Dole, Arthur A., Ph.D. "Strongly Held Views...New Age...Critics Versus Experts"

Please see our new site, www.icsahome.com which has new material and a more helpful structure.

	NEW! International Cultic Studies Association site has moved - click here
Bookstore \| Journal \| Free \| Study Guides \| Groups \| Conferences \| Donate		>
ICSA resources about psychological manipulation, cultic groups, sects, and new religious movements.

Article

Our E-Library contains full text articles and other resources related to the information below. Click here.

WHY WE USE SYMBOLS/ICONS IN OUR LISTS.

Please note:

ICSA does NOT maintain a list of "bad" groups or "cults." We nonjudgmentally list groups on which we have information.
Groups listed, described, or referred to on ICSA's Web sites may be mainstream or nonmainstream, controversial or noncontroversial, religious or nonreligious, cult or not cult, harmful or benign.
We encourage inquirers to consider a variety of opinions, negative and positive, so that inquirers can make independent and informed judgments pertinent to their particular concerns.
Views expressed on our Web sites are those of the document's author(s) and are not necessarily shared, endorsed, or recommended by ICSA or any of its directors, staff, or advisors.
See: Definitional Issues Collection; Understanding Groups Collection

Views expressed on our Web sites are those of the document's author(s) and are not necessarily shared, endorsed, or recommended by ICSA or any of its directors, staff, or advisors

Strongly Held Views About the New Age: Critics Versus Experts

Cultic Studies Journal
Vol. 11, No. 1, 1993

Arthur A. Dole, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.
University of Pennsylvania

Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.
American Family Foundation

Abstract
In this article, one of a series based on surveys about the New Age, we compared 52 "Critics" with 85 "Experts" in respect to their strongly held opinions as measured by 196 five-point Likert items. We selected for consideration those items concerning cults, the occult, and New Age which were rated by one or both panels at the extremes as indicated by means and percentages. Findings confirmed that defining the New Age was difficult, but the panels agreed about its eclecticism and Eastern origins. After redefining the New Age movement, we concluded that the most strongly endorsed items supported and enhanced our previous findings: that the Experts were more varied than the Critics' stereotype of the New Age, and that mutual understanding and respect between the Judeo-Christian and New Age paradigms were desirable.