Intervention techniques: small groups.

TL;DR: The historical background of current group intervention techniques, especially those connected with sensitivity training and encounter groups are presented, to look at a social movement with its sects, ideologies, and polemics.

Abstract: Working with small groups, either ongoing or selected for the specific purpose of intervention, is possible in many different ways. Groups have been used for religious, ideological, and political indoctrination, and there has been concern with the func­ tioning of family, work, and community groups for a long time. The current interest in intervention derives, however, from a particular constellation of developments in behavioral science without any societal goals. Nevertheless, we are looking here not at a development purely within psychology, but at a social movement with its sects, ideologies, and polemics. A knowledge of historical conditions is thus important in understanding the movement. We shall present, therefore, the historical background of current group intervention techniques, especially those connected with sensitivity training and encounter groups. After this orientation we can then discuss method­ ological and theoretical issues. Two reasons are usually given for using small groups as a direct entry point to a change process: (a) specific features of group interaction can be utilized to produce the desired effect; and (b) a small group may be a strategic point of attack in an attempt either to solve large organizational problems or to effect change in individu­ als. Small groups have been important tools in many contexts, especially in religious ritual and some of the dramatic performances which came out of it. In these cases, however, it is apparent that the group action was embedded in the whole system