The Group Begins

Jeremiah G. Magcalas
3rd year BSSW
The Beginning Stage:
 The Beginning Stage:

Group – at least 2 usually more, gathered with a

common purposes or like interest in a cognitive,
affective, and a social interchange in a single repeated
encounters than is sufficient for the participants to
form impressions of one another, creating a set of
norms for their functioning together, developing goals
for their collective authority, evolving a sense of
cohesion so that they think of themselves and are
thought of by others an entity distinct from all other
collectivities (Webster, 1988)
 The Beginning Stage:

How Groups Effect Change?

- Dorwin Cartwright
 The Beginning Stage:

The Group as Medium of change:

 The target of change is the individual member
 Source of influence is the group
 Social worker guides the group processes to achieve
Goals
 The Beginning Stage:

The Group as Target of change:

 The GROUP as a whole or aspects/conditions of the

group may have to be change in order to change
individual members.
 The Beginning Stage:

The Group as Agent of change:

Group efforts aim to modify or redirect features/forces

in its social environment which makes demands, create
pressures and impose constraints on the group. Thus
adversely affecting its development and goal
achievement.
 The Beginning Stage:

Primary Goals?

Help members to work together in a

cooperative and productive manner.
Help members to feel that their unique
contribution to the group is respected and
appreciated.
 The Beginning Stage:

A difficult stage of the group.

Members seek direction about how to

proceed but are ambivalent about following
any suggestions.
Members want to maintain autonomy but
also want to fit in and get along with others in
the group.
 The Beginning Stage:

Objectives of Beginning Stage:

 The Beginning Stage:

1. Facilitate member introductions.

• Helps members share mutual concerns and

interests and develop trust
• Information should depend on the purpose of
the group and bring out commonalities
 The Beginning Stage:

Round Robin Top Secret

My Name Treasure Hunt
Interviews Problem Swapping

To become familiar with group dynamics and

History.
 The Beginning Stage:
2. Clarify purpose and function: worker, members,
and sponsoring organization.
Defining the purpose of the group:

 Always state/restate the purpose – helps clarify

and improves effectiveness of goal attainment.
 State purpose positively – “placebo effect” –
focus on positive goal/objectives to be
accomplished.
 The Beginning Stage:

 Include brief description of the functions of the

sponsoring agency
 Involve members – provide input/feedback on
purpose and identify personal goals.
 The Beginning Stage:

3. Confidentiality
 During first session with on-going reminders
throughout group process.
 Identify expectations and limitations
 Identify social work group values (optional)
 Help formulate a set of guiding principles for
group operation
 The Beginning Stage:

4. Help members feel they are a part of the group

 Build cohesion while respecting individuality
 Help members feel safe and comfortable in the
group
 Point out shared interests and common goals
 Differences should be acknowledged and
appreciated
 Protection from “injury” – misinformation,
personal attacks, adverse emotional effects
 The Beginning Stage:

5. Guiding the development of the group

 Structured vs. Unstructured

 Process centered vs. Time Limited
 Psycho-educational groups
 Agendas
 The Beginning Stage:

Structure should be viewed as a tool that

should be used differentially in practice
situations to help members and the group as-a-
whole achieve agreed-on objectives”
 The Beginning Stage:

6. Task and socio-emotional focus

Balance is essential – careful assessment of

group’s needs and members’ needs.
 The Beginning Stage:

7. Goal setting in group work

 Considerable amount of time is spent
discussing goals in the first few meetings
 Group-centered – functioning & maintenance
and problems & concerns faced by all group
members
 Individual-centered – specific to each
member
 The Beginning Stage:

Developing goals is a PREREQUISITE

for entering the middle stage of group
work.
 The Beginning Stage:

8. Contracting

Mutual agreements that specify expectations,

obligations, and duties
 The Beginning Stage:

9. Facilitating members’ motivation

“Motivation is the key to the

successful achievement of the
group and member goals.”
 Determined by the members’ expectations
about:
 The worker’s role in the group
 The processes that will occur in the group
 What can be accomplished through the work of the
group
 Work through ambivalence and resistance
 Expectations about role performance
 Communication about purposes and goals
 The Beginning Stage:

10. Address ambivalence and resistance

 Pay attention to overt and covert messages
about accomplishing the group’s work
 Acknowledge ambivalence and provide
realistic appraisal for chances of success
 Help members work though ambivalence and
resistance
 The Beginning Stage:

 Assist members to recognize the range of

choices for participating in the group
 Help members work with each other to
recognize where points of resistance may
occur and to overcome challenges to full
participation
 The Beginning Stage:

11. Anticipating obstacles to achieving

individual and group goals

 Awareness allows for creation of

proactive strategies before entering the
middle stage of group work.
 The Beginning Stage:

12. Monitor and evaluated the group as the

change process begins
 Clearly document initial concerns and
problems
 Communicate changes throughout
 Consider how you will assess individual and
group goals and formulate them and
implement any evaluation devices
 The Beginning Stage:

 Begin future group sessions with goal “check

in” to keep members focused through-out
group process
 Partialize goals and identify what members
can do between meetings (action steps)
 The Beginning Stage:

ASSESSMENT
 The Beginning Stage:

 Worker’s begin their assessment in the

planning stage and continue to assess
and reassess the group’s work until the
group ends.
 The Beginning Stage:

 “Assessment is both a process and a product upon

which the helping process is based.” (Siporin)
Process – collection of necessary information,
organizing, and making judgments about information

Product – verbal or written statement of the functioning

of the group and its members (which is useful in
developing intervention plans)
 The Beginning Stage:

Assessment Process:
1. Information Gathering
 Amount
 Relevance
 Suspension of judgment
2. Diagnostic labels
3. Assessment focus
 The Beginning Stage:

Assessing Group members

 The Beginning Stage:

INDIVIDUAL:
 The Beginning Stage:

ASSESSING THE FUNCTIONING OF INDIVIDUAL GROUP

MEMBERS
1. Current vs. Developmental
2. How personal characteristics interact with
functional abilities:
- Intrapersonal life of the member
- Interpersonal life of the member
- Environment in which the member functions
 The Beginning Stage:

METHODS FOR ASSESSING INDIVIDUAL GROUP

MEMBERS:
1. Member’s self-observations
- Retrospective self-observation and self-reflection
- Self-monitoring – collecting data on self: frequency,
intensity, duration, and scope of behavior and its
antecedents and consequences (both negative and
positive)
Charting
Logs and diaries
Problem card
Self-anchored rating scale
 The Beginning Stage:

METHODS FOR ASSESSING INDIVIDUAL GROUP MEMBERS:

2. Worker observation
- Naturalistic
- Role Playing
- Simulation
- Program activities
 The Beginning Stage:

METHODS FOR ASSESSING INDIVIDUAL GROUP MEMBERS:

3. Reports by others
Observations by people familiar with member outside
of group
 The Beginning Stage:

GROUP AS A WHOLE:
 The Beginning Stage:

ASSESSING THE FUNTIONING OF THE

GROUP AS A WHOLE
GROUP DYNAMICS
 Group Dynamics

 Communication and Interaction Patterns

 Cohesion

 Social Integration and Influence

(Social Control Mechanisms)

 Group Culture
 Communication and Interaction
Patterns

“Whenever people are together in a group, they are

communicating.” (T & R)

* Communication patterns can be helpful or harmful. *

 Communication and Interaction
Patterns
Why people communicate:
1. Understanding other people
2. Finding out where they stand in relation to other
people
3. Persuading others
4. Gaining or maintaining power
5. Defending themselves
6. Provoking a reaction from others
7. Making an impression on others
8. Gaining and maintaining relationships
9. Presenting a unified image to the group
 Communication and Interaction
Patterns
Selective Perception influenced by:
1. Life positions that result from experiences
in early childhood
2. Values
3. The status and position of the communicator
4. Previous experiences
5. Assumptions
6. Stereotypes
 Communication and Interaction
Patterns

Interaction Patterns:
1. Maypole – leader to member & member to leader
2. Round Robin – members take turns
3. Hot Seat – extended back and forth exchange
between leader and a member
4. Free Floating – all members take responsibility for
communicating
 Communication and Interaction
Patterns

Patterns of Interaction are influenced by:

1. Cues and Reinforcers
2. Emotional Bonds
3. Subgroups
4. Size and Physical Arrangements
5. Power and Status
 Cohesion

The result of all forces acting on members to remain in a

group.
 Cohesion
Four interacting sets of variables determine
member’s attraction to a group:

1. Need for affiliation, recognition, and security

2. The resources and prestige available through
participation
3. Expectations of the beneficial and detrimental
consequences of the group
4. Comparison of the group with other group
experiences
 Social Integration and Influence
(Social Control Mechanisms)

How members fit together and are accepted in

a group.
* Groups are not able to function effectively
unless there is a fairly high level of social integration
among members
Social Control Mechanisms – the processes by which the
group-as-a-whole gains sufficient compliance and conformity from
its members to enable it to function in an orderly manner.

“Social order and stability are prerequisites for the formation and
maintenance of a cohesive group.”
Social Integration and Influence

Norms – shared expectations and beliefs about

appropriate ways to act in a social situation such as a
group.
 increase predictability, stability, and security
 result from what is valued, preferred, and accepted
behavior
 overt or covert
Social Integration and Influence

Changing Norms:

 Disequilibrium = “unfreezing”
 Return to equilibrium – new norms replace old norms
= “refreezing”
Social Integration and Influence

Roles – shared expectations about the functions of

individuals in the group

Status – an evaluation and ranking of each member’s

position in the group relative to all other members
 Group Culture

Values, beliefs, customs, and traditions held in common

by group members.
 The Beginning Stage:

METHODS FOR ASSESSING THE GROUP AS A

WHOLE

1. Measuring communication and interaction:

- semantic differential
- frequency charts (frequency, interval, time sample)
 The Beginning Stage:

METHODS FOR ASSESSING THE GROUP AS A

WHOLE
2. Measuring interpersonal attraction and cohesion
- sociometry – measurement of social preferences
preference scales
socio-gram
-cohesion
assess degree to which members:
- perceive themselves to be part of the group
- prefer to remain in the group rather than to leave it
- perceive their group to be better than other groups
with respect to the way members get along, the way
they help each other, and the way they stick
together
 The Beginning Stage:

METHODS FOR ASSESSING THE GROUP AS A

WHOLE

3. Measuring social controls and group culture

SYMLOG – “System for Multiple level Observation of
Groups”
Developed through 45 years of research in the
Department of Psychology and Social relations at
Harvard University.
 The Beginning Stage:

One purpose for the in depth studies was to better

understand effective leadership, group dynamics and
superior team performance.
 The Beginning Stage:

ENVIRONMENT:
 The Beginning Stage:

ASSESSING THE GROUP’S ENVIRONMENT

Community Environment
- What is the attitude of the community about
the problems/issue being addressed?
- What support does the group have from the
community?
The Beginning Stage:

LINKING ASSESSMENT TO
INTERVENTION
 The Beginning Stage:

Although assessment generally yields a written product, it

also is a process that employs a systematic method through
which information is gathered, reviewed, and then applied in
conjunction with theory to gain a better understanding of the
subject of focus. Assessment is essential to social work
practice no matter the social worker’s role, the nature of the
interaction or practice setting, client population, or phase of
the helping process. It is used to gather evidence to
understand presenting problems, to evaluate progress and
outcomes, and to assess the effectiveness of interventions
and programs.
 The Beginning Stage:

Assessment and intervention are two of the core

processes in social work. From the moment you receive
a case file, you need to think about the judgements to
be made, the needs to assess and the best help to
provide.
 The Beginning Stage:

INTERVENTION

Other term in social work literature:

 Action
 Plan Implementation
 Treatment
 The Beginning Stage:

This phase in the helping process is concerned with the

action that would solve the clients problems.

Intervention involves the rendering of all the specific

and interrelated services to the given problem and
situation in the light of the assessment and planning.
 The Beginning Stage:

Compton and Galaway

2 word for helping process
 Deciding what to do
- assessment & planning
 Doing the decided
- intervention
 The Beginning Stage:

ECOLOGICAL MAP
An assessment, planning interventive tool that is very
popular to social workers because of its usefulness.

It focuses on the network of human relationship on an

individual or family.
MY ECO MAP
“Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with
no mistakes in it yet?”

― L.M. Montgomery