Personality

The Psychology of Cults and Radical Groups
Name
Institution
Abstract
On the November of 1978, about 900 members of the Peoples Temple perished in a mass suicide-murder in what came to be known as the Jonestown Massacre. The Peoples Temple was an American cult group formed by Jim Jones. Located in Guyana, the Peoples Temple saw the death of hundreds of followers after their leader Jim Jones ordered them to ingest a poison-laced drink. In 2014, the world was treated to a shocking video of US journalist James Foley being beheaded. This was followed by other beheadings. The person identified as the executor was a British man called Mohammed Emwazi or Jihadi John. In the coastal part of Kenya, a Briton known as Thomas Evans was among Al-shabab terrorists killed by Kenyan forces after attempting to break into a military camp. The plot of the three stores is the same. Normal people end up joining dangerous groups such as radical groups or cults. Many people would wonder why such people would abandon their normal lives for such causes. However, many people do join these groups and it is therefore to establish factors that influence this. Is it the individual or is it influence from such groups? This paper examines the relationship between personality and social psychology and induction into cults and radical groups.
Introduction
Both personality and social psychology seek to understand the social behavior of people as they go about their daily lives. Personality psychology s…