brachman): High school student talking back and gets kicked out so he shoots his teacher.

- Barry Loukaitis (1981-present)

• Before Columbine Shooting
• Killed his Algebra teacher and 2 other students, held class hostage for 15 minutes.
• "This sure beats algebra, doesn't it?"- quote from Rage.

- Movie: Natural Born Killers (NBK) 1994

• emphasizes killing and fame
• couple on killing spree, media gets hold of it and they get famous.
• Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold site this movie.
• Barry Loukaitis: "Do you deserve to die?"- quoting NBK.

- Stored in memory and can be used as a mental guide for behavior and problem solving. Help control and regulate behavior. We learn them.

• Ex: Going to a restaurant we expect to get a host, menu, and order. It gives us a sense on how to act.
• Media can influence these scripts. Ex: Violent Video Games (r=.2)

- Killers plan a script like a choreography (picture)

- It is likely that school shooters have limited successful cognitive scripts to draw on.

• Ex: try to change social status by performing

- School shooters have greater than average violent fantasies. 

• Ex: Michael Carneal wrote stories about elaborate violet fantasies where boys like himself gain power over others with the use of weapons. 
• Shooting at a high school in Kentucky
• Killed 3 students

- Draw cartoon scripts of particular activities (ex: taking a trip over spring break, blood donation)

- Independent Variable1: Self vs. Best Friend vs. Disliked Person (who's the main characterin the cartoon?)

- Independent Variable 2: Positive (character did do the activity in the end) vs. Negative (didn't do activity in the end) 

- Independent Variable 3: 3 vs. 2 vs. 1

- Dependent Variable: Change in behavioral intention (would you perform in these activities?)

- Picture: Focus on the "Self" line. r=.123. Most likely to engage in these activities.

- Bullying undermines a fundemental human motive.

• To fit in. Ex: Solomon Ash confederates study)

- Study: Ostracism (being excluded) by Williams (2000)

• Cyberball Task
• Independent Variable: Ostracism vs. Inclusion
• Dependent Variable: Belongingness vs. Self-Esteem
• 1st Picture: Each square represents a person. They pass a ball to eachother. Inclusion: the ball is passed to everyone. Ostracism: not passed to the bottom person.

- 2nd Picture: Is there any evidence that school shooters were bullied?

• 1st circle: Were they a loner? (not really the case). Ex: Eric & Dylan felt like loners even though they had eachother.
• 2nd circle: Were they bullied? (most showed signs of being bullied).

- About the Columbine Shooters

- Society was blaming Marilyn Manson

- There was evidence that Eric Harris was the leader, more nacissistic.

- Greenberg (2010)

- Symbolic Immortality: will leave a mark on society after death

- Independent Variable: Mortality Salience (thinking about death) vs. Control Condition (not thinking about death)

- Dependent Variable: "How much would you like to become a famous person?" 

- Fame is indeed a motive for a number of the shooters. 

• Eric & Dylan: "Directors will be fighting over this story". They thought they were going to leave a mark in society.
• Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech Shooter-most deadliest: 32 people killed): Mailed "multimedia manifesto" to NBC News. "Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and defenseless people." 

- Was a friend of Professor Weise

- Was killed by James Holmes in a Colorado movie theatre shooting. 12 people killed.

- His parents said to not show the shooter's name or pictures in the media.

- Conclusion: It takes a lot of things to make school shooters. Shooters are rare.