1. Introduction of Group Work
SW112. Spring 2013
Week 2.

2. Group Work is Everywhere
Group Work is Everywhere. Group work can be used in a wide variety of settings and has relevance for many disciplines

3. Why Groups Work? Efficiency Experience of Communality
Save time and effort
Experience of Communality
Sense of “universality”
Greater Variety of Resources and Viewpoints
More viewpoints, resources, opinions, and ideas
Sense of Belonging
Addresses our human need to belong
Experience of being accepted
Vicarious Learning
Insight as a result of hearing the experiences of others

4. Skills Practice Feedback
Provides a safe/supportive milieu for practicing new skills and behaviors
Feedback
Offers individuals opportunity to hear perceptions, viewpoints of others
Often must consider feedback, especially if given back as a group
Can be powerful when heard from someone who has “been there”

5. 3. Basic Premises of Group Practice
Individual development occurs through group development
Group process, or group development, transacts with this individual development
Group process has its own “therapeutic factors.” The essence of these factors is the mutual aid system that evolves in the empowered group

6. Primary needs in group process are interpersonal, related to the growth of autonomy(“I”) and interdependence (“WE”) in relation to the purpose and content (IT”) of the group
The practitioner can either facilitate or obstruct this process
The process needs Trust, Autonomy, Closeness and Interdependence among group members

7. Effective Group Work – Three dimensions of group dynamics
Communication
Cohesion
Group culture
“I – We –It” Triangle/Ecosystem approach IT WE I

8. Table 1.4 A typology of task groups
Comparison of Task and Treatment groups (Table 1.2, p.15)
Treatment group: 5 primary purposes
Table 1.3 A typology of treatment groups (p.22)
Support: fostering mutual aid
Education: learning new skills and information
Growth: stressing self-improvement
Therapy: focusing on remediation and rehabilitation
Socialization: “learning through doing” -social skills (e.g. assertiveness training group), governance groups in residential settings, and recreational
Task group: 3 primary purposes
Table 1.4 A typology of task groups
Meeting client needs
Meeting organizational needs
Meeting community needs

9. 3. Values and Ethics
Group Values
Respecting the worth and dignity
Respecting a person’s autonomy
Facilitating a person’s participation in the helping process
Maintaining a nonjudgmental attitude
Ensuring equal treatment
Practice Ethics
Orientation and Informed consent
Confidentiality
Leader competence and training
Are we doing each of the ethical principles discussed in the chapter?

10. 4. Basic knowledge of group work
Three Models of Social Group Work: Table 2.1 (p.49)
Social goals model – YMCA, Girls/Boys Scout
Remedial model – therapy focused
Reciprocal model – support and self-help
Mainstream model: doing “with”
Helping members develop a system of mutual aid
Respecting group processes as powerful dynamics for change
Helping members become empowered
Helping members interdependency

11. 5. Influential Theories and therapeutic approaches
System theory
Bales- instrumental problems and socioemotional problems
Group as a whole that arise from the interaction of individual members
Psychodynamic theory
Object relations – transference/countertransference
Here-and-now approach: common irrational beliefs  restructuring thinking
Learning theory
Clear/specific goal, evaluation (measureable outcomes), reinforcement  behavioral modification: psycho-educational groups
Field theory
Human interactions are driven by both the people involved and their environment [B = f (P, E)]
Force-field analysis: group dynamic “cohesion”
Social exchange theory
Rewards and costs: Outcomes = the rewards (from a relationship) – the costs (the energy invested in a relationship)

12. What theories influence your social work practice?
If you develop your own theory for group practice, what would the theory be like?