3.3 Assignment Psychological Theories
Aileen Wuornos was abused and abandoned when she was young, and these circumstances led to her being a serial killer to revenge her past agony. Wuornos experienced no parental love because her father, a famous rapist, had been sent to prison and hanged himself when she was thirteen. Wuornos was abandoned under the care of her grandparents, and after the death of her grandmother, the grandfather would rape her occasionally (Stockton, 2019). Therefore, the feeling of neglect, rejection, and abandonment led to Wuornos to become a serial killer.
Wuornos experienced the alloplastic adaptation where one tends to change a situation when faced with difficulty. Having been sexually abused at a young age, Wuornos decided to let out her anger by killing men after getting their money (Stockton, 2019). Wuornos felt that this was the only way that she would gain strength over a man hence psychological victory over a person.
In my opinion, the social trait theory applies to the case of Aileen Wuornos (Schmalleger, 2012). From a young age, Wuornos was uncared for, and she developed the feeling of revenge since she felt that all men are evil. She might not have internalized the extent of her killings because she felt relief every time she used and killed a man. The attachment theory also applies because children build trust with their caregivers from a young age such that when they are faced with threats, they rely on the parents for protection (Schmalleger, 2012). This was not the case for Aileen because she was left under the care of the world, and the only aim was to kill men, and she said this severally that she would kill again.
References
Schmalleger, F. (2012). Criminology today: An integrative introduction. Boston: Prentice Hall.
Stockton, R. (2019). How Aileen Wuornos Became History’s Most Terrifying Female Serial Killer. https://allthatsinteresting.com/aileen-wuornos