Group Guidance and Group Therapy

Abstract

No ONE familiar with counseling and guidance theory and practice would contend that group guidance and group therapy will eliminate the need for individual counseling and individual therapy. As Bennett (2) pointed out: Years of trial-and-error methods and some sound experimentation and research have indicated that group and individual procedures in guidance are complementary aspects of a sound guidance program. Neither can fully take the place of the other, but each implements and supplements the other, rendering it more effective. Hoyt (20) conducted a carefully controlled experiment at the University of Minnesota to determine the relative effectiveness of group and individual vocational guidance programs. He concluded that vocational guidance by either the individual or the group method was effective in producing positive changes on relevant criteria and that there was no difference in effectiveness between the two methods. The group technic used consisted of an initial orientation lecture followed by discussion in groups of five to seven students with counselors as group leaders. Faries (15) at the College of the City of New York conducted an investigation of two equated groups, one of which had only the regular orientation course, while the other, an experimental group, had such a course plus individual counseling. A follow-up study disclosed that 77 percent of the experimental group were graduated as compared with 51 percent of the control group, the difference being significant at the .001 level. Since the experimental group had volunteered for the counseling service, the selective factor confuses the results. Malloy and Graham (29) described a plan in operation at Marquette University by which freshmen met in a single session in groups of about 20, to discuss the pending testing program and the counseling services to follow. The writers concluded that such an approach saves time, reveals to the student that his problems are not unique, and paves the way for effective individual counseling. In this chapter, group guidance is interpreted as those guidance processes conducted in groups and designed to assist normal individuals to analyze problems of choice and adjustment which confront them and to work out constructive solutions based upon adequate knowledge of self and knowledge of the areas in which choices and adjustments must be made. Group therapy is construed as group methods employed to assist individuals who present maladjustment problems in personality and interpersonal relationships which call for corrective and remedial action. These pragmatic definitions may or may not meet with general acceptance, but as Lifton (26) pointed out three years ago (and the situation is still unchanged), terminology in this field has not yet been defined clearly