Psychotherapeutic Change through the Group Process discusses the relation between the properties of groups and therapeutic change. The purpose is to develop a view of groups that accounts for the diversity, complexity, and fluidity of the group situation. The view examines the group in depth, attending not only to overt events, but also to covert aspects of specific situations. The work addresses manifest behaviors, underlying motivations; and the cognitive, rational aspects of the group. It explores the intense affect which may be generated under conditions of group interaction; not merely to the group or individual, but to the individual in the group and to the group as the context for personal experience and change.The research presented here was initially explored in small group studies. Separate investigations considered the ways in which patients and therapists view group events, the nature of deviation, and the development of group standards. They consider factors associated with therapeutic improvement and therapeutic failure; and characteristic concerns of early sessions. These, plus several discussions of theory and methodology have been published separately.The authors' working procedure has been to study intensively a relatively small number of groups, relying upon careful observation of natural groups rather than upon laboratory experimentation. The overall effort has been to understand the processes of therapy groups in all their clinical richness and intricacy and yet to impose a scientific discipline and control on our analyses. This has meant a continuing attempt to develop appropriate analytic procedures so that clinical analyses can be as firmly rooted as possible in concrete data and reproducible methods. This book is a unique effort at the scientific grounding of social work practice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Part 1 Theory, Methodology, and Experimentation. 1 Some Historical and Conceptual Perspectives on Psychotherapy and Behavior Change. 2 Experiemental Designs in Psychotherapy Research. 3 The Application of Psychophysiological Methods to the Study of Psychotherapy and Behavior Modification. 4 Laboratory Interview Research as an Analogue to Treatment. 5 Social Psychological Approaches to Psychotherapy Research. 6 Clinical Innovation in Research and Practice. Part 2: Analysis of Client-Centered Psychoanalytic, Eclectic, and Related Therapies. 7 The Evaluation of Therapeutic Outcomes. 8 Research on Client Variables in Psychotherapy. 9 Research on Certain Therapist Interpersonal Skills in Relation to Process and Outcome. 10 Content Analysis Studies of Psychotherapy: 1954 through 1968. Quantitative Reseach on Psychoanalytic Therapy. 12 Placebo Effects in Medicine, Psychotherapy, and Psychanalysis. 13 Research on Psychotherapy with Children. 14 Psychotherapy and Ataraxic Drugs. Part 3: Analysis of Behavioral Therapies. 15 Counterconditioning and Related Methods. 16 The Operant Approach in Behavior Therapy. 17 Psychotherapy Based Upon Modeling Principles. 18 The Nature of Learning in Traditional and Behavioral Psychotherapy. Part 4: Therapeutic Approaches to the Home, Family, School, Group, Organization, and Community. 19 Behavioral Intervention Procedures in the Classroom and in the Home. 20 Evaluative Research and Community Mental Health. 21 Empirical Research in Group Psychotherapy. 22 The Effects of Human Relations Training. 23 Research on Educational and Vocational Counseling. Part 5: Evaluating the Training of Therapists. 24 Research on the Teaching and Learning of Psychotherapeutic Skills.

Monograph on the use of sensivity training and other approaches to small group learning and group dynamics - examines elements and behavioural effects of training, group leaders, design and structure, etc. Bibliography pp. 217 to 240.