Pastoral care through small groups

Summary Pastoral care has for too long been conceived as the task of the ordained clergyman alone. The concept of shared leadership now offers us a unique tool to implement the pastoral care of the whole church—the laity as well as clergy. The small group, as a locus of care and concern and as a training tool, offers a unique way by which this ministry of the laity may become a reality, but training in small group process is vitally important to release this potential.     

Creative problem solving and communication behavior in small groups

This study investigated differences between communication behaviors of small groups trained in creative problem solving and groups not trained in creative problem solving. Communication behaviors investigated were: (a) amount of participation; (b) verbal indications of criticism; (c) verbal indications of support; (d) verbal indications of humor; and (e) nonverbal indications of humor. Groups were also evaluated on the quantity of ideas generated. Results indicated that groups trained in creative problem solving participated more, criticized ideas less, supported ideas more, exhibited more verbal and nonverbal indications of humor, and produced significantly more ideas than untrained groups.     

Authoritarianism,child-rearing practices and ethnocentrism in seven Pacific Islands groups

Data were collected from seven cultural groups in the South Pacific in order to examine the relationship between authoritarian child-rearing practices and ethnocentrism. An analysis of the data within each cultural group showed that there were inter-cultural differences in the structure of child-rearing pratices. In particular authoritarianism scales were obtained in the Tahitian, Cook Islands and Samoan groups and these scales were significantly correlated with measures of ethnocentrism. Scales which were close variants of authoritarianism were obtained in the Tongan and Fiji-Indian groups and these scales were also significantly correlated with ethnocentrism. The scales obtained in the Fijian and New Hebrides groups, however, did not appear to be closely related to authoritarianism and these two groups showed less inter-individual variation than the other cultural groups.     

Sex differences in intercultural communication apprehension,ethnocentrism, and intercultural willingness to communicate

Communication predispositions influence interactions between individuals from different cultures. Three such predispositions have been found to affect behavior in intercultural contexts: Apprehension about intercultural communication, ethnocentrism, and intercultural willingness to communicate. This study examined differences between men (n = 130) and women (n = 175) on those three predispositions. The analysis showed that men reported experiencing higher apprehension about intercultural communication, being more ethnocentric than women, and being less willing to communicate interculturally than women. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Using communication exercises in groups

The group leader who uses communication exercises without an adequate rationale may be taking unnecessary risks and jeopardizing the effectiveness of the group. This article presents a rationale for using communication exercises in groups for the purposes of initiation, facilitation, and termination and describes the means by which they are introduced into the group.     

Interpersonal referential communication experiments with a small computer

A LINC-8 computer is used with a Tektronix 611 CRT for presenting verbal information, and a slide projector for displaying facial photographs in studies of interpersonal referential communication.