How Groups of Psychological Abuse Use Communication to Manipulate and Coerce Victims into Joining and Staying in Their Groups
Presenter(s)
Sofia Lane
Abstract
Groups of Psychological Abuse (GPA's) include groups such as cults and religious extremist groups, where they inflict emotional, physical, and even sexual abuse on their members, and maintain a level of control over their daily decisions, communication and finances in order to manipulate members into staying in their GPA (Saldaña et al. 2024). Throughout this study there is a comprehensive review of literature, defining what a Group of Psychological Abuse is, how they use methods of manipulation and coercion to gain members and keep them loyal to their groups. This study also examines the effects of the abuse inflicted on these victims throughout their time as a member of a Group of Psychological Abuse. GPA's have hierarchal systems that ensure that only a select number of people in the groups get to make the decisions for the subordinate members involved in the GPA. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis is to code public court documents from groups that are commonly recognized as a Group of Psychological Abuse, and analyze the documents in order to code what methods of abuse are most commonly utilized. The GPA's that will be focused on are Scientology, fundamentalist Mormonism, and NXVIM, all groups that are still active today. Five public court cases from each GPA will be utilized in this study and coded using categories of abuse and the effects according to Scholar M. Saldaña (2024) and their colleagues. How communication is used in dark and manipulative ways and the lasting psychological effects on the victims involved will also be coded. Some specific categories that will likely be used are control over finances, communication and time, emotional abuse, and isolation. The qualitative analysis of these public court cases will be completed by Research and Creative Achievements Day.
College
College of Liberal Arts
Department
Communication Studies
Campus
Winona
First Advisor/Mentor
Tammy Swenson-Lepper
Start Date
4-24-2025 10:00 AM
End Date
4-24-2025 11:00 AM
Presentation Type
Poster Session
Format of Presentation or Performance
In-Person
Session
1b=10am-11am
Poster Number
42
How Groups of Psychological Abuse Use Communication to Manipulate and Coerce Victims into Joining and Staying in Their Groups
Groups of Psychological Abuse (GPA's) include groups such as cults and religious extremist groups, where they inflict emotional, physical, and even sexual abuse on their members, and maintain a level of control over their daily decisions, communication and finances in order to manipulate members into staying in their GPA (Saldaña et al. 2024). Throughout this study there is a comprehensive review of literature, defining what a Group of Psychological Abuse is, how they use methods of manipulation and coercion to gain members and keep them loyal to their groups. This study also examines the effects of the abuse inflicted on these victims throughout their time as a member of a Group of Psychological Abuse. GPA's have hierarchal systems that ensure that only a select number of people in the groups get to make the decisions for the subordinate members involved in the GPA. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis is to code public court documents from groups that are commonly recognized as a Group of Psychological Abuse, and analyze the documents in order to code what methods of abuse are most commonly utilized. The GPA's that will be focused on are Scientology, fundamentalist Mormonism, and NXVIM, all groups that are still active today. Five public court cases from each GPA will be utilized in this study and coded using categories of abuse and the effects according to Scholar M. Saldaña (2024) and their colleagues. How communication is used in dark and manipulative ways and the lasting psychological effects on the victims involved will also be coded. Some specific categories that will likely be used are control over finances, communication and time, emotional abuse, and isolation. The qualitative analysis of these public court cases will be completed by Research and Creative Achievements Day.
Comments
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