T group essence basic concepts and procedures. History and development of t-groups. small group training interpersonal

The T-group movement was initiated by the research of the prominent social psychologist of the 1930s, Kurt Lewin. Lenin came to the firm conviction that most effective changes in personality attitudes take place in a group context, not in an individual context. He argued that in order to identify and change their maladaptive attitudes and develop new forms of behavior, people must learn to see themselves as they see them. other. K. Levin came to the conclusion that people in a group constantly influence each other. Groups quickly gained popularity as an ionically effective method of training, and the main objectives of the Training Groups, or Basic Skills Training Groups, were to teach participants the basic laws of interpersonal communication, the ability to lead and make the right decisions in difficult situations 107 .

The main goals of T-groups include the following: I) the development of self-knowledge by lowering the barriers of psychological defense and eliminating insincerity at the personal level; 2) understanding the conditions that make it difficult or easier for the group to function (such as the size of the Group and membership); 3) comprehension of interpersonal relations in a group, for example, improving communication skills for more effective interaction with others;

4) mastering the skills of diagnosing individual, group and organizational problems, for example, resolving conflict situations in a group and strengthening group cohesion.

Turning to the basic concepts of T-groups, it should be noted that they primarily include the concept "Teaching Lab" At the same time, the emphasis is on experimentation and testing of new forms of behavior. K. Rudestam notes that a member of the group is both a participant who can experiment with behavior changes and an observer who can control the result of these changes. Participants are directly involved in setting group goals, observing behavior, planning actions, and analyzing data 108 .

The difference is that the T-group provides an opportunity to solve problems that are not always solvable in real life. Often laboratory meetings take place in a setting quite far from Everyday life. These meetings may occur once every few days or even weeks. Classes in T-groups usually take up only a fraction of the time of laboratory training. The rest of the schedule may include lectures giving information about group skills and group skills! processes, and meetings in a wider circle.

The specificity of T-groups lies in the fact that participants within a limited period of time must create a social organization and support its development. The goals are quite general and vague. Thus, the rejection of a clear structure and plan forces the participants to rely on themselves and develop their own capabilities.

The main thing for the T-group is learning about the processes taking place in the group as it develops and changes.

Much attention in T-groups is paid to another concept - "learning how to learn."

Teaching how to learn relies on a learning cycle consisting of representation of oneself- feedback -and experimentation.

Presentation of oneself. Throughout the development of the group, its participants reveal their perception of the action, which is called representation of oneself.

A way of describing the representation of oneself and the complicity of others in this process of perception and cognition is to use a simple disclosure model called the "Jogary Window" after its inventors Joseph Laft and Harry Ingram 109 .

In accordance with this model, one can imagine that each person carries within himself, as it were, four "spaces" of his personality:

1. "Arena" covers general knowledge, those aspects of the content of (one's) "I" that we and others know about (the "space" of the personality, open to me and others).

2. "Appearance" is what we know and others don't, such as a secret love affair or an unspeakable fear of an authority figure, as well as what we have not been able to talk about, say, a good grade. in an exam (open to me, but closed to others).

3. " blind spot» consists of what others know about us,
and we don't know, such as bad breath or the habit of interrupting the speaker in the middle of a word (closed to me, but open to others).

4. "Unknown" is what is hidden both from us and from others, including hidden potential development opportunities (hidden and inaccessible neither to me nor to other people).

The Jogari Window shows that openness in relationships helps to solve group and individual problems, and that expanding contacts means expanding the Arena. When the band members first meet, Amnaet's "Arena" is small; with the development of mutual assistance relations, it reveals trust in partners, the ability to be with oneself in contacts with others develops. The degree of disclosure that a group can afford depends on the level of trust that exists within the group.

Feedback 110 . The second element of the learning cycle is the effective use of the feedback received from the group.

Those participants who want to expand their self-awareness could ut Get feedback on your behavior. Although feedback is provided in all interpersonal interactions, in the T-group, the ability to provide effective feedback is developed intentionally.

Feedback in an atmosphere of mutual care and trust allows individuals to control and correct inadequate behavior, provides information about "blind spots". Effective feedback requires participants to inform each other about the impact of their behavior, helps participants; better to receive and understand the information received.

In T-groups, the attention of clients is drawn to the development of effective feedback skills.

It is important that the feedback provider do so at the moment of observing the behavior, and not as time passes, when the partner can use psychological self-defense and the information becomes less relevant.

Useful feedback should be an expression
emotional reactions to the behavior of the participant, rather than criticism and evaluation of his behavior. In other words, the feedback provided by the participants reveals their own emotional experiences rather than a desire to blame.
another.

Feedback is most useful when it is representative and comes from the majority of participants. When feedback is offered by several members of a group, it is usually more valid and can have a greater impact on the behavior of other members than the response of one member.

Feedback can be best received by the participant who listens carefully and then puts what they hear into their own words (paraphrase). Given the perception of others, he can better learn to see how other members of the group reacted to his message, while at the same time recognizing that he should not change just because someone wants him to.

Experimentation 111 . The third important element of the training cycle is experimentation in the group - based on the active search for new strategies and behaviors. Group members learn not only through feedback, but also learn to use experience, conduct research and analyze experiences in situations where they can receive clear and accurate feedback on the appropriateness and effectiveness of their behavior. The practice of experimentation is very important because

Edition: Group Psychological Training: Textbook

Chapter 1.

Theoretical foundations for organizing and conducting group training

The group as an object and subject of psychological theory and practice

Group one of the central concepts social psychology. As an object and subject of study, it attracted the attention of many well-known scientists and practitioners, but the most active studies of this phenomenon began to be carried out in the second half of the 20th century. In the same period, in the applied and practical fields of psychology, the concept of training.

As a way of psychological assistance to people, group training was first used in foreign psychology. The main idea formulated by K. Levin sounded like this: “In order to identify their inadequate attitudes and develop new forms of behavior, people must learn to see themselves as others see them” (Lewin, 1951).

The first training group (T-group) was formed by several natural scientists (Leland Bradford, Ronald Lippitt, Kurt Lewin) who brought together in 1946 business people and businessmen to study basic social laws (for example, the law of employment) , searching for optimal solutions and "playing" various situations related to their application. In addition to the tasks set, each of them gained here the experience of self-disclosure and self-awareness with the help of receiving feedback. In 1947, the National Training Laboratory (NLT) was already established in Bethel, Maine. These first training groups were called "basic skills training groups". The main tasks of T-groups included teaching its members the basic laws of interpersonal communication, the ability to lead and make the right decisions in difficult situations. Later, such groups began to be differentiated by tasks and divided into certain categories:

1. groups of skills (training of managers, business people);
2. groups of interpersonal relations (problems of family, sex);
3. groups of "sensitivity" (groups focused on the growth and self-improvement of the individual, overcoming indecision, etc.).

But still enough for a long time such groups were nevertheless focused on teaching healthy people various role functions:

• communication with superiors and subordinates;
• development of optimal solutions in difficult situations;
• search for methods to improve organizational activities, etc.

Any human group reflects the real world, the relationships that exist in the lives of ordinary people. However, this artificially created laboratory differs from the real world in the following ways:

• here everyone can be both an experimenter and a subject of experiment;
• here it is possible to solve problems that are unsolvable in real life;
• group activities involve "psychological safety", which ensures the "purity" of the experiment.

Well-known specialists in the field of psychological practice write that the main difference between the T-group and other types of groups is that it teaches how to learn. Here, all members of the group are involved in the overall process of mutual learning, and therefore they rely more on each other than on the leader. In the T-group, learning is more the result of the experience of the group itself, rather than the explanations and recommendations of the leader.

Another essential side of the T-group is related to the nature of the process itself, which involves such elements as:

• self-representation;
• Feedback;
• experimentation ( Kondrashenko V. T., Donskoy D. I., 1993, p. 388).

Among the most striking works related to group psychology and the use of the "group effect" as a special means of influencing the personality, most often include the works A. Adler, K. Levin, J. Moreno, J. Pratt, C. Rogers.

It can be said that in the domestic practice of psychological assistance, the group, as a means of professional influence on a person, has been used since the beginning of the 20th century. But an active scientific and practical interest in the methods of group work began to manifest itself especially clearly in Russia only in the 90s. the same century. The pioneer in the theoretical and methodological analysis of the problems of group work in Russia can be called Larisa Andreevna Petrovskaya, whose monograph was published back in 1982 ( Petrovskaya L. A., 1982; Petrovskaya L.A., 1989). In her work, she considers training(more precisely, socio-psychological training - SPT) as a peculiar form of teaching knowledge and individual skills in the field of communication, as well as an appropriate form of their correction. She divides the whole variety of these forms into two large classes:

1. focused on the development of special skills;
2. aimed at deepening the experience of analyzing situations of communication.

Naturally, a significant number of domestic training schools are based on theoretical concepts that have come to us from the West, and the forms of group psychological work themselves in most cases are still modifications of foreign models. At the same time, we note that recently world-class specialists have appeared in our country, from whom Western psychologists could learn.

The essence of group psychological training

The opinion of leading experts in this field converges to the fact that when we talk about training, we are talking about efficient way, with the help of which the actual impact on the personality as a whole and, above all, on certain components of its self-consciousness, is carried out. In particular, such a position is presented by V. T. Kondrashenko and D. I. Donskoy when disclosing the main stages of work in the T-group ( Kondrashenko V. T., Donskoy D. I., 1993, p. 388).

The attractiveness and active enthusiasm and use of training in working with people are associated with a number of its specific properties.

In particular, one of the well-known experts in the field of applying group methods of working with people, Kjell Rudestam, notes the following advantages of this method of solving psychological problems:

1. the opportunity to receive feedback and support from people who have common problems or experiences with a particular group member;
2. here there is an acceptance of the values ​​and needs of other people;
3. in a group, a person feels accepted and accepting, trusted and trusting, surrounded by care and caring, receiving help and helping;
4. observing the interactions taking place in the group, participants can identify themselves with others and use the established emotional connection in assessing their own feelings and behavior;
5. the group can facilitate the process of self-exploration and introspection, self-disclosure;
6. the group provides economic advantages, as a method of psychological assistance, it is economically more accessible to people (Rudestam K., 1993.).

Despite the variety of specific methodological approaches to group training, one can single out the main idea that unites them: with the help of the group, open up new opportunities in the development of the individual, discover and actualize its potential. At the same time, each specialist in this field focuses on one or another aspect of this work. As an example, we give several different points of view of domestic specialists.

1. One of the “pioneers” of using active methods in teaching, Yu. N. Emelyanov, believes that “the term “training” should be used not to refer to teaching methods, but to refer to methods for developing the ability to learn or master any complex activity, in particular communication. Following this approach, he proposes to clearly separate the educational aspect from the training aspect in the work of the group ( Emelyanov Yu. N., 1985).
2. Zhukov Yu. M., Petrovskaya L. A., Rastyannikov P. V. believe that the entire training course and each individual lesson can be considered as a situation of influence. In their opinion, the methods of influence are directly focused on interfering in the development of a group or personality in order to cause certain changes ( Zhukov Yu. M., Petrovskaya L. A., Rastyannikov P. V., 1990).
3. Zaitseva T.V., based on the provisions of the cultural-historical theory of P.S. Vygotsky, writes about the essence of psychological training as an instrumental mediating action that provides training participants with tools and techniques that allow them to actively master their behavior, rebuild unproductive structures of activity and thereby raise the regulation of behavior to a higher level. This weapon is used to learn new or change old behavior ( Zaitseva T. V., 2002).
4. A specialist in training for adolescents, A. G. Leaders, uses the term “group psychological work” to designate several fundamentally different modes of psychological work with a group: group psychotherapy, group psychological training, and group personal training. Analyzing the common and different in each of them, he uses criteria such as goal, principles for selecting participants, the main metaphor of the mode of work, criteria for the success of work (Liders A.G., 2001). Makshanov S. I. considers training as a multifunctional method of deliberate changes in the psychological phenomena of a person, group and organization in order to harmonize the professional and personal being of a person ( Makshanov S. I., 1997).
5. Sitnikov A.P. believes that trainings (learning games) are synthetic anthropotechnics, combining educational and game activities, taking place in the conditions of modeling various game situations. Under anthropotechnics he understands a certain component of acmeological practice, which is aimed at transforming “naturally given human abilities” (M. K. Mamardashvili) and forming a cultural phenomenon based on them professional excellence. He distinguishes three main anthropotechniques: learning, learning and play ( Sitnikov A.P., 1996).
6. The analysis carried out by I.V. Vachkov made it possible to single out a number of essential characteristics of the training. In particular:
   • training groups are specially created small groups, whose participants, with the assistance of a leading psychologist, are included in intensive communication aimed at helping everyone in resolving various psychological problems and in self-improvement (in particular, in the development of self-awareness);
   • training - a method of work of a psychologist with a client, when the client does what he came to train. The general working definition of training here is as follows.

Group psychological training is a set of active methods practical psychology which are used to form the skills of self-knowledge and self-development. At the same time, the author notes that training methods can be used both in the framework of clinical psychotherapy in the treatment of neurosis, alcoholism and a number of somatic diseases, and in working with mentally healthy people who have psychological problems, in order to assist them in self-development (Vachkov I.V., 2000).

Another vision of essence group training presented in the works of M. R. Bityanova. In particular, she highlights the following essential characteristics of this type of work of a practical psychologist.

Psychological training- not any form of group work, it is a special form of group work with its own possibilities, limitations, rules and problems. At its core, training is a form of learning, acquiring new skills, discovering other psychological possibilities in oneself. The peculiarity of this form of education is that the student takes an active position in it, and the assimilation of skills occurs in the process of living, personal experience behavior, feelings, actions.

Psychological training is a form of active learning that allows a person to “self-form” (the word is clumsy, but very true in essence) the skills and abilities to build social interpersonal relationships, productive educational and other activities, analyze emerging situations from their own point of view and from the position of a partner, develop in the ability to know and understand oneself and others in the process of communication and activity ( Bityanova M. R., 2004).

Training sessions in educational activities (at school, college, university) - a significant modification of the training methodology and procedures so that the training can be used:

1. for the entire study group;
2. without fail;
3. in the mode of short meetings once a week;
4. in a situation of rather low psychological safety, typical for educational institutions ( Bityanova M. R., 2004).

Finishing the review of different points of view on understanding the essence of training, let's pay attention to one more point of view, which gives the most general definition of this concept. Solving the problems of ethnic tolerance and, in this context, the organization of methods and conditions for working with the training group, Lebedeva N. M., Luneva O. V., Stefanenko T. G. consider training as specially organized group work aimed at achieving a specific goal (Lebedeva N. M., Luneva O. V., Stefanenko T. G., 2004).

A generalization of the points of view and definitions described above allows us to give the following characterization of this type of work of a practical psychologist.

training(from English train - to train) - in the very general meaning considered as a way, more precisely, a set various tricks and methods aimed at developing a person's certain skills and abilities. As one of the tools of a psychologist, it can be used in individual and group work. But this method of influence gained the greatest popularity in working with a group.

Group therapy, correction, education and group training: their similarities and differences

For a deeper understanding of the essence and specifics of group training, it is important to show the nature of its differences from other ways of working as a practicing psychologist.

According to I. V. Vachkov, the main difference between group psychological training and therapy, correction and training is as follows.

“Both in group psychological training and in group psychotherapy, the same procedures are quite often used. In fact, it can be argued that training is one of the methods used in psychotherapy (as, indeed, in psychocorrection and training). At the same time, in our opinion, it is justified to isolate group psychological training from a number of other methods of work of a psychologist (psychotherapist) as a completely independent direction. This is due to the existence of important differences between group psychological training and therapy, correction and training.

First, in contrast to psychotherapy, the goals of training work are not related to treatment. The trainer is focused on providing psychological help, not for healing effects. This provision, of course, does not exclude the possibility of applying health procedures. In the training can participate not only actually healthy people, but also neurotics, and people with a borderline mental state. In the latter case, a practical psychologist (who does not medical education) is recommended to work with a clinical psychotherapist.

Secondly, the training pays attention not so much to the discrete characteristics of the inner world, individual psychological structures, as to the formation skills of self-development of the personality as a whole. In addition, the correction is directly related to the concept of the norm. mental development, which she focuses on, while in some types of training the category of the norm is not accepted at all.

Thirdly, training work cannot be reduced only to training, because the cognitive component is not always the main one in training and may sometimes be absent altogether. A number of experts consider the most valuable for the participants of the training to receive, first of all, emotional experience. However, psychological training is very closely related to developmental education, understood in the broadest sense of the word.

With all this, psychotherapeutic, corrective and educational methods can be used in the training, which in a number of cases does not allow one to unambiguously determine the form of group work "( Vachkov I. V., 2000).

Trying to determine the place of training among other types of work of a practical psychologist, he singled out, in terms of client requests (child and adult), four main goals of practical psychological activity and, accordingly, four ways to achieve them, which can be designated as metamethods of the psychologist's activity:

1. informing;
2. counseling;
3. intervention;
4. training.

The first three meta-methods of psychological work are ways to solve the client's actual problems and (usually) do not pretend to be more. As for the fourth meta-method, training, its fundamental difference from the others lies in the fact that it is aimed not only at solving the current problems of the participants, but also at preventing their occurrence in the future, in particular, due to the opportunity provided to them to learn how to solve problems ( Vachkov I.V., 2000).

The development of t-groups was initiated by the research of Kurt Lewin, who was prominent figure social psychology of the 30s. The first t-group arose by chance, when in 1946 a seminar was held on intra-group relations. It was intended to help businessmen and community leaders apply the Fair Employment Act, which was recently passed in the United States. This meeting turned out to be very interesting for specialists and ordinary participants, differences of opinion, analysis of the participants' own impressions made it useful and effective method learning. Levin was deeply convinced that the individual is most receptive to changing his views and attitudes in the group. The development of training groups marked the beginning of the group movement in psychotherapy, which rapidly developed and became very popular.

Lab training offers a wide range of teaching methods aimed at developing interpersonal skills or learning about processes that take place in small groups. Some t-groups, called sensitivity development groups, may aim for the all-round development of each participant's personality.

The values ​​underlying the work of the t-group include adherence to the scientific principles of disciplines that study human behavior and society, democracy (as opposed to authoritarianism), and mutual assistance. The activities of t-groups are associated with such concepts as a learning laboratory, learning how to learn, the principle of "here and now". The definition of learning as a laboratory process reflects the fact that in t-groups learning takes place in the process of new forms of behavior in a safe environment. The "learning how to learn" cycle includes self-presentation, feedback, and experimentation. The essence of feedback is revealed on the example of the "Jogari window" - one of the most important concepts in the methodology of t-groups.

The t-group trainer trusts the group members themselves to work together to explore relationships and behavior. In t-groups, participants receive assistance in developing specific communication skills such as describing behavior, conveying feelings, active listening, and confrontation.

In the studies of t-groups, two directions can be distinguished: the study of the process itself and the assessment of its final effectiveness. In the second direction, there is a need for long-term monitoring of results, especially those related to the transfer of experience gained in the group to real life conditions. T-groups contributed to the popularization of psycho-correctional groups and psychological concepts. Interest in t-groups reflects the fact that most members have modern society the desire to increase the level of self-awareness and personal development. Recently, t-groups have begun to focus on the training of individual skills and use techniques borrowed from other approaches in their work.

History and development

For those who have not themselves participated in T-groups (training groups), the excitement and controversy caused by the group movement may seem something of a mystery. Group members, when asked about their feelings, usually answer something like this: "The group really gives a result, but I can’t explain exactly what it is. Everyone should find it out for themselves." To understand why T-groups are popular, it is helpful to look at their history.

The T-group movement was initiated by the research of the prominent social psychologist of the 1930s, Kurt Lewin. Lewin was influenced by the work of the sociologist Georg Simmel (Simmel, 1950), who viewed society as a system of functional relationships that unite individuals into communities. He noticed that, being members of society, all people belong to groups, leaders and members of groups constantly influence each other. Levin began to apply Simmel's dynamic concepts as he transferred his psychological research from the laboratory to the field, that is, to the normal natural conditions of social processes. Lewin came to the firm belief that most effective changes in personality attitudes take place in a group context, not in an individual context. He argued that in order to identify and change their maladaptive attitudes and develop new forms of behavior, people must learn to see themselves as others see them. Lewin's work (Lewin, 1948, 1951) in the field of group dynamics has become a classic.

It will be shown below that the term laboratory training refers to a set of experiential learning methods, one of which is the T-group, or training group. Moreover, the term T-group can currently be attributed to groups that are different in purpose. Some T-groups are focused on developing skills for more effective organizational activities, others are focused on the formation of interpersonal relationships and the study of processes occurring in small groups. In the latter approach, attention is drawn to the contribution of each participant through the style of his interaction to the emotional climate of the group and its decision-making processes.

Finally, there are T-groups that emphasize the overall development of the individual, which have been simultaneously influenced by advances in personality theory and clinical psychology. Within this orientation, the improvement of group functioning and the development of personal skills are secondary to the identification of the individual's life values, the strengthening of a sense of self-identity. These groups are sometimes called sensitivity groups, a term coined in 1954 by the clinically oriented NLT group of psychologists. For some group leaders, training soon turns into "meetings." At present, NLT, having ceased to be the only organization practicing T-groups, retains an important role in the field of leadership training and in the further development of the laboratory method.

It should be noted that even when the T-group is aimed at the development of the personality of the individual and his consciousness, it always retains the context of understanding the group process. The process of interactions is distinct from the content of interactions and belongs to the realm of feelings and perceptions that underlie group behavior. In everything that the participants say, do in relation to each other, there are always problems of the group process. And they go beyond the individual problems of group members. Thus, one of the problems affects management and manifests itself in the way norms are set and power is distributed in the group. Another problem concerns proximity and can be reflected in themes.

Acquaintance and deepening interest in other participants. Similar processes occur within a group as it develops and changes, and determine the topics of discussion (Cohen & Smith, 1976).
In contrast to most therapeutic groups, in T-groups the content of the interactions serves as a vehicle for understanding the process of interactions. The study of group processes and group dynamics provides information about interpersonal relationships and the behavior of group members in real life. The development of interpersonal skills and socio-psychological competence involves an understanding of group processes that encourage self-acceptance (Argyris, 1967). Thus, T-groups emphasize the direct experiences of group members. More than other groups, they successfully continue the tradition of social psychology and research on group dynamics.

Schein and Bennis (1965) noted that the goals of laboratory training may vary from group to group, but usually include the following aspects: 1) the development of self-knowledge by lowering psychological barriers and eliminating insincerity at the personal level; 2) understanding the conditions that make it difficult or easier for the group to function (such as group size and membership); 3) comprehension of interpersonal relations in a group - for example, improving communication skills for more effective interaction with others; 4) mastering the skills of diagnosing individual, group and organizational problems - for example, resolving conflict situations in a group and strengthening group cohesion.

In practice, the learning goals of a T-group are mainly determined by its members, and the achievement of these goals is facilitated by the appropriate orientation of group interests. Group interests may relate to individual members, their relationships, the role of the individual in the organization, the group as a whole, the relationship between groups, the internal problems of the organization represented by the members of the group. When group interests focus on individual members, the goal may be to expand self-awareness, change attitudes, and increase behavioral competence. When interests are directed to the performance of role functions, the purpose of the group may be to study the attitude of participants to various group roles in a situation of communication with superiors, partners and subordinates. Interest in organizational issues may be determined by the goal of solving specific organizational problems and the search for methods to improve organizational performance (Schein & Bennis, 1965).

T-groups (social-psychological training groups)

The origin of T-groups or groups of socio-psychological training (hereinafter referred to as T-groups) is associated with the name of the famous social psychologist Kurt Lewin, who worked in the USA on the problems of group dynamics and social action.

In an attempt to explain the phenomena of group interaction, K. Levin develops his theory of the field - living space, by which he understands "the totality of coexisting and interrelated factors that determine the behavior of an individual at a given time." This combination of factors covers both the personality and its psychological environment, forming a single psychological field. He noticed that being members of society, all people belong to groups, leaders and members of groups constantly influence each other.

In a military environment, T-groups are mostly created to influence the system of interpersonal relations in order to develop their socio-psychological competence, communication and interaction skills to effectively solve the problems they face. They discuss the problems faced in everyday life, are looking for their solutions.

Main goals, which T-groups decide: training in business and personal interaction between people, organizing their joint activities and leading subordinates. Sometimes T-groups are used to provide a psychotherapeutic effect and personal growth in order to change their individual psychology.

Depending on the goals and objectives of the training, the following are distinguished: directions of T-groups: leadership training, sensitivity training, personal growth training, communication skills training, communication training, leadership skills training, organizational development groups, etc.

To the basic principles of organizing T-groups can be attributed:

1. The principle of dialogization of interaction, that is, equal full-fledged interpersonal communication in the group classes, based on mutual respect of the participants. In the case of the dominance of one of the participants or several members of the group, communication loses the character of a genuine dialogue and turns into a monologue, which contradicts the very nature of the training.

2. Principle of constant feedback, that is, the participant's continuous receipt of information from other members of the group about the results of his actions during the training. Such information often reveals to a person something that eludes his consciousness, but is obvious to the people around him. Feedback allows group members to correct an inappropriate course of action and develop the most optimal behavior strategy.

3. The principle of voluntary participation both throughout the training and in individual lessons and exercises. The participant must have a natural internal interest in the changes in his personality in the course of the work of the group. Forced personal change in a positive sense does not usually occur and should not be required of participants.

4. The principle of permanent composition of the group. The training group works more productively, and special processes arise in it that contribute to the self-disclosure of participants if it is closed, that is, it has a permanent composition and there is no influx of new members at each lesson.

5. Immersion principle. The duration of the classes should be determined at the very beginning of the work. Greatest effect achieved when working in large time blocks-immersions for 3-4 hours in one session or even more. This is due to the fact that a lot of time is wasted on the "defrosting" of the participants, their emotional entry into group processes after a long break in classes.

6. The principle of isolation. The unconditional requirement is the full confidence of the participants that no one is listening in on them.

7. Free space principle. In the classroom, there should be the possibility of free movement of participants, their arrangement in a circle, association in microgroups of 3-5 people, 7-8 people, as well as for privacy.

Stages of group development.

1) Representation by each participant of himself in a certain type of activity (“What am I?”).

2) Obtaining reactions from other people to their own statements and behavior (“What are you?”, “How do we see you?”).

3) The search by each participant of new forms of interpersonal behavior, taking into account the opinions and reactions of other people. This is the stage of self-experimentation.

4) Consolidation and development of effective forms of behavior that have received approval from the majority of group members.

Particular importance is attached to the direct experiences of the participants, their self-knowledge and awareness of what is happening around. Discussions are built on the principle of "here and now", that is, events that occur directly in the group are analyzed, if possible, without referring to the past experience of the participants.

Basic method in T-groups- free discussion without a previously adopted plan, combined with role-playing games, psycho-gymnastics and other techniques (these methods will be discussed in more detail later on the example of personal growth training). All elements of group dynamics are discussed in the process of work, since they most clearly express the specifics of the system of relations, attitudes, behavioral patterns, etc., and can be considered as the main topics of the group discussion.

The use of video recording during the lessons significantly increases the effectiveness of the trainings, providing the participants, along with the feedback received from other members of the group, with objective feedback.

Behavioral Orientation Groups

The reason that led the representatives of the behavioral school to turn to a group form of psychotherapy was mainly the understanding that the behavior and feelings of the individual are closely dependent on the environment that gives his behavior and feelings either a positive or a negative assessment. Therefore, the processes of learning, relearning and unlearning are significantly intensified in the conditions of a psycho-correctional group.

Group work is aimed at understanding ineffective and testing new types of behavior that are acceptable not only for themselves, but also for the military environment and society as a whole. Behavioral training does not set global goals for the development and growth of the individual.

Them a task- train participants to cope with certain problems, develop the ability to adapt to certain life circumstances that arise in the activity. Any other effect of the group is regarded as a by-product of the specific purpose of the group. In groups, they try to combine didactic and practical training. Many of the exercises are practical, but the form of the group is clearly educational. It is more of a programmed course of study than a series of psychotherapy sessions.

The main types of life skills taught in the group include managing emotions, planning one's near and distant future, professional career, decision making, parenting, communication skills, self-confidence.

Unlike other psycho-corrective groups, behavioral orientation groups are rather rigidly structured, and their leaders actively manage the group, setting a specific goal for the participants and planning each task.

The technique of behavioral orientation groups is diverse and complex. The choice of specific methods is determined by the goal and the methods by which this goal is achieved. In the past, behavioral groups have relied more on the use of individual methods in a group setting.

Recently, behavioral practices have created methods, using the potential of the group to achieve behavioral changes in the individual.

From various kinds behavioral orientation groups are currently the most common self-confidence training groups. They best exemplify learning an important life skill through behavioral therapy techniques.

Various questionnaires are used to determine the degree of self-confidence of group members. One of them is the Reizas questionnaire. With his help on early stages group development are evaluated by strong and weak sides self-confidence skills to identify areas where participants feel more insecure.

One of the training methods that is directly related to the theory of behaviorism is behavior rehearsal. In the behavior rehearsal method, group members are taught interpersonal skills through structured role-playing games in which life situations. Usually, training begins with simple situations that constantly arise in and are relevant.

Then more difficult situations are played. It is recommended to compose each exercise in accordance with the following requirements. Participants are shown a model of optimal behavior in any situation (to some extent, this is reminiscent of explaining new material in a lesson at school). Modeling can take place both with the help of video equipment, and in the form of an episode of a role-playing game in a group. Make sure that everyone has noted the characteristic aspects of behavior in the training situation.

Then comes rehearsal phase, when each participant has to fulfill the role that he has just observed, trying out a new type of behavior. At the same time, the leader helps him, if necessary, prompts. Proper feedback should be provided to the participant regarding various aspects of the performance, new instructions should be given, and skills that need to be improved should be illustrated.

Finally comes reinforcement phase, that is, rewards for successful actions in the form of positive reactions from the group and the leader. There is also the possibility of negative reinforcement of unsuccessful actions (punishment), but it should be remembered that in this case disapproving reactions in the group or simply the absence of positive feedback can serve as a strong negative reinforcement.

Along with behavior rehearsal, a number of other techniques are used in self-confidence training groups. For example, relaxation training, systematic desensitization, etc.

Meeting groups

A great contribution to the development of the method was made by prominent representatives of humanistic psychology, Carl Rogers (“client-centered therapy”), Richard Price, Michelle Murphy, William Shuts, and others.

The main subject of humanistic psychology is personality and its uniqueness, human experience of the world and awareness of one's place in it. A person is endowed with opportunities for continuous development and self-realization, and his task is the actualization of these opportunities, the growth and development of the individual.

The name "meeting group" comes from the word "meeting", which in this particular case is defined as a way to establish relationships between people based on honesty and openness, adequate self-awareness and responsibility.

Purpose of meeting groups- awareness and perhaps a more complete realization of the personal and intellectual development potential that is inherent in every person. The procedure for joint work in groups of meetings is designed to establish an atmosphere of trust between the participants, openness and unconditional acceptance and approval of each person as he is in real life.

Openness in interpersonal communication is achieved gradually due to the psychological self-disclosure of each participant to the rest of the group by establishing close, trusting relationships between them and an unconditional positive relationship of partners to each other. Disclosure of feelings is allowed only after the group has acquired a certain experience of interaction between its members, that is, when positive interpersonal relationships have been established in it.

Under these conditions, there is a removal of the internal resistance of each member of the group to revealing him as a person and a transition to a spontaneous expression of feelings, a description of personal life events and experiences that took place in the past and an open expression of negative emotions and feelings.

One of the ways to increase self-awareness in groups is through confrontation, which reveals contradictions between how group members perceive themselves and how others perceive them. Confrontation does not arise to generate conflict, but to help another person better understand and realize himself in a conflict situation. Confrontation stimulates a person to study his own behavior and prompts him to change it.

It is also assumed that members of the group should be responsible for their behavior in the group and in everyday life. The group does not assume the function of protecting its members, but it encourages them to realize their own capabilities, to accept independent decisions and responsibility for oneself.

One of characteristic features meeting groups - the most non-directive group management style. The facilitator refuses to direct and organize the activities of the participants, creating a situation of frustration and forcing them to be active and take responsibility for everything that happens to them in the group.

The manifestations of negative emotions are not inhibited, and the participants who have shown them are not punished in order to make them aware of the possibility of frankly expressing any (not just socially approved) feelings. Subsequently, the experience of manifestation of negative emotions is constructively processed by the group, and an atmosphere of mutual trust and openness arises in it.

The host acts as a model of a self-revealing personality, talking about himself frankly, like the rest of the participants. He must be attentive and caring, creating an environment of acceptance and empathic understanding in the group. As a result, according to K. Rogers, "individuals come into closer and more immediate contact than in everyday life." A “climate of maximum freedom is being created for the expression of personality, the exploration of feelings and interpersonal communications.

Milestones in Meeting Groups:

1) Establishment of interpersonal contacts. Sometimes fictitious names and personal introductions of group members to each other are used to facilitate this process. Often, for these purposes, they turn to special exercises aimed at establishing non-verbal contacts (touching hands with each other, visually examining the face of another person face to face, carefully examining and examining the hands of a communication partner, holding them in their own hands, etc.)

2) Establishing a relationship of trust (for example, through the following exercise: falling back with closed eyes, in which the partner on the fly must catch the falling person on the floor).

3) The study of emerging conflicts (most often conflicts are studied at the verbal level; the facilitator encourages group members who have entered into a confrontation, able to listen carefully to each other, speak directly and frankly, trying to be aware not only of their feelings and behavior, but also of the opponent).

4) Overcoming resistance to self-disclosure (for example, through the following exercise: a group member is asked to think about something very secret, which is very difficult to reveal to the group; then assume that he reveals his secret to one of the partners, and imagine a response; then he describes the intended reaction of the partner, without revealing the secret itself).

5) Expression of sympathy and support for each other (here it should be borne in mind that the desire to express support, consolation or approval to your group partner very often reflects the emotional state of not so much supported as supporting, which is the material for discussion in the group).

Group Gestalt Therapy

The founder of Gestalt therapy, its group form, is Frederick (Fritz) Solomon Perls. He summarized the existing knowledge in the field of psychology of perception and personality of various psychological schools and organically used it to develop a methodology for group gestalt therapy. Later, in search of an independent method, F. Perls studied the field theory of Kurt Lewin, the psychodrama theater of Jacob Levi Moreno, bioenergetics and the Alexander method.

In the Gestalt therapy of F. Perls, we meet a conscious refusal to analyze past experience and work on the principle of "here and now", the unacceptability of interpretations and comments on events, a call for awareness of the present and the ability to live to the fullest, and not talk about life. An important place is given to the process of self-regulation of the body, leading to the formation of a holistic mental formation, a certain specific organization of parts, called gestalt.

Gestalt education is formed on the basis of human needs and combines those components of our experience that are significant in this moment. When a person's need is satisfied, the gestalt is completed and recedes into the background, making room for a new formation. If the need is not satisfied, the gestalt cannot be completed and “dissolve into the background”. The feeling, remaining unreacted, causes anxiety, injures the human psyche, causes insoluble problems.

The task of Gestalt therapy- to help the client realize his need, make it clearer, express unreacted feelings, thus completing the gestalt and making room for solving other problems. The construction and completion of gestalts is the natural rhythm of the individual's mental activity, an indicator of his mental health.

In this way, main goal of group gestalt therapy F. Perls considered the restoration in each member of the group of organismic processes disturbed during the life cycle, the awakening of the hidden capabilities of each by encouraging awareness of their needs and facilitating progress along the path to maturity. By maturity, F. Perls understood the optimal state of health, when a person is able to interact with the environment, freely satisfying his needs. This becomes possible due to the therapy of unproductive behavioral stereotypes and their replacement with full and adequate reactions. At the same time, the focus is on neurotic mechanisms of violation of contacts, such as pathological fusion, retroflexion, introjection and projection.

contact therapy is carried out in two directions: 1) analysis of verbal content and 2) analysis of bodily manifestations.

Basic principles of group gestalt therapy:

1. Principle of "here and now" is a functional concept of what and how the individual is doing at the moment, even if he is experiencing past events of his life.

2. The principle of "I - you" expresses the desire for open and direct contact between people. The Gestalt group leader encourages group members to address specific statements to specific individuals. Direct confrontation mobilizes affect and vividness of experience.

3. The principle of subjectivization of statements associated with the semantic aspects of the group member's responsibility. The head of the Gestalt group suggests replacing objectified forms like “something presses in my chest” with subjective ones like “I suppress myself”.

4. Consciousness continuum is a concentration on the spontaneous flow of the content of experiences and the rejection of verbalizations and interpretations. Group members must constantly be aware or aware of what is happening to them at the moment, notice the slightest changes in the functioning of the body, which contributes to the orientation of a person in himself and in his connections with the environment.

The non-directive approach of the head of the Gestalt group, his attitude to justify and accept everything that will happen during the life of the group, the observance by the group members of certain rules communicated by the head before the start of classes also contribute to the formation of such an atmosphere.

Rules the following are offered:

1. Non-judgmental atmosphere. Each participant can and has the right to express his feelings, as and when he wants, while categorical statements and assessments of others are prohibited. If someone does not like something, he can express it in the form of feelings experienced by him at the moment.

2. Participants talk about themselves at will and can stop working at any time if they feel that they are not ready to work further.

3. Participants are expected to be honest about themselves. It is not allowed to tell lies.

4. Members of the group visit it regularly, as the absence of one of its members affects the work of others. The need for the absence of a participant is agreed with the whole group.

5. Confidentiality, that is, everything that is discussed in the group, is not taken out of it. Discussions that have arisen by chance outside the group are then presented to all participants - the group lives a single life.

6. In the group, it is allowed to talk about everything and do whatever you want, without oppressing the other members. The psychotherapist controls this process.

The head of the Gestalt group does not work simultaneously with all its members, but one on one with any of its members who voluntarily agreed to become the main character for a while, that is, to sit on the so-called "hot chair". The remaining members of the group observe the process of interaction between the presenter and the client, who is in the "hot seat".

The main techniques used in the work of Gestalt groups are the following:

Expanding awareness;

Integration of opposites;

Increased attention to feelings;

Working with dreams

Acceptance of responsibility;

Overcoming resistance.