Charismatic Cults and Leadership

Abstract

The two main aspects of this research were to find differences between cult members and non-cult members' perceptions of cults and leadership. Two independent samples were taken; thirty-one (31) undergraduate students (mean age= 26.87, sd. = 7.59) from a large southeastern University and thirty (30) ex-cult members (mean age= 40.40, sd. 10.83) of varying cults were surveyed on their perceptions of cults and charismatic cult leadership. The surveys used were a combination of the Multi-Factor Leadership Scale (Choi & Mai-Dalton 1999, Halverson, Halladay, Kazama and Quinones 2004), Conger & Kanwigo's (1998) Measure of Charismatic Leadership as well as a measure from Bohm & Alison (2001) and were measured and rated according to the individual scale specifications. The raw data was entered in SPSS and was then analyzed using nonparametric statistics. The results rendered that non-cult members’ perceptions did differ from non-cult members' perceptions. Also, the ex-cult members reported more charismatic attributes in their leader than the students’ perceptions of cult leaders.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2005

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Newlin, Michael H.

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree Program

Psychology

Subjects

Arts and Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic; Dissertations, Academic -- Arts and Sciences

Format

Print

Identifier

DP0022044

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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