Greg Cynaumon is forced to admit that he is not a psychologist or marriage and family therapist by the California Boards of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences.

The "Winner"...

Integrity Publishers
The publisher of Discover Your Child’s DQ Factor

Integrity Publishers is also the publisher of books by well-known Christian authors such as Pat Robertson, Max Lucado, Frank Peretti, and George Barna.

After the original report was posted on March 4, 2003, I contacted Integrity Publishers to inform them that Greg Cynaumon had duped them. I received a return phone call from Joey Paul, the publisher and senior vice president of Integrity Publishers. I told him about my report and that Mr. Cynaumon was not a psychologist, marriage and family therapist, or radio talk show host. Also, I told him that it was clear that Mr. Cynaumon had fabricated the study described in the book that his company published. Mr. Paul said that he would read my report and act accordingly.

After waiting two months, I contacted Joey Paul again. When I asked why the book was still on the market when it was clear that Mr. Cynaumon is not who he said he is and he had conducted the described study in their book. His response was, “I have nothing to talk to you about.” When I asked why not, he again repeated that he would not talk to me.

Recently, Mr. Cynaumon was required by the California Boards of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences to inform his publishers that he is not a psychologist or marriage and family therapist. However, as of September 29, 2004, they are still selling his book almost six months after they learned that Mr. Cynaumon is a fraud.

As part of their mission statement given on their web site, it says “The voice of integrity…When Integrity is your name, you have a higher standard to live up to a new voice declaring its message to the world.” Besides being an incoherent sentence, continuing to sell Mr. Cynaumon’s book when they were informed that Cynaumon and his study are frauds shows a lack of integrity. For this reason, Integrity Publishers earns a place in the Hall of Shame.

If this study actually happened, Mr. Cynaumon and Mr. Paul should be able to answer these questions:
1. Who are some of the parents involved in this study and will they be interviewed to describe their experiences?
2. Who are some of the research assistants and will they be interviewed to describe their experiences?
3. Can Mr. Cynaumon provide the 6-hour audio tapes of parent-child interaction?

What can you do?

1. If you purchased a copy of Discover Your Child's DQ Factor, file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau www.bbb.com.
2. If you purchased a copy of Discover Your Child's DQ Factor, call Integrity Publishers (615-370-3230) and demand a refund.
3. Email Joey Paul at jpaul@integritypublishers.com and ask him why he continues to sell Discover Your Child's DQ Factor.
4. Call Joey Paul of Integrity Publishers (615-370-3230) and ask him why he continues to sell Discover Your Child's DQ Factor.
5. Email Greg Cynaumon (doctorgreg@earthlink.net) and ask him to provide answers to the questions listed above.
6. Write a letter of protest of Integrity Publisher. Their mailing address is
   Joey Paul, publisher
   Integrity Publisher
   5250 Virginia Way - Suite 1110
   Brentwood, TN 37027

For those who have not read the complete Greg Cynaumon report, the following is an excerpt from the Discover Your Child’s DQ Factor section of that report which provides further evidence of Cynaumon’s fabrication of the described study.

2003-Author of Discover Your Child’s DQ Factor: The Discipline Quotient System
According to the quote by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, MFCC on the book cover:
“ DQ Factor is an intelligent, compassionate, and powerful technique for parenting—especially in situations where your children’s misbehaviors make you feel frustrated and hopelessly out of control.”

Mr. Cynaumon says that his book is based on “one of the largest psychological family studies in recent years.” His “research team” was supposed to have transcribed the audio and video tapes of 147 families. Then Mr. Cynaumon said that he created the Discipline Quotient (DQ) system. I say that it is a total fraud. He made up his study.

He even made up the information on the cover pages, Acknowledgements, and Introduction sections of the book. The Acknowledgements section shows an obvious issue. If this study really occurred, Mr. Cynaumon should have acknowledged all members of his research team by name. He did not provide any names. The Introduction section immediately provides more fraudulent claims. Mr. Cynaumon describes himself as an “ex-cop turned therapist and radio talk show host” (p. xi) and then later says “Over the years of conducting a daily, four-hour talk show in Los Angeles…” (p. xi). Of course, he does not have a four-hour LA talk show. Later he described himself as a “Christian therapist” (p. xv) and “I have regularly attended and have been on pastoral staff of a mainstream Bible-teaching church” (p. xvi). Again, as already noted Mr. Cynaumon is not a psychologist or a therapist. The pastor of his church said (December, 2003) that Mr. Cynaumon had been a lay counselor for about 1½ years six years earlier. He was never a paid staff member. His disdain for psychologists/therapists from accredited universities by name calling with his phrase “pointy-headed shrinks” shows up in the Introduction (p. xi) and other places in this and other books and in his interviews.

(It is interesting that below his name on the front cover it says that he is the “Co-Developer of The Phonics Game” Of course, he isn’t. How do I know? He told me; he said that Myrna Culbreath was the creator of the game. Also, given my report on The Phonics Game's fraudulent claims, Mr. Cynaumon’s decision to fraudulently take credit as being the co-developer of this product seems bizarre.)

Discovering that Mr. Cynaumon’s so-called “study” is a fraud should have been obvious based on one sentence on page 22 (in bold): “Since the average family spent approximately 1.7 hours together on weekdays and 2.3 hours together on weekends. I found that one six-hour cassette tape generally did the trick.” (p. 22). Of course, anyone who has purchased audio cassette tapes knows that the maximum tape length is two hours. Six-hour audio cassette tapes do not exist.

Then there is the improbable statistic. Mr. Cynaumon states “I asked the parent(s) of each of the 147 families to record all significant interaction they had with their children during certain hours of the day” (p. 22). Notice that he states the parent(s) were to observe their children. When you add up the number of married parents or single moms and dads, the total is 147 (p. 23). When you add up the number of children observed, the number equals 147, which would mean that every family had only one child. That is an improbable statistic.


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