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A Study of Group Psychotherapy. an Empirical Study of the Whole Group

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A Study of Group Psychotherapy. An empirical study of the whole group. Peter Rob Gordon Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. July, 2001. Department of Psychology. The University of Melbourne. 2 ABSTRACT The view regarding social units as entities in their own right disappeared from scientific consideration in the mid-twentieth century as much for political and ideological reasons as scientific ones. Yet group psychotherapy rediscovered these ideas. The problem to re-establish them scientifically is lack of empirical methodology for investigating whole groups. The study integrated theories of groups as psychic entities from sociology, social psychology and group psychotherapy to form hypotheses about therapeutic groups’ functioning. Four dimensions of whole-group function were derived: Structure, Cognitive Organisation, Affect, and Action Coherence. An observational instrument, the “Group Function Record,” was developed, categories defined for each dimension and a procedure established to rate minute-by-minute group function from videotaped psychotherapy groups. Therapists’ Interventions were also recorded. The instrument treats the group as the object of study and quality of collective functioning is rated irrespective of members present or their roles. Reliability was established and ratings were made of one latency and four adolescent yearlong groups. Results substantiated an eight-phase developmental sequence derived from the group development literature and outlined a theory of group formation. The most challenging, but creative state was found to be when the group is whole with all members in communication, though it is unstable and often managed by breaking into subgroups. A linear relation existed showing that the smaller the group, the better it functions. Groups also function best with one or two members missing, but more absentees threaten the group’s existence. More highly organized groups are more stable, but tend to destabilize when they become self-reflective. Homeostatic self- correcting tendencies and a close relationship between affective and action changes were evident. Change towards unpleasurable affect is associated with change from cooperation to conflict and vice versa. Crises tend to be precipitated by affective change, but correct themselves within the next minute or two. The effects of Therapists’ Interventions towards members, the group or both were analyzed. Group interventions initially tend to reduce functionality, followed by improvement after several minutes; member interventions have inconsistent effects; interventions to group and members in the same minute tend to produce immediate improved function. The findings and their implications for therapeutic goals and technique with 3 adolescents are discussed in relation to the theoretical background. Considerable merit is found in the collective mentality theories, many of whose postulates are validated. Indications for therapeutic technique are outlined from the findings. The method provides a different view of group process posing new questions and suggesting simple techniques are therapeutically potent. Further avenues of research are suggested. 4 DECLARATION This is to certify that (i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD, (ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, (iii) the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies, appendices and footnotes. Signed: ………………………………… Date:…………….. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Many people have assisted me to complete this project. I thank my family for their forbearance, faith and support, my supervisors, Drs. Charles Langley, Michael Kyrios, and Richard Bell for their interest, encouragement and assistance, Drs. Petra Steiger and Sabar Rustomjee, as well as Nic Cecic, Niloofa Patel and Anne Forbes who spent many hours helping develop, perfect and test the reliability of the Group Function Record; and to Sheila Park and Gabriel Ross for generously making available tapes of their group for the study. I am grateful to my many colleagues in the Australian Association of Group Psychotherapists, the Royal Children’s Hospital and other child and adolescent mental health agencies for their interest and support. I wish to acknowledge the late Dr Patricia Leaper for the initial stimulus to make this research a doctoral thesis. Finally, I acknowledge the boys and girls of my groups over twenty-five years, especially those in this study. They have been and continue to be my teachers. 6 CONTENTS. TABLES. 15 FIGURES. 23 PREFACE. 25 PART I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. 27 1: THE STUDY OF GROUPS 28 Background. 28 Purpose of the Study. 30 Structure of the Study. 30 The nature of groups. 31 The word “group.” 32 Group in psychology. 32 Group in sociology 33 Conclusion. 34 2: GROUP AS ORGANISM 35 Origins. 35 Spencer and Darwinism. 35 Functionalism. 36 Systems Theory 37 Conclusion 37 3: GROUP AS CROWD OR HERD. 39 Early theorists. 39 Le Bon. 39 Later theories. 40 The herd. 41 Conclusion. 42 7 4: GROUP AS SOCIAL MIND 44 Philosophical background. 44 British theorists. 44 American theorists. 46 Conclusion. 50 5: GROUP AS BEING. 51 The collective conscience. 51 Social solidarity. 52 Individuality and cooperation. 53 Social facts. 54 The social basis of thought. 55 Social gatherings. 57 Language and the social being. 57 Impact and evaluation. 57 Conclusion. 58 6: GROUP ENTITY IN SMALL GROUP RESEARCH 59 Reduction of the group entity. 59 Analytic definitions of group. 60 Re-emergence of group mentality. 61 Conclusion. 64 7: COLLECTIVE MIND IN GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY 65 Burrow. 65 Foulkes. 67 Other Group Analytic Writers. 70 Bion. 71 The Group-as-a-whole. 74 Conclusion. 75 8: CRITICISM OF COLLECTIVE MENTALITY 76 Organism theories. 76 8 Crowd and herd theories. 76 Group mentality theories. 77 Freud’s critique. 77 Ginsberg’s critique. 78 Critique of Durkheim. 78 Critique of McDougall. 80 Later criticism. 81 Evaluation of objections. 84 Conclusions. 87 9: INTEGRATION OF THEMES. 88 A science of groups. 88 A theory of group mentality. 89 Defining collective mentality. 89 Group Organizational States. 96 The Aggregate. 96 The Organism. 97 The Psychic Group. 100 Collective Cognition. 102 Collective Affect. 104 Collective Action. 106 The Self-Reflective Group. 108 PART II. THE GROUP FUNCTION RECORD. 110 10. GROUP PHENOMENA AS SOCIAL COMMUNICATION. 111 Group Function Record 111 The challenge of group membership. 111 Communication and social interaction. 112 Communication and social engagement. 114 9 Social communication and group status. 115 Communication and the group. 116 Communication in psychotherapy groups. 118 Group Function Record dimensions. 120 11. GFR DIMENSION 1: STRUCTURE 122 Structure and group size. 122 Structure in group dynamics. 125 Structure in psychotherapy groups. 127 Structure and the GFR. 129 Criteria for rating Structure. 129 Categories for Structure. 130 12. GFR DIMENSION 2: COGNITIVE ORGANIZATION 131 The nature of cognition. 131 Fundamental properties of cognition. 132 The group cognitive system. 133 Unorganized communication in the GFR. 136 Norms as cognitive elements. 136 Normative Organization and the GFR. 138 Rules as cognitive elements. 138 Systemic Organization and the GFR. 140 The group’s cognition of itself. 141 Representations as cognitive elements. 141 Representational Organization and the GFR. 144 Cognitive Organization in the GFR. 145 13. GFR DIMENSION 3: AFFECT 149 Affect and emotion. 149 Biological theories. 149 Cognitive theories. 151 Social and phenomenological theories. 152 Psychoanalytic theories. 153 10 A synthesis of affect theories. 155 Group affect. 155 Communicational phenomena as affective states. 156 Mapping group affect. 159 14. GFR DIMENSION 4: ACTION COHERENCE. 162 Definitions of action. 162 Psychological theories of action. 163 Action in contemporary social psychology. 163 Mead’s theory of action. 164 Parsons’ Theory of Action. 166 Harbermas’ Theory of Communicative Action. 167 Criticism of the Theory of Communicative Action. 170 Communicative action and goals. 170 Conclusions. 171 Characterizing group action. 173 Definition of Action Coherence categories. 174 15. GFR DIMENSION 5: THERAPISTS INTERVENTIONS. 177 Types of interventions. 177 Therapists’ control of the group process. 180 Non-verbal interventions. 180 PART III. METHOD AND RESULTS. 181 16: HYPOTHESES. 182 1. Group Development. 182 2. Group Structure. 182 3. Group Dynamics. 184 4. Therapists’ Interventions. 186 17: METHOD. 188 11 Subjects and groups. 188 Data collection. 189 Reliability studies. 190 Intra-Rater Reliability Study. 191 Inter-Rater Reliability Study. 192 Validity. 193 Description and characteristics of the data. 195 Range and variety of states. 195 Incompatible Combinations. 195 Differences in frequency of categories for different groups. 197 Defining and classifying composite group states. 198 Condensed States. 198 Functional Bands. 200 Characteristics of each group. 200 Significant differences in frequencies of states. 201 Phases of Group Development 203 Studies of group development. 203 Collation of group development phases: 205 Describing group process in Collated Phases described by Functional Bands. 205 18. RESULTS 1: GROUP DEVELOPMENT 210 1.1. Stability of GFR Dimensions. 210 1.2. Quartile Development of Condensed States. 214 1.3. Phases of Group Development. 219 1.4. Condensed States in Developmental Phases. 230 19. RESULTS: 2 STRUCTURE 232 2.1. Group Function and Structure.
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