S W 333 Chapter 8: Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Working Stage of a Group:
Group norms and behaviors:
• Members are provided with both support and challenge; they are reinforced for making
behavioral changes both inside and outside of the sessions.
• The leader employs a variety of therapeutic interventions designed for further self-
exploration and that lead to experimentation with new behavior
• Members increasingly interact with one another in more direct ways; there is less
dependence on the leader for direction and less eye contact directed toward the leader
as members talk.
• If interpersonal conflicts emerge within the group, they become the basis of discussion
and tend to be worked through. Members discover how they deal with conflict in
everyday situations by paying attention to how they interact with one another in the
group.
• A healing capacity develops within the group as members increasingly experience
acceptance of who they are. There is less need to put up facades as members learn that
they are respected for showing deeper facets of themselves.
Choices to be made during the working stage:
• Disclosure versus anonymity.
• Authenticity versus guardedness
• Spontaneity versus control
• Acceptance versus rejection
• Unity versus fragmentation
Therapeutic factors that operate in a group:
• Self disclosure and the group member
• Self disclosure and the group leader
• Feedback
o Feedback has been associated with increased motivation for change, greater
insight into ho one’s ehaior affets others, inreased willingness to take
risks, and group members evaluating their group experience more positively.
• Confrontation
• Cohesion and universality
• Hope
o Hope is the belief that change is possible
• Willingness to risk and to trust
• Caring and acceptance
• Power
• Catharsis
• The cognitive component
• Commitment to change
• Freedom to experiment
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