Group work Glossary

Question 1

Encounter group

Answer 1

A short term, intense group experience intended to encourage personal growth.

Emphasis is on increasing emotional experience, self-awareness, and open communication, rather than correcting disorders. Uses Gestalt and humanistic techniques.

Question 3

Acting - In

Answer 3

A group members nonverbal re-enactment of his or her conflicts and life history

Question 4

Cohesion

Answer 4

A groups solidarity.

High cohesiveness is associated with more frequent communication among group members.; More frequent participation in group activities, higher levels of moral, and conformity to group norms and reduce conflict.

Question 5

Couples group therapy

Answer 5

Group or family therapy format in which several couples meet regularly with a therapist to work on resolving marital or family problems.

Question 7

Culture building

Answer 7

Making the group a therapeutic social system. According to Yalom, this is a primary task of group leaders.

Question 8

Experiential therapy

Answer 8

Treatment that emphasizes the here and now, activity, role-playing, and acting out conflicts and situations.

Question 9

Art therapy

Answer 9

The use of creative expression such as painting, to treat emotional problems; often used in group therapy. Members either create art themselves or discuss their responses to works of art by other artists.

Question 10

T groups/Laboratory training or sensitivity groups

Answer 10

The focus is on training and consciousness raising.
These groups help members develop the skills they need to interact successfully with others in task oriented interpersonal situations.
Increasing members self-awareness, member sensitivity, and awareness. The group is usually purposefully ambiguous (i.e. no agenda, no one signed leadership, no behavioral norms) so that members can learn to be sensitive to one another.

Question 12

Closed or closed -ended group

Answer 12

Group that begins and ends with the same membership and usually has a preset termination date.

This is impractical for long-term therapy, but commonly used in short-term, task oriented forms of work.

Question 13

Open group or open-ended group

Answer 13

Group members join and leave the group at different times e.g. Alcoholics Anonymous

Question 14

countertransference

Answer 14

The Group leaders unconscious emotional responses towards a client.

(Such responses can interfere with objectivity, and must be monitored and controlled by the group leader.)

Question 15

Gestalt therapy

Answer 15

Emphasizes the here and now and development of awareness. (The whole is greater than the sum of its parts).

Question 16

Heterogeneous

Answer 16

Having diverse characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity etc.)

Question 17

Going around

Answer 17

A technique used to reduce patient resistant.

An example of this is: one patient describes his or her reactions to every other patient in the group or the group members describe their reactions to one patient.

Question 18

Transference

Answer 18

The clients experience of feelings, attitudes, fantasies, etc. towards the group leader, which represents a projection or reaction to a significant other in the clients past.

Question 19

Positive reinterpretation/reframing

Answer 19

This involves assigning favorable intentions to what would otherwise be viewed as undesirable behavior by a member or the group. This is a method of reducing resistance.

Question 21

Premature termination

Answer 21

Suddenly or unexpectedly terminating therapy before the end date.

Question 22

Psychodrama

Answer 22

This is a technique mostly associated with group therapy; members take on roles i.e. play themselves or an antagonist/other group members, in difficult social situations.

This offers opportunities for acting out feelings, practicing difficult situations, and experiencing the viewpoint of others.

Question 23

The Johari Window

Answer 23

A graphic model of interpersonal behavior that can be applied to many different theories of group interaction and social psychology. The quadrants consist of behaviors, feelings, and motivations that r: 1. Open, known to both self and others; 2. Blind, known to others but not self 3. Secret, known to self but not others; 4. Unconscious, not known to self or others.

Question 25

Re-socialization group

Answer 25

A type of self-help or therapy group that helps members adjust to new social rules; e.g. members may be newly divorced or recently physically impaired.

Question 26

Theme oriented groups

Answer 26

Theme oriented groups consist of three types: theme center interactional model, structured group model, and behavioral therapy groups.

These groups emphasize the end eventually, the group, and the theme.

Question 27

Psychotherapy groups

Answer 27

Are more intensive and usually of longer duration than counseling groups. Their Goals include remediation and reconstructing the personality or character of members.

Question 28

Assertiveness training

Answer 28

Designed to help group members overcome a submissive or aggressive style of interacting with others and learn expressive and outgoing behaviors.

Question 29

5 Stages of group development

Answer 29

First stage pre-filiation; they test one another and the group leader learning
Second stage, power and control
Third stage intimacy
Fourth stage developing group identity/differentiation
Fifth stage, separation

Question 32

Cathexis

Answer 32

Investment of psychic energy (e.g. libido) onto an object, idea etc.

Question 33

Homogeneous

Answer 33

Having the same or similar characteristics

Question 34

Norms

Answer 34

The group members, not the therapist, define both the specific behaviors and the range of behaviors that is acceptable and provide stability for the group. The group leader must identify norms as they evolve and influence their development in ways that create an effective group environment.

Question 45

Bibliotherapy

Answer 45

The use of literature and poetry to treat emotional and other mental disorders.

Often used in group intervention and effective with all age groups.

Question 53

Acting-out

Answer 53

Expressing conscious or unconscious desires, feelings, conflicts, or fantasies and an extern all action within group