Group Work

Processes and Applications, 2nd Edition

Bradley T. Erford

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351110655
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Psychotherapie

The overriding theme of Group Work: Processes and Applications is a focus on the specialized group work that counselors perform from a systemic perspective in a multicultural context. This text briefly covers traditional theoretical approaches, focusing more on the techniques and applications of the approaches, but the core of the text involves the systemic approach to group work: preparing group leaders to facilitate the systemic group process, from planning the group through the four stages of group work: forming and orienting, transition, working, and termination. The content is aligned with 2016 CACREP standards. Numerous other techniques, covered, are linked with specific theoretical orientations.

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Section 1

Foundations of Group Work

1 Introduction to Group Work

Historical Perspectives and Functional Group Models

Bradley T. Erford and Gerta Bardhoshi*

Preview

This initial chapter provides a tour through the essential historical and foundational issues of group work, leading the reader to appreciate the value of these approaches. To understand group work models, leaders need to consider model characteristics, subtypes, stages, and classic roles and functions of the leader. This chapter presents an overview of the four main types of group formats categorized by the Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW): task groups, psychoeducational groups, counseling groups, and psychotherapy groups. An overview of the group leader as a person, as well as using theory as a guide, concludes this introductory chapter.

Defining Group Work

Throughout time, humans have naturally gathered together in groups for the purpose of ensuring their survival and development. Most individuals spend a considerable amount of time in groups for social, professional, religious, and other purposes. But what exactly defines a group? Do specific parameters exist? Researchers in the field have proposed varying descriptions to categorize a group’s unique characteristics. Charles Cooley defined the primary group concept as a face-to-face encounter between individuals, involving intimate cooperation. Gladding (2016) expanded on these concepts by defining a group as two or more individuals who meet interdependently, with the awareness that each belongs for the purpose of achieving mutually set goals.

Gladding’s (2016) depiction of groups as functional organisms led to his description and use of the term group work, characterized as the application of knowledge and skill in group facilitation to assist members in reaching their mutual goals. These goals include work or education-related tasks, personal development, problem solving, and the remediation of disorders. These goals can be accomplished through different procedures, processes, and approaches, broadly categorized as the functional group models that will be explored later in this chapter and throughout the remainder of this book. But first, to know where you are going, it is often instructive to know where you have been, and where you are coming from. With this objective in mind, let’s review the historical foundations of group work as context for your future trajectory as a group worker.

The History of Group Work

Each era in the history of group counseling has reflected the national, regional, and local climate of that time period. Sociologists and social psychologists began researching collective group behavior in the 19th century, although not necessarily in direct relation to therapeutic possibilities. Early research topics focused on exploring the impact of social experiences on behavior, specifically the effects of working in groups on childhood performance in school, group influences on thought processes, and the effect of competition on performance. Today, group work is known to be an effective methodology for meeting various human needs and finding solutions to a multitude of problems (see Chapter 4). Group leaders are increasingly called upon to address problems that are interpersonally based and have discovered that the social connections provided by counseling groups are often the most effective forms of treatment.

The Late 1800s and Early 1900s

The development of groups in the late 1800s emerged from the fledgling disciplines of psychology, sociology, and philosophy as a result of the need for social reform and education. Those who received treatment in group settings at that time were generally immigrants, poor, or mentally ill. Joseph Pratt, a Boston internist, is credited with establishing the first group experience that was not intended specifically for psychoeducational or occupational purposes. He used groups to save time in educating and supporting patients. The patients shared the commonality of having tuberculosis, and over time they became concerned with one another’s well-being. This sense of caring had positive effects, and the patients’ spirits seemed to be lifted as they gathered together for weekly meetings. Startlingly, 75% of Pratt’s patients eventually recovered from the disease, despite the fact that they were given no hope of survival upon their initial diagnosis. Pratt provided the first known description of group counseling and the curative effect of group interactions on group members and paved the way for present-day psychotherapy.

Building on Pratt’s initial findings, two pioneers of the school counseling profession began to apply group work within the school context just after the turn of the century. Jesse Davis, a school principal in Grand Rapids, Michigan, introduced group work in a school setting in 1907. Davis’s groups were intended to provide students with effective tools for making educational, vocational, and moral decisions (Erford, 2019). Davis emphasized the use of the group as an effective environment for teaching life skills and values. Frank Parsons, often cited as the founder of the vocational guidance or school counseling profession, also used groups to facilitate career and vocational development. However, despite their groundbreaking efforts in the field, neither Davis nor Parsons conducted evaluations to empirically test the effectiveness of group work on students.

During World War I (and later in World War II), the importance of group work increased immensely as soldiers were tested and instructed in groups, and teamwork was emphasized. Groups were also used on occasion to treat combat fatigue, known today as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is fair to say that throughout the history of counseling, the cost-effectiveness and time-effectiveness of group work has been demonstrated again and again during occurrences of wars and natural disasters; indeed, during any circumstance in which a large number of people required psychoeducational or counseling services.

The 1920s and 1930s

The use of group work increased between 1920 and 1930, as did efforts to measure its effectiveness. One of the first outcome studies was noted for individuals with schizophrenia who were previously considered “untreatable.” When Edward Lazell, using a psychoeducational group model, presented lectures on Freudian psychology to groups of these patients with schizophrenia, the medical staff reported that patients consequently exhibited positive behavioral changes and a reduction in the use of sedatives.

During the 1920s and 1930s, several early theorists of group work emerged. Alfred Adler emphasized the innate social nature of human beings to support a group treatment model. He conducted groups in the 1920s that investigated the relationship between children’s problems and family experiences. Adler and his associates developed group family meetings, or family councils, to obtain input from each member about how to best approach disputes and improve family relations. However, Adler did not seek external validation to demonstrate the effectiveness of his techniques because he claimed that effectiveness should be clearly evident to the group leader.

Another major development of the 1920s was J. L. Moreno’s creation of the Theater of Spontaneity, the earliest form of psychodrama. Psychodrama was a technique developed to bring about mental and emotional catharsis for the purpose of tension relief. Techniques that arose from this early group work are still frequently used today, including role play, catharsis, and a focus on empathy and the encouragement of group members.

Also during the 1920s, some early pioneers began to look at the process variables that underlie group work effectiveness. For example, Lewis Wender articulated the first guidelines for group therapeutic factors (e.g., factors that promote effectiveness of group work with members) after examining the many difficulties associated with making successful psychotherapeutic interventions with inpatient populations (i.e., patients hospitalized with severe mental disorders). Individual transference relations (e.g., individual clients reacting to therapists as they would toward a parent or sibling) were hard to accomplish with inpatients, and the associated time and cost were often prohibitive. After determining that analytic procedures were ineffective, Wender discovered that group therapy produced desired qualities such as intellectualization, patient-to-patient transference, and catharsis in the family, all of which promoted therapeutic progress.

What is known as the Developmental Period in group counseling began in the 1930s and continued into the 1960s. During this time, group work in the school underwent a transformation from predominantly psychoeducational usage to a more balanced use of classroom guidance (psychoeducational) and group counseling, both in elementary and secondary settings. From 1930–1945, substantial laboratory research was conducted to quantify the influence of social interactions on behavior and to determine how different methods of group persuasion and peer pressure changed people’s convictions and beliefs. Throughout this time period, research was focused primarily on individual changes in a group setting, rather than on studying the dynamics within the group itself.

S. R. Slavson, an educator and self-taught therapist, founded the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) in 1942, along with its accompanying publication, the International Journal for Group Psychotherapy. AGPA was an interdisciplinary organization for group psychotherapists dedicated to improving the practice, research, and theory of group psychotherapy. Today, AGPA has standards for ethical practice, clinical membership, and a voluntary Clinical Registry of Certified Group Psychotherapists.

As research provided more evidence of the effectiveness of group therapy, widening patient populations began to seek out this means of treatment for personal growth. Another significant event of the 1930s was the founding of the first major self-help group in the United States, Alcoholics Anonymous. The originators of this group model recognized the power of bringing together individuals in a supportive way to produce change. Listening, empathizing, and teaching were hallmark characteristics.

The 1940s and 1950s

In the 1940s, more and more practitioners began to realize the powerful dynamics created in group therapy settings. The use of this therapeutic medium expanded tremendously during this time due to the needs of military personnel after World War II. Specifically, the war increased interest and innovations in the use of groups due to a shortage of therapists and a need to treat large numbers of veterans through rehabilitation counseling and psychotherapy, as well as psychoeducational approaches for vocational planning and career development. Much of the emphasis in vocational approaches with returning veterans was patterned after psychoeducational group work approaches that had been used with high school students for several decades in schools.

Kurt Lewin, a major figure of this era, is known as the founder of the study of modern group dynamics. In 1940, Lewin began the study of intragroup relations. He viewed groups as agents for change and has been credited with the invention of training groups (or T-groups), which blossomed into the encounter and sensitivity groups of the 1960s and 1970s and which were commonly used in schools at that time. His approach, known as field theory, emphasized the interaction between individuals and their environments, and he was heavily influenced by the ideas of Gestalt psychology, which emphasized the relationship of the part to the whole. Lewin’s research resulted in the identification of predictable stages of group work, and specific change markers for individual clients.

In the late 1940s, Wilfred Bion, a member of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in Great Britain, studied group cohesiveness and stated that group dynamics often differ greatly from the dynamics of a family unit. The trend toward structured group counseling investigations continued in the 1950s, as additional research was conducted on group structure, climate, leadership, and settings. Many therapists recognized that group work was more effective and advantageous than individual counseling, but individual therapists argued that changes made in group therapy were only superficial in nature because proper transference with the therapist could not be achieved. This argument was quelled, however, when evidence was consistently presented to demonstrate that transference was not only achieved but also enhanced in group therapy settings.

While educational institutions continued to implement career guidance, a new emphasis was placed on group and individual counseling to increase academic achievement and enhance the school climate. The 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik I created urgency in the United States because many U.S. leaders believed the United States had fallen behind in the so-called space race and that public K–12 schools and colleges were not producing competent math and sciences students to compete in the increasingly technological world. In 1958, the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was signed into law; it targeted money for the training and employment of school counselors in U.S. public high schools. Primarily, these school counselors were given the task of identifying and encouraging students with high math and science aptitudes to pursue college degrees in the sciences. By the end of the 1950s, classroom guidance, a psychoeducational group work approach, while still used quite often to achieve educational and career development goals, was largely replaced by group counseling when the goal was to bring about behaviorally based changes in educational environments (Erford, 2019).

The application of group work to family counseling settings experienced considerable growth during the 1950s. Rudolph Dreikurs used Adler’s counseling theory to set up and work with parent groups. Clinician John Bell also conducted work with families, and his therapeutic practice was uniquely characterized by treating the family members like strangers who were new members of a counseling group. He stimulated open discussions and encouraged silent members to share their thoughts and ideas with the other members. Other significant figures of this decade included Nathan Ackerman and Virginia Satir, who modified the psychoanalytic model of group therapy for family work, and Gregory Bateson, who researched group dynamics within families.

The 1960s and 1970s

The popularity of groups flourished during the 1960s and 1970s, largely due to the social climate of that era. The power of groups to create change became evident in light of historical events such as the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War peace protests, and the so-called counterculture movement. Group therapy research decreased from 1960 to 1980 (Gazda, Ginter, & Horne, 2008). Although group treatment was used extensively in societal settings, there was ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• About the Editor
• About the Authors
• Section 1 Foundations of Group Work
• Section 2 Systemic Group Work
• Section 3 Task and Psychoeducational Groups
• Section 4 Group Work in Action
• Epilogue
• References
• Index