INTRODUCTION

Hi! My name is Harper Spring, and this is my PSYC 4720, Psychology of Evil blog for the duration of the course. I am enrolled in this class to learn more about what it means “to be evil”, and the psychological aspects that make individuals commit these acts. I believe this is an important and interesting concept to learn about as the media enforces many of these aspects, and many of these evil actions are predominant in many media sources today, whether it be for real or fictional events. This blog will further explore issues around evil in the recent media and how this enforces the academic concepts learned about in class. I found this an especially interesting part of the course, as this was the main reason I enrolled in this class!

Reflection on Activity This Week

This week, we discussed in small groups what made someone evil, and the definition of this concept. Our group came up with the definition of evil as : an intentional act that crosses social boundaries and morals, which inflicts harm upon an individual. A large issue for us, however, was the problem of when an individual should know right from wrong which was what we deemed as important for understanding how one can commit evil actions. For our group, we thought about an age limit, but as Professor Navara pointed out it is more of an issue of culpability than concrete age, as someone could experience a developmental delay and may not fully understand the consequences of their actions. I viewed this as an interesting point, which made me wonder how many people who commit evil actions are seen as culpable? As a whole class, many words and examples were discussed on this topic of evil. Upon reflection, some of these terms I thought needed to be discussed further. For example, one term that was used to describe what evil is, is that it is a repeatable action which can escalate over time. I do not necessarily agree with this, as an evil action may only happen once to one individual and still be seen as evil such as the assassination past presidents. I think this is important to mention since the definition of evil can include such a variety of actions. Another item that I reflected on in this context are the different domains of evil, such as murder or rape. These are two distinct evil actions, that hold different weight to different people based upon an individual’s own experience and thoughts. Therefore, when examining evil actions it is important to distinguish between the different domains of evil within the context of the example to further comprehend the psychological aspects of evil in that specific instance. The last aspect that I found the most interesting is that there are multiple perspectives that come into play when discussing evil. Those are that of the victim and that of the perpetrator, which comes back to the idea of the “eye of the beholder”. Some perpetrators may see themselves as victims and that they completed an evil action because of their past, or that the action as necessary. Meanwhile, the victims may see this act as something completely random, and believe they did nothing to deserve this. Due to these competing views, it is crucial to try to understand the event as a whole and ensure that one is looking at the context of the action. These are just a few of the items that stood out for me during this discussion, and I believe hold importance when discussing the concept of evil.

Looking forward to sharing what I am learning through the readings, lectures, media and articles during this class!

References :

Sarah Anderson. (2014). Evil Media. Retrieved from http://www.composingdigitalmedia.org/f14_dmtp/webs/sand/EvilMedia.html