14 Working With Groups 2015 by TLMendoza PDF

2015 SOCIAL WORK BOARD REVIEW NOTES
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Working with
Groups
Compiled by: Prof. Thelma Lee-Mendoza
Social Work with Group…..Page 69

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Group (definition)
- At least 2 people (usually more), gathered with common purposes or like interests in a
cognitive, affective, and social interchange in single or repeated encounters. These
encounters are sufficient for the participants to form impressions of one another, creating a
set of norms for their functioning together, developing goals for their collective authority,
evolving a sense of cohesion so that they think of themselves and are thought of by others as
an entity distinct from all other collectivities, (Webster, 1988)
- Examples of “groups”: family groups, friendship groups, work groups, hobby groups,
treatment groups
“Life” of groups – short term or long-term
“Aggregate” – a simple collection or group of people who are on the same location
usually experiencing common influences, without a bond or significant interaction;
may share some characteristics; not organized, e.g. a crowd during an accident; a
group of pedestrians waiting to cross a street.
- Classifying Groups
A. Social Group –
 an exclusive self-organizing form of social organization

 comprised of two or more members who identify and interact with one another on a
personal basis as individuals; nature of relationship is like in a natural group
B. Primary Group
 Gemeinschaft relationships (relationship is based on common feeling) dominate in

primary groups
 It comprises the individual’s earliest form of human association, typically the family or
its surrogate
C. Natural Groups
 They are groups that come together spontaneously on the basis of naturally
occurring events, interpersonal attraction, or the mutually perceived needs of
members: Examples: families, peer groups, street gangs, cliques, friendship
networks
D. Formed Groups
 Defined as those groups that come together through some outside influence or
intervention
 They usually have some sponsorship or affiliation

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E. In-Groups and Out-Groups
In-groups
 are defined as those social groupings in which the individual feels at home;
 the group shares some common interests, some shared expectations, and some
norms which render behavior more predictable among group members
Out-groups
 are defined as those social groupings in which the individual does not feel a
sense of belonging
F. Treatment and Task Groups
Task groups
 Are formed and maintained so that specific activities or jobs can be accomplished
 Also referred to as ‘work groups’
 Designed to complete a job or to provide ongoing advice or monitoring
Treatment groups:
 May also be referred to as “small helping groups” (groupwork or social groupwork)

 In social work, a method of intervention to help meet personal needs of its members
Purpose of treatment groups:
1. Support:
To help members cope with stressful life events and revitalize existing coping abilities
2. Education:
To educate through presentations, discussions, and experience
3. Growth:
To develop members’ potential, awareness, insight
4. Therapy:
 To change behavior
 Correction, rehabilitation, coping and problem-solving through behavior change
intervention
5. Socialization:
 To increase communication and social skills

 Improved interpersonal relationships through program activities, structured
exercises, role plays, etc.

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HOW GROUP EFFECT CHANGE (Dorwin Cartwright)
A. The group as MEDIUM of change
 the target of change: individual member

 source of influence: the group
 social worker guides group processes to achieve goals
B. The group as TARGET of change
 the group as a whole or aspects/conditions of the group may have to be changed in

order to change individual members (size, composition, climate, structure, etc.
C. The group as AGENT of change
 group efforts aim to modify or redirect features/forces in its social environment which
makes demands, create pressures, and impose constraints on the group, thus adversely
affecting its development and goal achievement (techniques: information dissemination,
persuasion, negotiation, bargaining, pressure, confrontation etc.
 the group is not the focus of desired change
USES of Groups in Social Work:
1. For EFFECT on participants:
 socialization – re-socialization
 acquiring or changing self-image/identity, motivation
 attitude change/formation
 change/formation/modification of values and beliefs
 behavioral change
 achieving sense of belonging
 support
 education/learning
2. For COLLECTIVE problem-solving
 work on common/joint tasks or projects

 dealing with social situations/problems (crisis, family rejection, etc.)
3. For CHANGE in the SOCIAL SITUATION or CONDITIONS outside the group
 modification of the institution or social system within which the group exists

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Advantages of the group approach in social work:
1. Many individual feel more comfortable in a group (support; similar problems)

2. Members receive psycho rewards from helping others (“Helper therapy” principle)
3. Internal forces in groups can influence attitudes, values, behaviors (group can be potent
instrument for change in the individual/group)
4. The group allows use of variety of activities relevant to individual needs and group goals
5. The cooperative thinking process in a group can hasten decision-making
6. Similar problems of members may be best handled with the group engaged in collective
action (instead of individually)
7. Maybe more economical to work with a group (if appropriate)
Reasons for using the group approach/mode of service:
1. To use the group as the primary means of helping

2. To augment individual methods
3. To augment work with individual families
4. To augment community methods
5. To work with groups in the context of intergroup approaches at the community level (e.g.,
coalitions of different community groups)
When is work with groups social work?

(Kurtland & Salmon, 1995)
 when clients teach each other (i.e., learn from each other) how to meet their human needs
through democratic group process under social work auspices.
 when the aim of social group work activity is to assist clients to learn from each other.
 when social workers and social agencies commit each other to the intention of helping each
and all members of the group to perform in consonance with their own and others needs at
the same time.
 when social workers and agencies commit themselves to help members of a group learn from
each other as well as from and through the worker how to bring about change outside their
group
 when clients are constantly helped to become conscious of the ethically and scientifically
documented fact that the behaviors of all persons have significant consequences for others,
both in and outside the group.
When is work with groups NOT social work?

(Kurtland and Salmon, 1995)
 when the purpose is change in the individual self without constant reference to and
involvement of other members or regard for them
 when the group is used essentially as the occasion for personal/individual gain
 when the social worker is referred to as the leader of the group and behaves accordingly,
making the clients followers of the leader by definition

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 when the standard method of understanding member behavior and intervention is couched in
terms of psychopathology and treatment; and
 when social change and social action are by-products, incidental to the main content of the
group membership experience
Social Groupwork: a working definition
 “Social groupwork is a method of social work that aims, in an informed way, through
purposeful group experiences, to help individuals and groups to meet individual and group
needs, and to influence and change personal, group, organizational and community
problems” (Linday and Orton 2008)
o The group that has been especially set up by a social worker with the intention of
intervening in a way that is helpful to individual, group, organization or community
o Members have been brought together for a particular beneficial purpose and that
meet at a specified time and place
o Social worker is deliberate in facilitating or shaping and leading the group and
considers the range of reasons why the group can help
Group Structure and Process in Social Work
A. Structure: the “arrangement or interrelation of all the parts of a whole”
Group structure: patterns that develop and maintain themselves over time in interpersonal
relations (Garvin and Glasser)
 formal (task group, social action group can have elected or designated leaders/officers)
 informal (therapy/treatment groups)
Structural Properties of Groups
1. Size
 Refers to the number of persons in the group;
 Size sets limits on the amount and quality of communication among group members
affecting their interpersonal relations
 Assures more direct and intensive communication among participants
2. Communication Structure
 Encompasses who interacts with whom about what, and this interaction may be
verbal or non-verbal
 Desired pattern of channels of communication is group-centered rather than leader-
centered
3. Affectional Structure
 Evident in the process of interaction (the process of acting and reacting): some
people are drawn to each other and develop liking for each other while others are
repulsed, and develop dislike for each other

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4. Power Structure
 In group functioning, some form of power or influence facilitates the group’s
organization, its control, and goal attainment
 SOURCE OF INFLUENCE (types of power) a person wields over another in a group)
a. Reward Power—Power is based on B’s (one member) perception that A or the

entire group has the capacity to deliver positive consequences or negative
consequences in response to B’s behavior.
o Reward can come in many forms: promotions, praise, tokens, incentives
b. Coercive Power—power is based on B’s perception that A can inflict adverse or

negative consequences or remove positive consequences in response to B’s
behavior
o Forms of coercive power—being admonished, being deprived of certain
privileges
c. Referent Power—refers to the influence A has because of his being well-liked

and/or respected, which results in B’s identifying with him
d. Expert power—Influence is based on the perception that A has expertise, has

some special knowledge or skill and can be trusted.
e. Legitimate power—refers to that influence resulting from a person’s position in

the group and/or from certain responsibilities that go with that position
5. Leadership Structure: Leadership theories(serves as approaches to leadership
a. Position theory— the leader occupies the topmost position and all the others below
would be lesser leaders.
o Ways one become a leader: by election,by appointment or designation by a
higher authority or sometimes by taking control usually by manipulating situation
through such ways/ means, gives the person authority or influence over people
b. Trait theory—assumes that leaders have personal traits or characteristics that make
them different from other people
o Also called the “great person” theory of leadership
c. Style theory—different styles:
1) Authoritarian— leaders have more absolute power, they set goals and
policies as well as major plans, dictate the activities of the members
2) Democratic— This style seeks maximum involvement and participation from

members in all decisions affecting the group,
3) Laissez-faire— this style is characterized by minimum input or participation

from the leader
d. Situational theory— leadership is a function of the situation rather than the person or
what s/he does

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e. Functional leadership theory or the Distributed-Functions approach to leadership—

leadership is viewed from a group perspective
 This includes the setting of group goals, the selection and implementation of
tasks to achieve the group’s goals, the provision of resources needed for the
improvement of the group’s cohesion
f. Interactional model of leadership--Equal focus/ attention given to group, the worker

as the designated leader, the members, and the environment in which the group
functions
6. Role Structure
 Role refers to the socially recognized patterns of expectations of behaviors on the

part of a person in a certain position; helps us to interpret what a person is doing or
is trying to do
 All groups (whether organized for therapeutic reasons, for problem solving, or for
other objectives) rely on the performance by members of a variety of roles
7. Group Norms—
 In the process of interaction, ‘norms’ or rules and standards of behavior emerge—

 They indicate how members control each other, which behaviors are allowed and
which are not
8. Status—
 Refers to one’s rank or standing in the group based on any of the following:
o The person’s closeness to the center of the web of communication in the group
o The carrying on of a particular kind of activity or maintaining a certain level of
activity
o The person’s position in the web of communication and the kind of job he does
 Rank or status is based on some characteristics possessed by the person
B. Group Process: the interaction processes or what goes on between and among members
(what is happening between and to group members while the group is working – changes,
forces generated by the interactions)
1. Conformity: means yielding to the majority, or the group pressure because of the
need for approval or not wishing to be different; the need for uniformity of action to
achieve group goals, or need to rely on others when a situation is ambiguous.
2. Competition: denotes rivalry; decreases creativity, coordination of effort, division of

labor, helping and sharing, and cohesion; promotes ineffective communication,
suspicion and mistrust, dislike among members, negative attitudes toward the group
and its tasks; lessens effectiveness in problem-solving.

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3. Cooperation: denotes joint efforts; increases creativity, coordination of effort, division

of labor, emotional involvement in group accomplishment, helping and sharing,
interpersonal skills, cooperative attitudes and values, positive self-attitudes, liking
among group members, positive attitudes toward the group and tasks, acceptance of
individual and cultural differences, and problem-solving skills.
A cooperative atmosphere results where there is compatibility, similarity or

complimentarity in the personal goals of group members.
4. Decision-making: an integral stage in the total group problem-solving process, similar

to individual problem-solving; allows for pooling of the knowledge, attitudes, and
resources of each member; motivates a member to do his/her best; the presence of
members increases the probability that one of them will suggest the highest quality
solution, etc.
5. Groupthink: a problem solving process in which proposals are accepted without

careful review of their advantages and disadvantages; powerful pressures are
exerted on a group member who voices objections to what otherwise appeared to be
a group consensus; great importance is given to group morale and loyalty.
6. Conflict: means a sharp disagreement or clash of ideas, interests, etc.,

characteristics of a conflict situation: at least two parties are involved; there is
perceived mutually exclusive goals or values between the parties.
7. Group Cohesiveness – the degree to which members of a group desire to remain in

the group; the result of all forces acting on members to remain in the group.
PROGRAM MEDIA
 Refers to the activities, verbal or non-verbal which the group engages in for the
purpose of achieving its goals
 An outline of the program media to be used for a group—the output of planning stage of
the helping process with allowances for revision later
 They are tools utilized in order to influence the behavior of individual members and the
group as a whole
 Uses of program media:

1. Modify or change attitudes and behavior
2. Promote individual values such as emotional and intellectual growth
3. Influence group climate
4. Promote group interaction
5. Enhance/ enrich group content
6. Promote desired group values
7. Facilitate the beginning, middle, and ending stages of group life
 Factors in selecting program media:

 Goals for the group
 Members’ objectives for joining the group
 Appropriateness in terms of time and space requirements

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 Age of group members

 Emotional and social characteristics of the members
 Cultural and ethnic background of the members
 Physical characteristics of the members
 Mood of the group
 Availability of materials or resources
 Worker’s skills and capacities
 Procedure for selecting program activities

1. Specify program activities that are consistent with group purposes and goals
2. Specify the objectives of the program activity
3. Specify program activities that can be done given available facilities, resources, and
the time available
4. List potentially relevant program activities based on members’
1) Interests and motivation
2) Age
3) Skill level
4) Physical and mental state
5) Attention span
5. Classify program activities according to

1) Characteristics of the activity, e.g. length, structure
2) Physical requirements of the activity, e.g. fine motor coordination,
strength
3) Social requirements of the activity, e.g. interactional, verbal, and social
skills
4) Psychological requirements of the activity, e.g. expression of feelings,
thoughts, motives
5) Cognitive requirements of the activity, e.g. orientation to time, place, and
person
6. Select program activity that is best suited to achieve the objectives specified
 Extra group activities---

 Some goal-related plans for individual members may have to attended to outside of
the group session
 Plans that require intervention involving other agency staff, family members, the
school, or certain sectors of the community like the police or town officials.
 Extra group activities and interventions should be clearly specified and presented
separately from the activities that will be undertaken with the group-in-session

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Theoretical Models / Approaches in Social Work
A. Psychosocial Approach
- Used to be associated with the Freudian theory of personality and referred to as the
“diagnostic school of thought.”
- Today, it is essentially a systems theory approach in social work which can be used
with individual and groups with actual or potential problems in their psychosocial
functioning (so aim is prevention and enhancement, as well as restoration or
rehabilitation
- The distinguishing characteristic is its psychosocial orientation, i.e., emphasis is on

the relationships between psychological and social forces and the interaction
between the person, the small group of which he/she is a member, and the
environment
- The group is the means for problem-solving and goal-achievement, supplemented by

the worker’s direct influence on members
- Major attention is given to the members’ discomfort in their current situation, although
selective attention is given to past experiences as they impinge on the present.
Steps:
1. Initial Phase: understanding the reasons for the contact, establish a relationship,
psychosocial study (information needed for the psychosocial diagnosis and
guidance of the treatment)
2. Assessment: critical scrutiny of the clients-situation complex and the trouble for
which help is sought or needed (need to understand the group members and the
situation as target of change)
3. Goals and Treatment: Planning what goals should be pursued to effect

improvement,; goals are the composite of what the group sees and desires for
itself and what is sees as possible and helpful. Time, agency function and worker
skill are taken into consideration.
Goals may be: (1) ultimate-general; or 2) proximate – clear and specific,

involving the themes to be worked on and the specific objectives to be attained in
the immediate future.
4. Treatment: the ultimate objective is to alleviate the client’s distress and decrease
the malfunctioning in the per-situation system.
The dysfunction in the person-situation is primarily interpersonal so that the aim

is to bring about better interpersonal adaptations. Focus should be on both the
interpersonal system (e.g. parent-child) and the personality system of the
individuals who compose the interpersonal system.

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The treatment process: change is brought about in two ways:
1. Indirect treatment – the social worker intervenes directly in the environment of

the client (providing/creating resources, interpreting clients’ needs, mediating;
modifying client’s situation/environment)
2. Direct treatment – involves direct work with the client (social work: sustaining,
suggestion and advice, catharsis, reflective consideration of the current person-
situation configuration, encouragement of client to reflect on his/her response
patterns tendencies.
Relationship is a primary concern: this approach is often used in work with families
(Helen Northen, “Psychosocial Practice in Small Groups”)
B. The Task-Centered Model with Groups
- The problem dealt with in the task-oriented one-to-one mode of helping are also dealt
with in task-oriented groups work
- It can be adapted to better fit particular settings, particular client groups, problems,
and the comfort and convenience of the practitioner (Epstein)
- What makes it different from the one-to-one mode is the worker’s use of group
process in helping members formulate and attain tasks
- Its usage is for the time-limited handling/treatment of problems of living
Steps:
1. Preliminary interview: problems are elicited, and explored and clarified in individual
interviews. Worker and client agree on the problem to be addressed and if worker
thinks the client can be helped to attain tasks thru group processes, the idea is
presented to the client who may accept or reject group membership.
2. Group composition: the social worker decides who should be in a particular group,
and the size of the group.
3. Group formation: the members share the problems that they will seek to reduce or
eliminate by formulating and accomplishing agreed-on tasks.
4. Group process for task accomplishment: once the tasks have been agreed upon
among the members, the social worker works with them so they can help each other
to accomplish the tasks within the agreed-on time frame.
In task-centered group work, goal-achievement is the purpose instead of the growth or

effective functioning of members.

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C. Developmental Approach (Emmanuel Tropp)
Major Themes:
a. Humanistic: the group and worker know they share a common human condition, are
involved in the collective undertaking; worker respects groups’ common purpose and
integrity
- Member-to-member helping is the key principle to group members’ growth;

worker is mainly an enabler to the group; social worker shows belief in and
expectation in the groups’ ability to cope re: their common task
b. Phenomenological:
- social behavior is viewed in terms of conscious rather than unconscious factors
- the major guides to perceiving and evaluating what is happening in the group
are: the purpose of the group (why it was formed), its function (counseling,
activity, action); and its structure (how it has been organized to achieve its
objectives)
- the life of the group is seen as a continuing series of engagements with group
tasks which involve the members in common deliberations, conflict resolution,
and task completion
c. Developmental: concerned with functionality rather than pathology, abnormality or

illness, with self-actualization rather than treatment; concerned with building
strengths and not analysing weaknesses. It sees people as being continually able to
move forward in a life-long process of self-realization, or fulfilment of potential in
social functioning.
D. Remedial Model (Robert Vinter)
Group work as social treatment
 interactional view of deviance (problematic behavior is generated and maintained

thru interaction between the client and individuals and/or situation
The group as “means and context for treatment”
Treatment Sequence: Intake, Diagnosis and treatment – Planning; Group Composition

and Formation; Group Development and Treatment; Evaluation and Termination

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Strategy of Intervention:
In this model, Vinter developed a “strategy of intervention” to achieve the

treatment goals for individual members with the group as the means and context for
treatment (the strategy requires the workers to act or not act to “treat” at any given
moment throughout the treatment sequence). This strategy consists of modes of
intervention or “means of Influence:”
1. Direct means of influence: interventions to effect change thru immediate interaction

with a group member; face-to-face contact between worker and group member in the
group or outside.
4 types: a) worker as central person – object of identification and drives;

b) worker as symbol and spokesperson – agent of legitimate norms and
values;
c) worker as motivator and stimulator – definer of individual goals and
tasks;
d) worker as executive – controller of member’s role
2. Indirect means of influence: modify group conditions affecting one or more group
members (worker acts on and thru the group, its processes and program): a) group
purposes (the composite of individual members’ objectives for belonging to the
group); b) selection of group members; c) nature of group activities; d) size of group;
e) group operating and governing procedures; f) group development (worker
influences the course of the groups’ development)
3. Extra-group means of influence
- Activities outside the group, on behalf of the clients; involves “extra group
relations” (behavior or attitudes of persons in the client’s social environment or of
large social systems of clients): a) social roles and relation of clients prior to
client status; b) “significant others” – persons outside the treatment group who
have crucial relations with client; c) social systems of which clients are members
(e.g., schools, hospital wards, factories, rehabilitation centers which can either be
resources or barriers to the achievement of treatment goals); d) social
environment of the treatment group: objects, persons, and other units collectively
encountered by the group – makes demands and puts pressures and constraints
on the group.
E. Interactionist Approach (William Schwartz)
This approach contends that social worker’s function is to direct itself not to the
individual or the social, but to the relationship between the two; to mediate the
transactions between people the various systems thru which they carry on their
relationships with society – family, peer group, social agency, neighborhood, school, job,
etc. (there is a lot of reaching, pressuring, and straining that go on between people and
their institutions, so the need for a force - social worker – that will “guard” their symbiotic
strivings, and keep the interaction alive among them.

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Phases:
1) “Tuning-In” - worker prepares to enter/re-enter the group

2) The Beginning: worker moves into the group – efforts to understand what they are
there for; and the agency – the nature of the service and the contract that exists
between the two.
3) The Task (Middle Phase): search for common ground between the needs of clients
and agency/institutions; challenging and detecting the obstacles that come between
them; worker contributes ideas, facts and values, and shares his vision of the work,
feelings about the process, and faith in the client’s strengths; worker helps define the
limits and requirements of the situation
4) Transitions and Endings: essential task is to make a transition from one stage of
experience to the next: a) temporary endings (one meeting to another until final
separation; b) permanent ending – brings the group life to a close.
F. Crisis Intervention Approach
1. Crisis:
- “upset in a steady state”

- “state of disequilibrium = immobilization of problem-solving abilities and aspects
of daily functioning
2. Elements:
 stressful event
 perception of stress
 response phase
 resolution phase
3. Crisis Intervention: process of actively influencing psychosocial functioning of

individual, families and groups during crisis
Aim: help thru assessment and intervention techniques, toward adaptive resolution
crisis
Tasks: a) concrete assistance and services
b) psychosocial intervention
CISD: Crisis Incident Stress Debriefing - a form of crisis intervention; helps

individual in collective crisis (e.g. natural disasters)
G. Self-help Groups
Self-help groups (also known as mutual aid, mutual help, and support groups) are
groups of people who provide mutual support for each other; the members have common
problems (e.g., addiction, disease). The GOAL is to help each other deal with, if possible,
heal or recover from these Problems. Members share stories, stresses, feelings, issues,

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recoveries, etc. This is called the “peer participatory model”, i.e., there is equality among
peers, which leads to empowerment as together they control the problems in their lives.
They don’t allow professionals to attend unless invited as speaker. In the “professional
expert model” in self-help groups, the professional serves as leader with objective,
specialized knowledge.
H. Group Counseling
Group counseling is a process which helps a group of 6-10 people meeting weekly,
to resolve everyday life issues and concerns with the help of counselor.
A counsellor explores a difficulty/distress the members may be experiencing,

identify and understand maladaptive patterns and how to change them (e.g., improve
behaviour, character, values, etc.
Group counseling techniques
Reflection Active Listening
Clarification Summarizing (recap)
Linking (how their problems connect with others in the group)
Encouraging Focus
Cutting off (setting limits)
Modelling (counsellor as a role model)
I. Group Therapy
A form of psychotherapy in which a group of patients meet to describe and discuss

their problems under the supervision of a therapist. It is a form of psychosocial treatment
where a small group of patients meet regularly to talk, interact, and discuss problems with
each other and the therapist.
Purpose: to give individuals a safe and comfortable place where they can work out
problems and emotional issues. Clients/patients gain insights into their own thoughts and
behaviour, and offer suggestions and support to others. Patients who have difficulty with
interpersonal relationships can benefit from the social interactions that are a basic part of
the group therapy experience.
Precautions: suicidal, homicidal, psychotic, or in the midst of a major acute crisis

are typically not referred for group therapy until their behavior and emotional state have
stabilized. Cognitively-impaired patients (e.g., with organic brain disease or traumatic
brain injury and as well as patients with sociopathic traits) may also be unsuitable.
Group therapy as a form of psychotherapy is done by experts who have at least a

graduate degree in the helping professions like medicine/psychiatry, psychology, and
social work (even as in social work with groups, use of different helping approaches can

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have “therapeutic effects” on the clients; group therapy is also used as an encompassing
term to mean treatment-oriented work with groups, but it is not the same as group
psychotherapy).
J. Family Therapy: the family unit is treated as a client (group).
It means group therapy of the members of a family. The objective is to explore and
improve family relationships and processes. The family learns to express emotions and
give feedback to each other.
Family therapy helps in understanding and modifying home influences that

contribute to mental disorder in one or more family members, and improving
communication and collective, constructive methods of problem-solving.
Social work with individual clients (Social Casework) often leads to family
casework/family therapy.

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2015 SOCIAL WORK BOARD REVIEW NOTES

Social Work with Group…..Page 69

“Life” of groups – short term or long-term

 an exclusive self-organizing form of social organization

 Gemeinschaft relationships (relationship is based on common feeling) dominate in

Social Work with Group…..Page 70

E. In-Groups and Out-Groups

F. Treatment and Task Groups

 May also be referred to as “small helping groups” (groupwork or social groupwork)

Purpose of treatment groups:

To educate through presentations, discussions, and experience

To develop members’ potential, awareness, insight

 To increase communication and social skills

Social Work with Group…..Page 71

HOW GROUP EFFECT CHANGE (Dorwin Cartwright)

A. The group as MEDIUM of change

 the target of change: individual member

B. The group as TARGET of change

 the group as a whole or aspects/conditions of the group may have to be changed in

C. The group as AGENT of change

 the group is not the focus of desired change

USES of Groups in Social Work:

1. For EFFECT on participants:

2. For COLLECTIVE problem-solving

 work on common/joint tasks or projects

3. For CHANGE in the SOCIAL SITUATION or CONDITIONS outside the group

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Advantages of the group approach in social work:

1. Many individual feel more comfortable in a group (support; similar problems)

Reasons for using the group approach/mode of service:

1. To use the group as the primary means of helping

When is work with groups social work?

When is work with groups NOT social work?

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Social Groupwork: a working definition

Group Structure and Process in Social Work

A. Structure: the “arrangement or interrelation of all the parts of a whole”

Structural Properties of Groups

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 SOURCE OF INFLUENCE (types of power) a person wields over another in a group)

a. Reward Power—Power is based on B’s (one member) perception that A or the

b. Coercive Power—power is based on B’s perception that A can inflict adverse or

c. Referent Power—refers to the influence A has because of his being well-liked

d. Expert power—Influence is based on the perception that A has expertise, has

e. Legitimate power—refers to that influence resulting from a person’s position in

5. Leadership Structure: Leadership theories(serves as approaches to leadership

c. Style theory—different styles:

2) Democratic— This style seeks maximum involvement and participation from

3) Laissez-faire— this style is characterized by minimum input or participation

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e. Functional leadership theory or the Distributed-Functions approach to leadership—

f. Interactional model of leadership--Equal focus/ attention given to group, the worker

 Role refers to the socially recognized patterns of expectations of behaviors on the

 In the process of interaction, ‘norms’ or rules and standards of behavior emerge—

 Rank or status is based on some characteristics possessed by the person

2. Competition: denotes rivalry; decreases creativity, coordination of effort, division of

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3. Cooperation: denotes joint efforts; increases creativity, coordination of effort, division

A cooperative atmosphere results where there is compatibility, similarity or

4. Decision-making: an integral stage in the total group problem-solving process, similar

5. Groupthink: a problem solving process in which proposals are accepted without