Effect of a pregroup collective project on the cohesiveness of inpatient therapy groups.

Abstract

An attempt was made to increase the cohesion of inpatient therapy groups by having the group members work collectively on a creative art project immediately prior to their second therapy session. Ten short-term inpatient psychotherapy groups, having 6 to 8 members each, were randomly assigned either to this collective project or to an individual project on which group members worked individually on a similar art project. In the therapy session which followed, groups on the collective project showed a significant decrease in physical distance between group members relative to a baseline therapy session and relative to groups on the individual project. Groups on the collective project also scored significantly higher on a cohesion questionnaire than those in the individual project. The questionnaire and intermember-distance measures of group cohesion correlated highly (0.72). Intermember distance returned to baseline during a follow-up therapy session. No differences in the frequency of three types of verbal behavior were found during therapy. Collective art projects may be used to increase cohesion in short-term groups. Further exploration of intermember distance as a measure of group cohesion was suggested.