The Benefits of Group Therapy Observation for Therapists-in-Training

The authors contend, based on a survey of group therapy trainees, that observing an ongoing psychotherapy group in vivo provides an exceptional learning opportunity. Clinicians often experience resistance and anxiety regarding therapy group leadership, and group therapy is notoriously challenging to teach. Trainees consistently described the Group Observation course as one of the most effective training experiences that they have had. The observation group model mitigates many concerns that trainees have about group leadership and inspires enthusiasm and confidence for leading groups. Group observers learned vital group leadership skills, most notably: the ability to bear affect and trust the group process, the ability to follow and use group themes, metaphors, and underlying dynamics, and the ability to highlight attachment themes, work in the here and now, and promote immediacy.     

Bidirectionality of parallel process and the ego syntonic learning system

A model is presented of an ego syntonic learning system which functions through the use of the parallel process. It is proposed that a bidirectional parallel process may be observed across various teaching modalities and used to understand learning problems in a group psychotherapy training pmgram. One stream of parallel process issues from the trainees, who unconsciously act out their unresolved conflicts and unsatisfied learning needs in the training program. The second stream emanates from the training staff, whose unresolved conflicts over leadership and training philosophies interfere with optimal learning conditions for the trainees. Clinical examples illustrate this bidirectional phenomenon.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Seventh Annual Conference of the Canadian Group Psychotherapy Association, Ste. Jovite, Quebec, October 1986.     

Process variables mediating change in intensive group therapy training

This investigation is based on over 400 American Group Psychotherapy Association members involved in 41 intensive, two-day training experiences for mental health professionals. The participants completed a questionnaire immediately after their group sessions to evaluate the process and leadership variables that contributed to a constructive learning experience. A similar questionnaire was mailed to participants three to four months later to explore the impact of training on group interventions within their clinical practices. One third of the trainees responded to the follow-up survey. Overall, the findings suggest that successful outcomes are related to a range of group processes, such as self-disclosure, feedback, and interpersonal support, as well as personal qualities and technical expertise modeled by the leaders of the training groups. Both the immediate and delayed assessments demonstrate that the groups were regarded as highly valuable learning opportunities.     

Group Creativity Training for Children: Lessons Learned from Two Award‐Winning Teams

The development of group creativity can be challenging for both young students and their teachers. This study examined the processes and learning outcomes of group creativity training from the perspectives of elementary school students and teachers while identifying critical factors that contributed to the success of the training. Data were collected from two Korean elementary school teams that won the gold (1st) and a special medal at the 2011 Destination Imagination global competition. Both individual and group interviews were carried out with 13 students and two teachers to investigate their perspectives of group creativity training. The analysis of the interview data revealed three major factors and subthemes: group dynamics (conflict and play), individual characteristics of the students (personality and motivation), and teachers’ roles (training strategies, training style, and commitment). In addition, a semi‐longitudinal survey conducted a year after the interviews examined nine skill or competency domains (self‐management, creativity, leadership, interpersonal relationship, patience, cooperation, information processing, communication, and presentation) to evaluate effects of the group creativity training on student learning. Synthesizing the analyses, we addressed the following three topics that arose from the discussions: the Safe Nest Effect, teachers’ training style, and multiple learning experiences derived from group creativity training.     

Procedures for Identifying Persons with Potential for Public School Administrative Positions by William C. Schutz

This investigation is based on over 400 American Group Psychotherapy Association members involved in 41 intensive, two-day training experiences for mental health professionals. The participants completed a questionnaire immediately after their group sessions to evaluate the process and leadership variables that contributed to a constructive learning experience. A similar questionnaire was mailed to participants three to four months later to explore the impact of training on group interventions within their clinical practices. One third of the trainees responded to the follow-up survey. Overall, the findings suggest that successful outcomes are related to a range of group processes, such as self-disclosure, feedback, and interpersonal support, as well as personal qualities and technical expertise modeled by the leaders of the training groups. Both the immediate and delayed assessments demonstrate that the groups were regarded as highly valuable learning opportunities.     

Peeling the Onion: Getting Inside Experience-Based Leadership Development

There doesn't seem to be much disagreement that experience should be at the heart of leadership development. The energy in the commentaries was around building on the existing foundation of knowledge about experience-based leadership development, bolstering certain areas to make it more complete and usable. I examine more closely several of the issues raised in the commentaries: the role of training and education in leadership development, increasing the probability that the desired learning from experience actually happens, and the transfer of learning.     

Overcoming Initial Group-Leader Anxiety: Skills Plus Experience

Although most counselor education programs offer at least one course in group counseling, there is little evidence that a supervised group counseling practicum is a part of the training of most counselors. This article explores initial group leader anxiety and the importance of the personal involvement of the counselor in facilitating a group. Reactions of counselors to their first group leadership experience are presented to emphasize the personal, theoretical, and practical learning counselors can achieve from a supervised experience.     

Sequential cotherapy of groups for training and clinical care

Cotherapy has often been used as the leadership model in group therapy. The literature is full of contradictory data and impressions as to the efficacy of this model. In this article a new form of cotherapy is presented which may offer some of the assets attributed to the cotherapy leadership model while at the same time reducing some of the liabilities. Sequential cotherapy refers to cotherapy when each of the therapists leads sequentially rather than at the same time. The pros and cons of such an approach are discussed from both the perspectives of training new group therapists and of service to patients in groups.Dr. Rutan and Mrs. Alonso are members of the faculty of Harvard University Medical School and share responsibility for training psychiatric residents in group therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.     

Leader esteem for the least preferred co-worker score, training, and effectiveness: an experimental examination.

A laboratory experiment supported Fiedler's Contingency Model analysis of leadership training. The effect of leadership training on group performance was contingent on leadership style, that is, the leader's relation to his least preferred co-worker (LPC). Training improved the performance of high LPC leaders, but was detrimental to the performance of groups with low LPC leaders. High intelligence leaders profited more from training than low intelligence leaders, but low intelligence leaders were more productive overall. Leader LPC times Intelligence interactions indicated that follower satisfaction and interpersonal affect were highest for groups with high LPC-low intelligence leaders or low LPC-high intelligence leaders. Implications for contingency theories of leadership are discussed.     

Implicit Leadership Theories: Prototypes for New Leaders

Followers' implicit leadership theories for new group leaders, including their prototypes of new-leader behavior, consist of organized expectations. If met, these expectations may afford a leader greater influence. Subjects' prototypes for new leaders were assessed by subjecting an 87 x 87 co-occurrence matrix of leader behaviors, based on subjects' similarity classifications, to hierarchical cluster analysis. At the proposed basic level of hierarchy (Rosch, 1978) were 16 categories of expectations for leader behavior, including giving ideas to the group, being responsible, and accepting others, which formed four abstract superordinate categories: learning the group's goals, taking charge, being a nice person, and being nervous. The results are discussed with relation to (a) the synthesis of the universal-trait and situation-contingent-behavior approaches for predicting leadership effectiveness, (b) cross-situational and cross-cultural comparisons of leader categorizations, (c) expectations for established leaders, and (d) leader selection and training.     

Team Family Therapy Training: Conceptual and Pragmatic Considerations

This paper presents a family therapy training model that can be used to teach conceptual and executive skills to beginning therapists in community and academic settings. The model is based on the organization and philosophy of family therapy teams and the methods of live supervision. The goals, structure, and leadership of traditional family therapy teams are discussed and contrasted with the proposed team training model. Pragmatic details of the training program are described and advantages and disadvantages explored. Team leadership skills are categorized by context and future directions proposed.     

Teaching the Design,Leadership, and Evaluation of Structured Groups

Although structured group formats have become increasingly popular, few articles have been written describing the training sequences or strategies for the leaders of these groups. The authors describe a class that used a structured model to teach the design, leadership, and evaluation of structured groups. Thus, the class was designed to be a model structured group experience. Specific segments of the 16 class segments are outlined and described.     

管理认知取向的研究

本文从管理认知角度,介绍渗透在管理理论中的认知心理因素,包括认知加工、管理认知方法和领导能力对组织发展的影响。在此基础上,对管理认知中的注意、归因、决策、学习、动机等进行探讨,其中对被称为是组织行为的"认知革命"的管理认知研究方法,如面试、业绩评估、信息编码、决策、期望和培训以及领导能力进行了分析。     

How Do Leaders and their Teams Bring about Organizational Learning and Outcomes?

How do leaders generate a learning climate that yields favorable organizational outcomes? To address this question, we offer and test a model linking charismatic leadership with the team‐emergent states of shared vision and trust within the team, as predicting organizational learning climate, and long‐term assessments of organizational outcomes by key stakeholders. We examined this model in a sample of 69 Arab elementary schools in Israel using multiple sources of raters, predicting long‐term assessments by key stakeholders of respective schools (parents and superintendents) at 2 points in time: 1 year and 3 years following the survey of the teachers. In line with our expectations, we obtained an overall, indirect effect between charismatic leadership and organizational learning climate. We also found support for both the direct and indirect effects of leader charisma through trust within the team on organizational learning climate and school outcomes. Although charismatic leadership predicted shared vision among team members, shared vision did not predict organizational learning climate, and hence, our proposed mediating effects of shared vision on organizational learning climate and outcomes were not supported. We discuss both theoretical and practical implications for the effects of leaders on learning processes and outcomes.     

Motor Skill Learning and the Development of Visual Perception Processes Supporting Action Identification

This study examined physical training and observational training influences on motor learning and the development of visual discrimination processes. Participants were trained on a bimanual task (relative phase of +90°) defined by a visual training stimulus. There were 2 observational contexts: 1) model-only, watch a learning model, and 2) stimulus-only, watch the visual training stimulus. After 2 d of training, the learning models performed the +90° pattern with reduced error in 2 retention tests. Each observer group showed improvement in performance of the +90° pattern, with the stimulus-only group characterized by a more significant improvement. The learning models and observer groups were characterized by an improvement in visually discriminating 2 features of the trained pattern, relative phase and hand-lead. Overall, physical practice (learning models) established a stronger link between the action and visual discrimination processes compared with the observational contexts. The results show that the processes supporting action production and the visual discrimination of actions are modified in ways specific to the trained action following both physical and observational training.     

Training Leader Emotion Regulation and Leadership Effectiveness

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to test whether we could train the regulation of affective displays of leaders in terms of the emotion regulation strategy of deep acting (displaying feelings one also experiences) and display of positive affect. We also tested whether this resulted in improved leadership effectiveness (i.e., a mediation model in which the training results in greater leadership effectiveness through improved emotion regulation).

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from a field experiment. We randomly assigned N = 31 leaders (rated by N = 60 subordinates) to a control group without training or an experimental group with emotion regulation training. Before and 2 weeks after the intervention, deep acting (leader-rated) and positive affective displays and leadership effectiveness (subordinate-rated) were assessed.

Findings

The training had positive effects on deep acting, positive affective displays, and leadership effectiveness. Deep acting and positive affect mediated the relationship between the intervention and leadership effectiveness.

Implications

We discuss how this helps build the case both for an emotional labor approach to leadership and for the leadership development potential of such an emotional labor approach.

Originality/Value

The findings of this study represent the first causal evidence that leader emotion regulation can be trained, improved emotion regulation results in greater leadership effectiveness and is one of the first empirical studies that integrates emotional labor theory to leadership effectiveness. It is therefore important from a theory development perspective.

     

Leadership skills and helpful factors in self-help groups

The effects of training on leadership skills and group processes in cancer and anorexic self-help groups are investigated. Three components of the study are reported. Firstly, an observational case-study of each type, of group was conducted to investigate the nature of the leadership input. Secondly, a Self-Help Questionnaire based on Lieberman's classification of leadership skills was administered to members of eight self-help groups to compare the experiences of groups with trained and untrained leaders. Thirdly, group members completed a Helpful Factors Questionnaire based on Yalom's analysis of group processes. The observational case-study revealed significant differences between the trained and untrained leaders in that, unlike the trained leader, the untrained leader clearly dominated the group. Results from the Self-Help Questionnaire showed that trained leaders scored higher on Caring and Emotional Stimulation but lower on Attribution of Meaning. Member satisfaction, however, was similar in the two types of group. Results from the Helpful Factors Questionnaire showed that most of the helpful factors were seen similarly by the two types of group, though differences were found concerning the relative rankings of both Guidance and Altruism. It is concluded that some degree of training of group leaders could be usefully incorporated into the self-help movement.     

Asian Variability in Performance Rating Modesty and Leniency Bias

The influence of human factors on team performance was investigated in "medical emergency driven groups" composed of medical professionals treating a sudden cardiac arrest in a high fidelity simulator setting. The group composition is unique, but realistic, in that it is not constant. Three phases are distinguished: In Phase 1, 3 nurses are present; in Phase 2, a resident joins; and in Phase 3 a senior doctor joins. It was hypothesized that directive leadership behavior would enhance group performance. This was supported with regard to the directive leadership behavior of the nurse first on bedside in Phase 1, and for directive leadership of the resident in Phase 2—but only with regard to behavior occurring in the first 30 sec after entering the group, which reflects the need for quick action in this time-sensitive task. For Phase 3, we expected not only directive leadership but also indirect guidance by "structuring inquiry" of the senior doctor to enhance performance. This was confirmed for structuring inquiry. Results indicate that to enhance group performance training should go beyond "technical" training that concentrates on medical necessities. Rather, it should include aspects of group coordination, emphasizing that coordinating behavior should be adapted (a) to the situation and (b) to professional role requirements.     

Leadership Development of Women Preparing for Ministry

This mixed-methods study investigates the leadership development and leadership skills of women graduate students at a theological seminary. Through the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (Student LPI) and Leadership Competency Inventory (LCI), demographic questionnaire, and focus group interviews, the researchers explored the leadership training the women had received and their perception of their leadership abilities and development needs. The findings showed that the women reported frequently demonstrated exemplary leadership practices and many possessed significant leadership experience. Participants scored highest on competencies utilizing people skills and lowest in areas reflecting competence in cognitive or strategic skills. While exposed to formal leadership education they reported receiving their leadership education primarily through observation and experience.