Theoretical history of group development in its application to psychotherapy groups.

Abstract

The history of thinking on group development is a complicated and fragmented one because both research and theory construction occurred in two distinctly different intellectual traditions: academic and clinical. These traditions were at times independent and at other times mutually influential. In this chapter we describe the history of scholarly thinking on group development, a history that serves as a foundation for examining the developmental characteristics of psychotherapy groups. First, we look at the forerunners of the group as a construct and system. Second, we describe how later theorists characterized change processes occurring during group life, which led to the early group developmental models. We describe how models of group development are similar and how they are different in ways that include number of stages, units of analysis, the role of leadership, and tasks versus conflict emphasis, to name a few. We conclude the chapter by reviewing new paradigms for considering group development, such as complexity and chaos theory, the punctuated equilibrium approach, and the social entrainment model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)