4 works cited length: 4160 words 11.9 double spaced pages rating: aqua price: $35.95 cults and their leaders for many years, cult leaders always had a psychological hold on their followers' minds. Whether it was to kill other people or to kill themselves, they did it without question. Some cult leaders used fear, violence and guilt as a means of a weapon to control the minds of their followers. Other cult leaders used persuasive and spiritual speeches that made their followers believe they were doing good and fulfilling god's plan. Because cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldn't normally do in their right state of mind.

For years, there have been problems surrounding the definition of the term 'cult'. The literal and traditional meanings of the word cult, which are more fully explored at the entry cult religion , come from the latin cultus, meaning care or adoration, as a system of religious belief or ritual or: the body of adherents to same. In french or spanish, culte or culto simply means worship or religious attendance therefore an association cultuelle is an association whose goal is to organize religious worship and practices. The word for cult in the popular english meaning is secte french or secta spanish. In formal english use, and in non english european terms, the cognates of the english word cult are neutral, and refer mainly to divisions within a single faith, a case where english speakers might use the wo.

to view the full essay now, purchase below learn by seeing a well written example since cults make liberal use of many influence techniques, i find them fascinating and study them whenever the chance arises. The following page discusses cult influence tactics, but i think it's important to first define what i mean when i use the word cult, and examine some important issues surrounding the topic before diving in. what exactly is a cult, anyway? a cult is a group of people who organize around a strong authority figure. Cults, like many other groups, attempt to expand their influence for the purposes of power or money.

However, to achieve these ends, destructive cults employ a potent mixture of influence techniques and deception to attain psychological control over members and new recruits. This fundamental level of control is known alternatively as 'brainwashing,' 'thought reform,' or 'mind control.' a successful induction by a destructive cult displaces a person's former identity and replaces it with a new one. That new identity may not be one that the person would have freely chosen under her own volition hassan, 1990. There are over 3,0 destructive cults in the us, with approximately 4 million members. They fall into 4 basic types:

Established religions and altruistic movements are focused outward they attempt to better the lives of members and often, nonmembers. Cults serve their own purposes, which are the purposes of the cult leader their energies are focused inward rather than outward singer, 1995. Also, religions and altruistic movements typically lack the distinguishing characteristics of overbearing authoritarian control, the use of deception in recruitment, the use of coercive influence techniques, and the replacement of one identity with another which would not have been freely chosen by the individual before joining the group hassan, 1990. Upon hearing about cult influence techniques, some of my students reason thus: if cults use influence tactics a, b, and c, and my church or health club or debate team also uses influence tactics a, b, amp c, then my church or other group is no different from a cult. This sort of reasoning represents the logical fallacy called affirming the consequent.

You can see that there are a myriad of other reasons that might have caused a wet sidewalk, including the neighbor's garden hose, your leaky can of soda, the neighbor's dog yuk! , or a universe of other wetting agents. Similarly, there are a number of other defining characteristics that make a cult a cult, aside from the influence tactics they use. what kinds of people join cults? what's wrong with them? in the wake of the ufo/heaven's gate cult suicide, i have heard several media personalities ask these questions of former and current cult members.

The questions make me laugh, because they're a perfect example of how the wrong questions can frame and obscure an issue. Even when cult experts correctly point to the powerful environmental constraints generated by cults, rather than to the personalities and backgrounds of individual cult members, these media personalities single mindedly press the question, but what's wrong with cult members? the answer, for the vast majority of inductees, is that there was nothing wrong with them at least, not until they were persuaded to join a cult. Research indicates that approximately two thirds of cult members are psychologically healthy people that come from normal families. The remaining third are likely to have depressive symptoms, usually related to a personal loss perhaps a death in the family, a failed romantic relationship, or career troubles.

Only 5 to 6 percent of cult members demonstrate major psychological problems prior to joining a cult singer, 1995. Cults don't want, and don't recruit, people with psychological problems or physical handicaps they represent a loss rather than a gain of cult oriented productivity. Cults prefer intelligent, productive individuals who are able to contribute money and talent to the cause, whatever it may be hassan, 198 . Here's some psychological background that can provide insight regarding cult induction it's somewhat dense, so buckle in and hang on.

Behavior is a function of both a person's personality and her situation those of you who've taken psychology may recall the classic lewinian formulation b f p,e which indicates that behavior is a function of, or an interaction of, both the personality and the environment. One of social psychology's great discoveries has been the overwhelming influence that the environment the immediate situation exerts on people's behavior. Yet, when assigning cause, observers will usually attribute cause to a person's personality, not the constraints of the environment. This is such a persistent and reliable human bias to assign cause to the person rather than to the environment that it has been given the name of the fundamental attribution error. The fact is, the environment can easily dominate personality based differences among people, making person differences a relatively minor variable in the equation. In other words, given a powerful and engaging situation, people often react to it in a uniformly similar fashion, regardless of personality differences.

This truism has been demonstrated numerous times in the laboratory sharif, asch, milgram. True to this discovery, there appears to be no reliable personality factor that predicts cult membership. However, certain situational elements make people more vulnerable to cult recruitment, and they include: loneliness as experienced by someone who has recently moved to a new location depression as we feel after a failed relationship and uncertainty about how to proceed as i felt when i first went to college. Cults provide a myriad of solutions, which are more importantly accompanied by structure, authority, and close social contacts elements that people want, need, and which most of us take for granted in the course of our everyday lives. According to psychologist and cult expert margaret thaler singer, cults flourish during periods of social and political turbulence and during breakdowns in the structure and rules of the prevailing society. Cults were prevalent after the fall of rome, during the french revolution, and in england during the industrial revolution.

Cults arose in japan after world war ii, and in eastern europe after the breakup of the communist regime. Civil unrest, the drug culture, the sexual revolution, and the weakening of the family left people looking for answers and assurance which cults enthusiastically provided. ok, so how do they do it? how do cults recruit an keep members, and then get them to behave in irrational and sometimes immoral ways? copyright 1997 by kelton rhoads, ph.d. Adherence, advertise, advertising, advocacy, analysis, arizona state university, asu, art of persuasion, arguing, argument, argumentation, attitude, attitude change, belief, bias, brad sagarin, brainwashing, campaign, communicate, communication, conversion. Compliance, comply, conform, conformity, consult, consultant, consulting, course, courtroom, credibility, credible, cult, cults, debate, decision making, education, emotion, executive education, executive program, executive training. Group, how to, influence, influencing, kelton rhoads, kelton rhodes, kris haynal, law, leadership, leadership training, leadership education, legal, likability, management, management, market research, marketing, mass marketing, mass persuasion, mass influence, mind control, motivation, negotiation, obedience, opinion, organizational services, personality, persuade. Persuasion, persuasive, political, political consulting, politics, polling, influence principles, professional services, program, promote, promotion, propaganda, psychological persuasion, psychological operations, psyop, psychological research, psychology, psychology of persuasion, psychology of influence, public relations, questionnaire, reinforcement, reputation.

Psychology of Cults Essays Text

Advice on Writing