Psychobiography as a scientific method

Iryna Soroka Ph.D. in Psychology, Assistant Professor, Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences Sonipat, Haryana, India

One of the few reasons this paper examines the life of Ajmal, and Joanne is that the life memories and events of both the terrorists possess the quality of prototypical senses. For example, in the case of Ajmal, he suffered from a developmental crisis whereas Joanne suffered from a family crisis during her early life. No one is born a criminal or a terrorist. The debate of nature and nurture is one of the oldest unresolved questions in the field of psychology. This study aims to shed light on the psychological as well as the developmental factors of both the terrorists from their childhood to their death in order to understand the effects of nature and nurture on an individual. To sum up, this paper introduced psychobiography as a scientific method, its development over the time and its particularity. The preliminary research results on criminal psychology and the lives of two terrorists Ajmal Kasab and Joanne Deborah Chesimard were discussed.