Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Leaving Ideological Social Groups Behind: A Grounded Theory Of Psychological Disengagement, Kira Jade Harris

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Much of the current disengagement literature focuses on the causes of an individual leaving a radical social group with the intention of countering fundamentalism and violent extremism. However, the link between the cause and the decision to disengage is unclear as one cause may facilitate disengagement for one member and not another. Minimal empirical research exists on the individual’s psychological experience of disengagement and the studies that have been done tend to focus on sole ideologies or group types. What is lacking in the field of disengagement is a broader understanding of the core psychological experience across a broad range …