Thun’s take on bathroom vandalism
Jones PitskerStaff WriterThe Samohi sat down with Samo AP psychology teacher Charles Thun to find out the motivation for vandalizing bathrooms.The Samohi: Why do you think students vandalize the bathrooms?Charles Thun: There’s a famous psychologist named Sigmund Freud who thought that in circumstances where people have feelings of aggression caused by stress and don’t have an outlet to express their feelings, they will take it out on their surroundings. He called it displacement – when you take out your anger on someone or something that can’t respond or fight back.TS: Why do you think students choose to take out this anger in the school bathrooms?CT: Even though there’s a chance of being caught with graffiti and other damaging activities, the chance is perceived to be low by students. Students think they’re not likely to get in trouble and can take out their anger without fear.TS: Do you think that being a teenager has anything to do with it?CT: A lot of studies show that when you’re a teenager the front part of your brain, called the prefrontal cortex, is not fully developed yet. This part of the brain deals with rationalizing and decision-making, and the fact that it isn’t fully developed can lead to teenagers maybe acting on emotions and impulses that an adult would not. It’s not necessarily the people vandalizing the school think that they are going to receive a reward from that, but they’re not thinking of the harm that they are causing.TS: What distinguishes the students who vandalize and cause damage to the school from those who don’t?CT: It’s hard to say what makes the students act differently from each other, but it could be differences in student maturity and students being unable to think about how they are affecting their future. Students who act out often don’t think about the future and don’t have a future to look forward to, so they don’t realize that what they are doing could harm their future selves, particularly if they get caught damaging the campus.jpitsker@thesamohi.com