Addresses the following question: Do one-session meetings remain "aggregates" or can they develop some "group" forms? Considers the literature on phases of group development, one-session meetings, and the role of the worker in one-session meetings. Concluded that the one-session meeting can develop specific group forms.…

Reviews Bale's view on relations between instrumental and expressive structures and ensuing work on legitimacy of instrumental structure. Conceptualizes this legitimacy in terms of integration of distribution of members' skills and instrumental structure. Discusses Bale's conception of primary and secondary differentiation and inequality…

Presents problems associated with process analysis with a specific focus on definitional and methodological concerns. Discusses the need for a comprehensive system that will help researchers to separate and comprehend the individual parts of a group and their relationship to the whole group. (Author/LLL)

Contrasts open and closed therapeutic groups in the context of group development research, and reanalyzes data applying the Hill Interaction Matrix. Results supported the existence of a discernable process of development in the closed groups, while open groups with residual members showed counterproductive activity. (LLL)

Examines the proposition that the "leader" role is an unconscious myth invented by members of a group to ward off anxieties and uncertainties associated with day-to-day exercise of interpersonal power. Focuses on describing the myth, its consequences for the involvement of group members, and researchable propositions derivable from the myth.…

The four papers presented here include a study of group communication process among college students, a developmental analysis of social interaction, an analysis of environmental impact on interaction, and a methodological discussion of ways of studying interaction. These papers are followed by series of three discussion papers. (PS)

Eight "myths" about small group processes and outcomes are presented and matched against research and practice. Conclusions are drawn concerning benefits of group experience, group composition, leader impact, role of structural exercises, function of the "here-and-now," self-disclosure and feedback, understanding group processes, and the long-term…

Uses a laboratory experiment involving role-playing groups to show that an assigned majority rule is likely to lead to higher-quality solutions than unanimity and no-decision rule. Results indicated under majority rule workers resistance to the foreman's power often resulted in a successful search for a better solution. (JAC)

Examined applicability of Bednar, Melnick, and Kaul's model of early group development to college student self-help groups using undergraduates (N=101) who met in high-structure or low-structure groups. Found amount of group structure was positively related to ownership of group functioning; importance of performing group behaviors was positively…

This paper analyzes development of group structure in terms of the stimulus-sampling perspective. Learning is the continual sampling of possibilities, with those reinforced possibilities increasing in probability of occurance. This contingency learning approach is tested experimentally. (NG)

Sees introduction of specific structures and exercises in psychotherapy group as directly controlling course of events and affecting members' perceptions of the group and leader. Asserts that exercises must highlight, rather than bypass, existing group processes. Presents five-step model for preparing, working with, processing, generalizing, and…

Experimentally varied conditions relating to the people with whom participants (N=45) interacted prior to beginning a small learning group experience. Results showed that rates of attending and remaining varied according to with whom participants interacted prior to the onset of the group. (LLL)

Focused on applying a variation of the semantic differential technique (SD) to changes in group structure over time and treatment. Members (N=29) of two T groups rated their respective group members on an SD form. Results showed acceptance of members increased as the groups progressed. (RC)

Presents literature relevant to initial group structure and advances a model of group development based upon personal construct theory. The proposed model illuminates the relationship between initial structure and the psychological processes underlying group development. Research questions are posited to advance empirical tests of the model. (RC)

Describes Cattell's model as inclusive of the work of family therapists of all orientations. The model defines groups as having interrelated aspects, and all variables related to group phenomena as fitting into three panels: population traits, characteristics of internal structure, and syntality traits. Suggests model gives uniformity to field.…