Analysis of Violent Acts of ISIS from the Perspective of Political Psychology: With an Emphasis on Realistic Conflict Theory

Understanding the causes and contexts of violence and terrorism is one of the main areas of political psychology. How violence has been shaped and what reasons increased it in the first half of the twenty-first century are the questions that political psychology is going to answer. According to deprivation Theory, material and non-material deprivation is one of the most important explanations for the understanding of political violence has by political thinkers. At this article, efforts have been made to analyze the violent acts of ISIS in the framework of Realistic Conflict Theory. The main question is: What are the material and non-material deprivation areas and structures shaping the violence of ISIS? And what aspects of deprivation have been effective on the tendency of ISIS members to violence? The hypothesis of the present paper is that ISIS violence is the result of a combination factors such as reaction to the experience of colonialism, identity crisis, economic deprivation, humiliation, discrimination and foreign fighters. Especially Western countries stated the sense of discrimination and humiliation, second-class citizenship and poverty as the cause and prevalence of violence on behalf of ISIS. However, based on theories of deprivation - aggression, relative deprivation and conflict realistically, three main indices of the discussion are presented here. Firstly, poverty and economic factors are emphasized as reasons for the attraction to the ISIS. Secondly, special importance is given to the partial deprivation and psychological factors. And thirdly, the in-group conflict is highlighted. In this paper, these three dimensions are carefully reviewed is details and in an analytical way.