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
Identifier
DP0022044
Language
English
Access Status
Open Access
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Document Type
Honors in the Major Thesis
Recommended Citation
Ripley, Marianne, "Charismatic Cults and Leadership" (2005). HIM 1990-2015. 514.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/514