I. Introduction A. Ted Bundy is one of the worst serial killers in history.
His antisocial personality and psychotic character made him feared across the country. After all was said and done Ted left behind a trail of bloody slayings that included the deaths of 36 young women and spanned through four states. The case of Bundy relates to a psychopathy and antisocial disorder psychological typology. I also related the case of Ted Bundy to the Behaviorist/Social Learning Theory as I learned that he was often bullied in school.
II.Ted Bundy was born in November 1946 in Burlington, Vermont to Eleanor Louise Cowell. She felt forced by the norms of society to have her parents raise Ted as their own and she portrayed herself to be her son's older sister. Ted's natural father, Lloyd Marshall, who was in the Air Force, was never present in his life. Around the age of 4, Ted’s mother moved him to Tacoma, Washington where she married Johnnie Bundy. Ted Bundy felt nothing towards his stepfather and he had the closest relationship with his grandfather, who he ended up moving away from.
A. Bundy showed an unusual interest at an early age. Around the age of 3, he became fascinated by knives. “Bundy was a shy, but bright child who did well in school, but not with his peers.
He was often teased and made the butt of pranks by bullies in his junior high school. Michaud analyzed Ted's behavior and decided that he was "not like other children, he looked and acted like them, but he was haunted by something else” (Bell, 1978). As Bundy got older the darker side of his character started to emerge.Bundy liked to peer in other people's windows and thought nothing of stealing things he wanted from other people B. The acts of Ted Bundy show criminal aspects of the social learning theory.
“The intellectual opposite of trait perspectives, behaviorism takes a blank slate approach to behavior, asserting that people are basically equal in their underlying potential and are molded by social experiences and the environment” (DeLisi, M, 2013). As he was bullied in school, and still remained to be an excellent student, the negative surrounding he was in may have accumulated to his serial killing.III. Ted Bundy was a brutal serial killer. He was also very charming and handsome to the ladies, which made it easier to prey on them. He admitted to killing over twenty people just before his execution.
Ted Bundy thought of himself as very smart, because he was able to outsmart the authorities multiple times throughout the years of being a serial killer. His victims of choice were young, college age, women. A. “The “stereotypical” serial killer is a white, heterosexual male in his twenties or thirties.
Many serial killers have deceptively charming personalities. Some are highly intelligent and outwardly appear to be “solid citizens”. Their crimes typically exhibit extensive planning and forethought” (Serial Killers, 2002). B. Ted Bundy also showed many signs of an antisocial personality disorder. “Antisocial personality disorder is a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring from age 15 onward.
In other words, it is the adult manifestation of the same types of characteristics displayed in conduct disorder.As mentioned earlier, psychopathy is characterized by a set of interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, and behavioral characteristics that are associated with antisocial and criminal behavior” (DeLisi, M, 2013). IV. Conclusion A. Ted Bundy suffered from an antisocial personality disorder and many other things leading him to be a serial killer.
Even though he grew up in a “regular” family environment, the negative surroundings at school had a huge impact on him as an adult.Nobody ever would have suspected Ted Bundy to be one of the worst serial killers in history. References: Bell, J. B.
(1978). A time of terror (pp. 5-208). NY: Basic Books.
http://scholar. google. com/scholar? hl=en&q=ted+bundy&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C14&as_sdtp= DeLisi, M. (2013).
Criminal psychology. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Serial Killers. (2002). In World of Criminal Justice, Gale.
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ashford. edu/entry/worldcrims/serial_killers
