Case Study for PSYC 210 LUO Essay example - 730 Words

Case Study: School Shooting Involving a 6 Year Old Boy Christopher G. Dietz PSYC 210 D10 LUO Professor: Jennifer Kennedy Liberty University A 6 year old boy brought a gun to school and shot and killed a fellow classmate. The police conducted a search of the boy’s home and found another stolen gun (12 gauge shot gun) and illegal drugs in the possession of the boy’s 19 year old brother, who was charged with involuntary man slaughter. The most likely circumstances that could have led this boy to commit such a violent crime would be guided participation, emotional regulation, and reactive aggression. Michigan state law says that any children under the age of seven are not considered criminally responsible for their actions. The charges†¦show more content†¦If this 6 year old boy suffers from poorly developed emotional regulation, this could have led to his shooting of a classmate. If a child is never made to understand that there are consequences to their actions, then they will never be able to determine how far is too far. As children our sin nature is for us to get upset and angry when we donâ€⠄¢t get what we want, or when things don’t go our way. Resulting in a fit or temper tantrum being thrown that may involve violent behavior. Reaction aggression is defined by Berger (2011) as, â€Å"impulse retaliation for another person’s intentional or accidental action, verbal or physical† (p.279). The goal behind this behavior is to get their way or get what they want. In the process who or what they may hurt in the process is of no concern to them. This type of behavior is our sin nature that we are born with, if not corrected further violent behavior patterns such as the shooting of a classmate may occur. In closing, the 6 year old boy who earlier that day shot a classmate could have been affected by guided participation, emotional regulation, and reactive aggression. Guided participation may have played the role of this 6 year old boy observing conflicts being resolved via gun violence by the role models in his home. If such behavior was observed this 6 ye ar old boy may not have developed emotional regulation, if he were to develop emotional regulation it may have prevented this crime from ever happening.