SCHOOL THESIS

negative, and include divorce, death, starting a new relationship, or observed by
exhibiting radically changed behavior. Commentators have speculated that if help or
timely intervention had been offered in these cases, the crime might have been averted. 380
Thus,
Assessing the quality of a person’s moral development at an early life
stage may be irrelevant to the context of later action when unforeseen
events create a condition of personal strain for which trust violation would
be a possible resolution. 381
These stressors may be better understood using the context of Henri Tajfel’s
social identity theory (SIT). Tajfel explains: “Social identity is understood as the part of
the individuals’ self-concept which derives from knowledge of their membership of a
social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to
that membership.” 382 What leads some to leave social groups, co-workers, and the
organization, in search of other groups (i.e., foreign countries)? Examination of the
various cases using SIT may provide some insight as to not only why, by how authorities
could have detected basic changes in a person’s character. Ames diagnosis himself using
SIT. He explains:
My frustration comes from attempts by you [the author of Ames’ story,
Peter Earley] and my FBI and CIA debriefers to simplify and find a single,
overriding reason for what happened, when, in fact, there is no single
reason, but layers upon layers upon layers of reasons, none more pressing
than the others, and added to these layers are the events themselves, an
almost-never-to-be-repeated coming together of circumstances, which
facilitated a fantasy, causing it suddenly to gel, without conscious
realization or careful, even painful, thought, into a real plan…. The unique
circumstances were critical. They created the opportunity…. To attempt to
rank or segregate or declare that one factor provides the explanation is to
deny how a person feels, thinks, and acts. 383
380 Herbig, Changes in Espionage by Americans: 1947–2007, xi.
381 Sarbin, Carney, and Eoyang, Citizen Espionage, 119.
382 Henri Tajfel, Social Identity and Intergroup Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1982), 2.
383 Earley, Confessions of a Spy, 348–349.
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