This is the first of three chapters to explore why honor killings occur in terms of the perpetrators, victims, families, and neighbors caught up in the social practice. This chapter approaches the psychology of honor killing in terms of reasons for key agents’ motives and behaviors—more specifically, the sociocultural roots of expectations about honorable and shameful behavior, responses to shame, and the formation of a personality capable of overcoming constraints on killing. Here the emphasis is on the beginnings of socialization, gender performance, and personality formation, starting with child-rearing and parental practices, as well as adverse life conditions including toxic stress. The chapter proceeds to consider how adversity and toxic stress alter brain architecture and explains how insecure attachment and traumatic bonding may contribute to a violence-prone personality.