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Sc2: Exploitation
Sc2 22.96 5.91 .352 7-35 Exploitation
(3.28 0.84 .050 1-5)
02 2.00 1.21 .076 1-5 women seduce for group
03 3.48 1.37 .085 1-5 breaking law okay
06 3.10 1.53 .095 1-5 politics major goal
12 2.69 1.40 .087 1-5 violence to outsiders
19 3.81 1.41 .088 1-5 money major goal
20 3.62 1.22 .076 1-5 critics threatened
27 4.38 1.06 .066 1-5 recruiting major goal
Sc3: Mind Control
Sc3 31.64 3.43 .202 21-35 Mind Control
(4.52 0.49 .029 3-5)
09 4.86 0.36 .024 2-5 members part of elite
11 4.52 0.81 .051 1-5 coercive persuasion
15 4.56 0.67 .042 2-5 stay because deceived
R22 4.55 0.78 .049 1-5 can think critically
24 4.61 0.67 .042 1-5 mind control used
R25 4.32 1.02 .064 1-5 little psychological pressure
R26 4.19 1.14 .071 1-5 criticism rare
Sc4: Anxious Dependency
Sc4 26.52 5.55 .326 8-35 Anxious Dependency
(3.79 0.79 .046 1.1-5)
05 3.39 1.21 .075 1-5 medical help okay
07 4.03 1.26 .079 1-5 leaving is damnation
08 4.24 1.08 .067 1-5 no negative emotions
10 4.06 1.33 .083 1-5 criticism is evil
16 3.71 1.52 .095 1-5 exercises remove doubt
17 2.99 1.34 .084 1-5 no medical help
23 4.07 1.28 .080 1-5 leader is divine
The Compliance scale mean was next highest: m=29.27 its 95% range was 28.66 to 29.87.
The Mind Control scale produced the highest mean: m=31.66 its 95% range was 31.26 to
32.07.
Consideration of the means and ranges for the specific items listed in Table 4 suggests that
most but not all of the item means were above the midpoint of 3. As a group, the cults did not
have women seducing for them (m=2.00) and did not advocate violence against outsiders
(m=2.69). The factor analysis loadings, however, indicate that groups that advocate these
items did tend to score higher on the general factor of exploitation.
The loadings reflect the meaning of the factor at all levels. Seduction may be rare in general,
but it nonetheless falls into the pattern of exploitation. Thus, the fact that 2 of the 28 items
were not generally characteristic of the cults does not invalidate the factorial meaningfulness
of the two items. We would expect the more extremely exploitative groups to encourage
seduction and violence.
The notion of a continuum of abuse, as discussed for the items, may also be of relevance to
the subscale means but with a very important difference. The ANOVA showed that the
subscale means differed significantly from one another. The subscales, however, are different

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1994, Page 67
from the items in that they are generally uncorrelated. They are not points along an essential
continuum. Nevertheless, factors do lend themselves to various nonessential but
characteristic continuums. This point is potentially confused by the differences and
correlations between the subscales, which may suggest a slightly prevalent continuum of
factors.
The hypothetical continuum ranges from Mind Control (m=31.66) to Compliance (m=29.27)
to Anxious Dependency (26.48) to Exploitation (m=22.88). Similarly, Mind Control is most
highly correlated with Compliance (r=.36) while Compliance‟s next highest correlation is with
Anxious Dependency (.33), which is followed by the remaining correlation linking Anxious
Dependency with Exploitation (.19). Although each correlation is statistically significant, they
do not collapse the general simple structure. At worst, the factor structure is slightly oblique.
Thus, the hypothetical sequence of factors is certainly not the only sequence suggested by the
data.
Because the factors are orthogonal, the subscales and their combinations are best viewed as
varieties of the species psychological abuse. Each item and subscale contributes to the overall
level of abuse but there are many potential paths that could be constructed through the
matrix of varieties, each characterizing a different behavioral sequence or syndrome of abuse.
Thus, in addition to the static (profile) perspective on the GPA discussed earlier, there is a
dynamic (sequence) perspective that one can take. The delineation of sequences through a
matrix of varieties can be useful in explicating the dynamics of cultic abuse. For example, the
sequence of Mind Control to Compliance to Anxious Dependency to Exploitation is consistent
with Dole and Dubrow-Eichel‟s (1985) findings. It is vital, however, that we recognize that
cult leaders may freely conjugate the varieties of abuse and that none of these permutations
provides an essential definition of cultic abuse. These permutations may, nonetheless, prove
very useful in elaborating the existential nature of cultic abuse. Thus, an unscrupulous,
charismatic leader may follow the sequence above or may stumble upon a small group of
already anxiously dependent individuals and take advantage of their psychological weakness
to persuade them to comply to his exploitative demands without resorting to much mind
control. This is a different permutation, or sequence, from that listed above. But both
participate in the common existential nature of psychological abuse.
Relating these ideas to the classification of profiles discussed earlier suggests that the
varieties of psychological abuse implied by the GPA subscales may be viewed from both
dynamic (sequence) and static (profile) perspectives.
Conclusions and Recommendations for Further Research
Content validity for the GPA has been built from the Dole and Dubrow-Eichel (1985) Delphi
study, the Langone and Chambers (1991) factor analysis of terms, and Langone‟s (1992)
philosophical analysis of the respect/abuse continuum. Factorial validation of the GPA
employed principal components analysis with varimax rotation. Items were selected in order
to promote the simple structure of the GPA. Reliability coefficients for the GPA and its
subscales support the use of the GPA in research contexts. Much additional research is
needed, however, before we can claim definitive construct validity for the GPA scales.
As alluded to earlier, discrimination is a crucial element in construct validity. Indeed,
discrimination of cultic and noncultic groups would probably be the most common application
of the GPA or of any other cult abuse scale. Steps toward establishing discriminant validity
have already been taken.
In her master‟s thesis, Adams (1993) used the GPA subscales to contrast former members of
the Cincinnati Church of Christ (CCC) with former members of InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship (IVCF). The CCC is described by many as a cult, while the IVCF, a mainstream
campus group, is not considered cultic. Adams found the CCC scored much higher on all four