The effectiveness of group psychotherapy has been empirically studied and supported over several decades; however, there remains much to understand regarding the specific factors contributing to effective group psychotherapy. The current study uses Kashy and Kenny's (2000) actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) to examine the relationship…

There is a lack of research examining patients' and other group members' agreement about their therapeutic alliance. In the present study, the person-group (P-G) fit model was adopted to predict that the group member symptom reduction will be greater when the group member's and the other group members' perceptions of their alliance to the…

The nature of the alliance-outcome relationship is still emerging. This study examined the reciprocal influence of change in alliance to the group and change in urge to restrict in eating-disordered individuals attending a group-based day treatment. Participants (N = 238) were a transdiagnostic or mixed diagnostic sample of eating-disordered…

The group's absence norm, a construct from the applied psychology literature, was used to examine session absences in personal growth groups. Rather than examining the absence norm statically, we modeled it dynamically as a time-varying covariate (Tasca et al., 2010). We also examined moderation by modeling the interaction of the absence norm and…

Fifteen experienced and 15 novice group therapists watched videotaped group counseling session and made similarity judgments for pairs of group members. Findings suggest that three cognitive dimensions (dominant/submissive, friendly/unfriendly, supporting therapeutic work/hindering therapeutic work) were used by experienced therapists; only two…

Results did not support the hypothesis that group participation would produce greater change in self-actualization than an untreated control nor were there differential effects among the types of sensitivity groups. (Author)

Reports the result of an attempt at applying the standardized schedule for the treatment of snake phobia in groups. (Author)

Analyzed structure of social interaction within four therapy groups in terms of conditional responding of participants. Proposed that groups' interactions would show increasing structure across sessions. Findings showed no consistent pattern of group development, that frequency with which members spoke was inversely related to dominance in group,…

Assessed the effects of content and timing in the presentation of structuring using group therapy clients (N=31). Handouts describing anger or intimacy were matched or mismatched with the group's developmental phase (storming or norming). Results supported the hypothesized relations between content and time of delivery of training interventions.…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether identification with members in group therapy has a relation to progress in therapy. Results indicated that the incidence of identification was significantly higher for group members who showed positive change in therapy (p less than .05) than for members who did not show a positive change.…

This research constitutes a preliminary attempt to study the procedural variable of differential spacing of desensitization sessions. (Author)

Applied the Directives Rating System (DRS), which classifies directives, to transcripts of four expert group therapists. DRS yielded satisfactory estimates of interrater agreement and validity. Findings showed that DRS ratings were related to therapists' theoretical orientation and that therapists tended to use imperatives and requestives when…

Comments on a study which appeared in the Journal of Counseling Psychology v18 p431-436, by Graff, MacLean, and Loving. (CJ)

Therapist-led, leaderless, and alternating sequence sessions were compared. Leaderless sessions exhibited more socially oriented behavior than the therapist-led, while the therapist-led meetings were considered more speculative and confrontive, more concerned with group relationships, and more pertinent and task-oriented than the leaderless…

Despite equivalent outcomes, group and individual treatments appear to differ in the therapeutic processes, specifically therapist activity and client impacts. Building on this literature, the authors examined differences in therapist-identified intentions in group and individual treatments. On the basis of I. D. Yalom's (1995) writings,…