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Dr Susan Wheelan, scientist, author, teacher and practitioner in the field of group research and development, passed away in November of 2019. This article was written to commemorate her life and work.

While the notion of task–media fit is inherent to most theories on communication in virtual teams, past studies have largely concentrated on single, isolated tasks—hence neglecting sequential and contextual effects of media use. Building on project management frameworks, this study abstracts from the task level to the broader and more practical level of project phases, linking these to changes in media use. In particular, the study illustrates the weekly use of communication media within 34 student teams during a 3-month project. In line with team process phase models, results showed differences in media use between project phases: While face-to-face communication decreased, the use of leaner media (i.e., telephone and chat) increased in later project phases. Moreover, the variation of media use within the project phases increased over time, emphasizing the temporal dynamics of task–media fit. Finally, implications especially for project managers and recommendations for further research are discussed.

There is growing interest in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in the management of multiple physical and mental health issues. Although MBIs utilize a group format, research on how this format impacts teaching and learning mindfulness is lacking. This study aimed to develop a detailed theory of MBI group processes utilizing a grounded theory methodology. This article presents our subsequent model, developed from semistructured interviews conducted with MBI students, teachers, and trainers (N = 12). A core category, the group as a vessel on a shared journey, and three higher-order categories emerged from the data. They illustrate how MBI group processes navigate a characteristic path. Teachers build and steer the group “vessel” in a way that fosters a specific culture and sense of safety. The group is facilitated to share communal experiences that augment learning and enrich mindfulness practice. Limitations and implications for clinicians and researchers are discussed.

Scant research has examined the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for team learning across time. Drawing on theories of team learning, group development, and technological affordances, we provide a multi-method case analysis of emails and interviews that explores how and when team learning occurs. We analyze 468 emails and 20 interviews collected from a team in a large Swedish insurance company over the course of a 44-week project, from start to completion. The analysis reveals that the affordances of email (asynchronicity, editability, persistence, and replicability) and perceptions of time (time for face-to-face interaction [FtF] and time management) drive three nonlinear cycles of knowledge sharing, co-construction, and constructive conflict across the 44-week life span of the project. The findings challenge existing framings of team learning grounded in FtF contexts and highlight the increasing importance of team learning through ICTs.

Whether groups develop in stages, cycles, or combinations of cycles within stages, processes guiding group development rarely follow monotonic growth patterns (e.g., linear). Standard statistical methods cannot be used to model non-growth processes because they assume that all group members manifest the same growth pattern. We demonstrate how non-metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) profile analysis detects population-level latent normative profiles of non-growth change for repeatedly measured group processes (therapeutic factors) and estimates their association with an external outcome measure (interpersonal problems). Thirty-three individuals participating in counselor training groups reported critical incidents for each of 22 consecutive sessions. Independent judges coded critical incidents using a therapeutic factors rating scheme. Three normative therapeutic factor non-growth profiles were retained, one of which (cycles of interpersonal exploring followed by retreating to safety) predicted decreases in interpersonal problems between pre-test and post-test. Identifying normative- and member-specific change patterns may aid practitioners in matching therapeutic strategies with therapeutic needs.

This study focuses on the relation between levels of group development and three health-related aspects of working life: work satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and sick leave. This article presents a study with 30 groups in a manufacturing company. Data were collected from 274 group members of the 30 groups, using Group Development Questionnaire, self-reported measures of work satisfaction and emotional exhaustion, as well as company data on occurrence of sick leave occasions. The results indicate a strong relationship between levels of group development and work satisfaction, a moderately strong relation with emotional exhaustion, and a weaker or less clear relation with sick leave. Practical implications are discussed and future research suggested.

Many components of the social system interact with one another to produce group-level behavior that determines the functionality of the small group in outdoor adventure education (OAE). This article synthesizes the contemporary literature and theory regarding eight aspects of the OAE social system: (a) Macro Contextual Factors, (b) Student Factors, (c) Instructor Factors, (d) Goals, (e) Group Factors, (f) Group Outcomes, (g) Group Dependent Individual Outcomes, and (h) Time. Directions for future research and implications for OAE are discussed.

Farmers’ groups are being targeted as an important sector to hasten Caribbean agricultural development. The region however, has a recorded history of high levels of failure with farmers’ group development; many are formed but few are sustained to contribute meaningfully to agricultural development. A focus group assessment was conducted with extension officers from St. Vincent, Grenada and Trinidad, three neighbouring independent islands in the Southern Caribbean, to identify the issues related to the failures of farmers’ groups and the actions critically needed for success. The main issues that limit group development include poor leadership, weak task cohesion and low levels of farmer motivation and lack of trust. There was consensus among the participants that improved group dynamics, good governance, increased government involvement and improved farmer motivation can impact the formation, functioning and survivability of farmers’ groups. The findings help extension officers and policy makers to plan interventions that can promote the successful organization of farmers into groups, a key pre-requisite to meet regional agricultural development goals.

This article develops a theory of late stage group performance based on the late stage group’s unique characteristics: a long shared history, an indefinite endpoint, a long member entry/exit history, and a long “parent” organization relationship. These characteristics are markedly different from those of earlier stage groups, suggesting that extant literature’s limited “maintenance” or “cyclical” prescriptions are insufficient for effective late stage group management. Six propositions are developed to model the relationship between late stage group characteristics and performance. Managerial implications are also discussed and a late stage group research agenda is proposed.

This article examines the significance of trust in women’s collective efforts for development through self-help groups (SHGs). Community building efforts cannot ignore the importance of trust among group members and, between group members and organisational members. The article explores the manner and forms in which trust manifests itself during periods of formation, activity and defunct stages of SHGs in India. Personalised trust forms the centre of the radius of trust in SHGs and it gets extended to generalised and institutionalised trust. Development interventions for communities often aim to build social capital which is an important corollary of trust. Community and group development efforts aimed at building social capital must take into consideration the factors associated with building and generating trust.

In the initial phase of group development the conductor strives hard to nurture the new analytic group in order that it survives as a whole through the early anxieties. The group develops a dependence on the group conductor, who tries to offer something close to perfection. However, during the middle phase this nurturing role needs to be reduced to allow the growth and creativity of the group to develop. In this article the concept of disillusionment or de-adaptation is borrowed from the individual analytic literature. In the middle phase of group development imperfections in the conductor are considered as therapeutic agents, necessary for the group to move to a more mature position where their own creativity can be discovered and the group can become owned by its members. Parallels between the group’s development and a child’s development are drawn.

The success or failure of an action research venture often depends on what happens at the beginning of the inquiry process: in the way access is established, and on how participants and co-researchers are engaged early on. ‘Opening communicative space’ is important because, however we base our theory and practice of action research, the first steps are fateful. We draw on Habermas’s theorizing of the boundary-crises between system and lifeworld to explore the theory behind the idea of communicative space. We attempt to bring these abstract concepts to life, and to illustrate key aspects of action research practice through a review of some of the key challenges, opportunities, and paradoxes which emerge in the early stages of action research projects. Drawing on the literature and on exemplars, we show how the process of opening communicative space can be mapped onto a theory of group development that suggests a progression through phases of inclusion, control, and intimacy. Furthermore, we review an example of third-person action research to illustrate some of the issues raised by the need for both external and internal validation. We conclude that the practices of opening communicative space are necessarily paradoxical, and put forward a list of paradoxes with which facilitators and initiators of action research may need to engage in the start-up phases of their work.

This article discusses issues of validity in focus group methodology when very few people actually participate in the research. The defense of small size emerges from experiences in dissertation research with women who have abused illegal substances and self-identify as addicts. Validity is addressed through application of standard measures of validity to the Very Small Focus Groups (VSFGs). In addition, the VSFGs are analyzed according to characteristics of group development, demonstrating that even with small size, typical group development stages occur. Attention is paid to feminist research principles, demonstrating that those principles are expressed regardless of small group size. Implications for social work research and practice in partnership with marginalized people are discussed.

This research investigated the impact of small and large work groups on developmental processes and group productivity. There were 329 work groups operating in for-profit and nonprofit organizations across the United States in this study. Groups containing 3 to 8 members were significantly more productive and more developmentally advanced than groups with 9 members or more. Groups containing 3 to 6 members were significantly more productive and more developmentally advanced than groups with 7 to 10 members or 11 members or more. The groups with 7 to 10 members or 11 members were not different from each other. Finally, groups containing 3 to 4 members were significantly more productive and more developmentally advanced on a number of measures than groups with 5 to 6 members. Work-group size is a crucial factor in increasing or decreasing both group development and productivity.

The main objective of this study is to identify criteria that would allow us to determine when a collection of people is a group. A bibliographic search of the psychological literature has yielded the terms groupness, entitativity, and groupality. These three constructs are then theoretically analyzed and compared, and are found to share two main aspects: (a) the conception of groups as a continuum varying in their level of group development (LGD) and (b) most of the central criteria that have been considered to define a group as a group. Regarding these central criteria, we categorize them as determining elements, LGD criteria, and group results trying to respect their different epistemological positions. The theoretical proposal outlined here provides a basis on which to develop tools that will enrich organizational assessment.

In this study, the authors observed and examined 57 bank branch teams to better understand the consequences of two types of team heterogeneity— surface level (gender and ethnicity) and deep level (collectivism cultural values and tenure)—on internal (group efficacy) and external (team reputation) team outcomes, arguing in general that heterogeneity has a negative impact on group efficacy but a positive impact on team reputation. As proposed, teams with lower tenure heterogeneity had higher group efficacy, and teams with higher gender heterogeneity and higher collectivism heterogeneity received better ratings on team reputation. However, contrary to the hypotheses, the relationship between collectivism heterogeneity and group efficacy was positive, and the relationship between ethnic heterogeneity and team reputation was negative. Implications for theories of social cognition, group development, and international management are discussed.

The authors reconceptualize the theory of group development for application to task groups and propose two key sequential phases: membership and competence. A method for measuring developmental progress in task teams based on congruence in group cognitive representations of the team as it is, the ideal team, and the team as it ought to be is proposed. A system for computing group states based on structural connections among member cognitive representations is offered. Measures of group state representations in 49 project teams were collected at beginning, midpoint, and end of each team and related to team effectiveness. Hypotheses based on group development theory predicting effects of convergence and congruence in group state representations on team effectiveness are supported. Further insights into the developmental process of group states are discussed. The authors conclude by arguing for the return of group development theory as an explanation for disparate findings in team research.

In this qualitative study, the authors explore from the participants' perspective the benefits and difficulties experienced by participants in a mutual support group for Chinese family carers of patients with schizophrenia in Hong Kong. Thirty family carers and 10 patients who had participated in a 12-session mutual support group were interviewed, and the 12 group sessions were audiotaped for content analysis. Three main themes emerged from the data: (a) positive personal changes attributed to group participation, which included enhanced self-identity and acceptance of the caregiving role, increased knowledge of the illness, and adoption of new coping skills; (b) positive characteristics of the mutual support group, including the explicit group ideology and consensus, perceived social climate of the group, and informational support and empowerment; and (c) major inhibitors of group development, specifically low or irregular group attendance, negative pressure from dominant members, and overexpression of intense and negative feelings. These findings contribute to our understanding of the therapeutic components and limitations of mutual support groups for family carers.

This article analyzes five phases in the group process in which narcissism may, also on an archaic basis, be seen to be present, and its effect both on the individuals and the group process, as well as towards the conductor. The author also refers to the tasks of the therapist in respect of this narcissism, as it affects the individual, the other group members, and the group-as-a-whole.

This article presents a three-dimensional definition space of the group development literature that differentiates group development models on three dimensions: content, population, and path dependency. The multidimensional conceptualization structures and integrates the vast group development literature, enabling direct comparison of competing theories. The utility of this definition space is demonstrated by using the relative positioning of two seemingly competing group development models—the punctuated equilibrium model and the integrative model—to demonstrate their complementarity. The authors also show how organizational researchers and practitioners can use the three-dimensional definition space to select an appropriate theoretical model for the group or group process with which they are working.

Interactions between six participants with a dementia syndrome were observed and recorded across an eight-week therapeutic group, using audio and video equipment. Sessions were analysed using ‘template analysis’ methodology. Three codes were used to describe participants' behaviour and discussion in the group. These described discussion of participants' experience of dementia, their responses to the group itself and ways in which participants used the group to fulfil their own needs. Subordinate codes illustrated these levels of participation. Participants offered practical and emotional support and listened, reflected and responded to others, whilst also using the group to meet their own needs. Group development was generally consistent with that of small groups for people without a dementia. The findings raise questions about the abilities that may be retained by people with a mild or moderate degree of dementia and challenge assumptions about ‘lack of insight’, and the positioning of people with a dementia as passive. The importance of providing contexts in which people with a dementia can express their abilities and reciprocate within relationships is discussed. Arguments for the efficacy of psychotherapeutic support for people with a dementia, and the inclusion of their perspectives in both research and practice are also considered.

This article presents a multilevel model of group learning that focuses on antecedents and consequences of interpersonal congruence, transactive memory, and feedback processes. The model holds that members’ self-verification motives and situational conditions (e.g., member diversity and task demands) give rise to identity negotiation behaviors (i.e., self-disclosure and feedback sharing). The effects of identity negotiation on interpersonal congruence, the transactive memory system, and ongoing group processes are influenced by team process interventions such as team-level feedback and group facilitation. Situational changes may renew identity negotiation that, in turn, leads to changes in the transactive memory system. Directions for research and practice focus on the use of feedback to facilitate interpersonal congruence and transactive memory and increase goal achievement and continued group development.

Cyclical models of group development may be integrated with an interactive model of leadership emergence in autonomous teams. This paper contextualizes the interaction of leader traits and situational factors in the cycling of an autonomous team within and between the storming, norming and performing phases of group development.

This article employs organizational life cycle, organizational learning stages and group development stages literature to examine my experiences at the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) during its establishment phase. Support was found, and other foci suggested, for this literature. As well, future issues to be faced by the NCSL were suggested, such as domain expansion and further decentralization and developing the maturity to be able to accommodate those who wish to be constructively critical of its activities.

The practice of interprofessional collaboration is increasingly being recognized as an important skill for educators, health professionals, and social service providers. Collaboration involves team building and developing integrated service delivery mechanisms to improve outcomes for recipients of health, education, and social services. The focus on health promotion and illness prevention has led to an increasing demand for health educators to become involved in these collaboratives as members and more often as facilitators. Key concepts associated with early stages of collaborative development are described, with a focus on forming a group identity and weathering the conflicts associated with task and personnel issues. Descriptions and instructions for facilitating activities to move the group successfully through these initial stages are described.

This article reviews literature that takes a temporal perspective on groups, focusing particularly on the theories that guide such work. The temporal perspective is a process-focused view that treats groups as systems in which change occurs across multiple time scales. The review is organized around six themes that have been especially generative: (a) Time is socially constructed; (b) time is a resource; (c) time is a fundamental issue for theory and research; (d) groups change systematically over time; (e) group processes have temporal patterns; and (f) groups are complex systems characterized by nonlinear dynamics. The article closes by identifying the need for continued theory development and testing to better integrate the disparate theories and findings found in literature inspired by the temporal perspective.

This article presents an integrative, multilevel model of individual and group development. It extends a model of small group development that holds that self-verification—through self-disclosure and sharing feed-back—produces interpersonal congruence (group members seeing each other as they see themselves), which especially helps groups that are heterogeneous, working on tasks that require judgment, or both. The model presented here proposes that components of self-awareness—self-evaluation, confidence in self-other relationships, and self-development orientation—affect motivation for self-verification, and that leader and peer behavior, group facilitation, and one-on-one coaching and mentoring stimulate self-disclosure and feedback. Self-verification is proposed to encourage individuals and groups to set learning goals and value differences.

The process of establishing norms is an important aspect of group dynamics. Most, if not all, of the major models of group development incorporate norming as an important part of the process. However, little is understood and agreed on regarding how norms develop. With the increased availability and power of technology to connect people at remote sites, the popularity of computer-mediated teamwork has increased dramatically. This new communication context brings with it some dramatic differences from the traditional face-to-face context, along with a need to understand how norms develop in this environment. This study investigates the norming process engaged in by 10 computer-mediated learning teams. The study describes how group norms evolve from a general to an operationalized state. Based on the findings of the research, a model describing the process of norm development in computer-mediated teams is presented. In addition, a model is presented to describe how individual perceptions of norm boundaries are modified as the group norms become more operationalized.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between the length of time that work groups had been meeting and the verbal behavior patterns and perceptions of group members about their groups. The verbal behavior patterns and perceptions of 180 members of 26 work groups were examined. Perceptions of 639 people in 88 work groups also were explored. Significant relationships and differences were noted between the length of time that work groups had been meeting and the verbal behavior patterns and perceptions of group members. Specifically, members of groups that had been meeting longer made significantly less dependency and fight statements and significantly more work statements. They also perceived their groups to be functioning at higher stages of group development. The results of this study lent further support to traditional models of group development. Verbal behavior patterns of members vary significantly in groups of different durations. Member perceptions of their group’s development also vary significantly in groups of different durations.

Group efficacy is an emerging construct that has great potential for small group performance. Several studies have linked group efficacy to increased productivity. However, few studies have examined the relationship between group efficacy and other group variables that contribute to long-term group productivity. This study addresses the relationship between group efficacy and other group variables. Specifically, it examines the relationships between group efficacy and group viability, personal learning and development, satisfaction with leadership opportunities, and the ability to work independently within the group. Results suggest that group efficacy has a beneficial effect on group dynamics and overall group effectiveness. Groups with higher levels of group efficacy rated higher on group viability, learning and self-development while within the group, and opportunities for individual autonomy. Group efficacy was not found to have an impact on satisfaction with leadership opportunities. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are addressed.

With the emergence of new organizational forms such as team-based organizations, external activities have become a critical function for organizational teams. This article offers a theoretical framework that indicates when external activities enhance team effectiveness and explains how team-design features influence external activities. Drawing on structural contingency theory, this article proposes that the relationship between external activities and team effectiveness is moderated by a set of structural contingency factors, including environmental characteristics, external interdependence, temporal fluctuations in external demands, and task complexity. The framework also identifies a set of team characteristics, including team composition, group development, and leadership, that influences the level of external activities. The present model contributes to the group literature by identifying moderators and antecedents of external activities with respect to their effects on team effectiveness. It also suggests further issues and challenges that should guide future studies of external activities of organizational teams.

Group efficacy is an emerging construct that has great potential for groups as it has been repeatedly linked to group performance. However, there has been little research on the antecedents of group efficacy or how it is developed. What factors lead to high group efficacy? What actions can be taken to foster it? What effect does group leadership have on its development? A study was designed to address these questions and to begin to identify how group efficacy is developed. Data analysis reveals a strong link between the informal leaders’ perceptions of efficacy and group-level measurements of efficacy. It is suggested that group efficacy perceptions are influenced by informal group leaders. Data analysis also reveals that this relationship is much stronger at the beginning of the group’s task than at the end of the group’s task. Implication of these findings and suggestions for future research are addressed.

B. W. Tuckman’s model of small group development proposes that groups progress through four formative stages widely known under the mnemonic “forming, storming, norming, performing.” This article analyzes 10 small software development teams classified by age, size, managerial and technical skill, reporting and communication structure, and process performance as assessed under the capability maturity model. Software development teams differ from the experimental groups studied by Tuckman and others in that they often remain together for years to develop, maintain, and enhance a product. The data suggest the need for an extended stage model of team formation that includes analogous decay stages: denorming, de-storming, de-forming. The data support a pattern of increasing and decreasing performance that mirrors the formation and dissolution of teams.

This case study explored the links between the developmental profiles of three groups working in a semigovernmental organization in Central America, and it suggests strategies to improve the effectiveness and productivity of those groups. The findings suggested that a brief intervention based on a detailed analysis of a group’s developmental level can produce significant changes in that group’s level of functioning and productivity. Although these results are promising, more studies, employing a more rigorous research design, will be necessary to confirm these findings.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between teacher percep tions of faculty group effectiveness and development and actual levels of productivity in 10 elementary, middle, and high schools. The results suggest that a strong relationship exists. Faculty groups functioning at higher levels of development have students who perform better on standard achievement measures. Solutions designed to improve the nation’s schools have been suggested, mandated, and legislated by a wide variety of constituent groups. New curricula, collaboration with business and the community, new forms of teacher education and training, efforts to increase parental involvement, and decentralization of school district planning are just some of the solutions being applied. Despite these efforts, however, few successful changes have taken place (Sizer, 1992). According to Sizer (1992), one major reason for the lack of change in schools is that administrators and teachers do not respond well to change strategies designed by “distant authorities.” Teach ers and principals deal most directly with students yet have minimal input into the development of change strategies. The school structure and culture leave little opportunity to even discuss

There is a dearth of research focusing on developmental changes in computer-mediated communication groups. In this study, developmental patterns in 14 informal groups on computer-mediated networks were analyzed using the Group Development Observation System. Results indicated marked similarity between the patterns found with the CMC groups in this study and those reported in the literature on face-to-face groups. The findings were in agreement with recent longitudinal research that has noted similarities in the two types of group communication over time.

The systems-centered approach to group psychotherapy systematically weakens the restraining forces at the boundaries of each subphase and phase of group development, so that the inherent system drive toward therapeutic development and transformation will be released in the group-as-a-whole, its members, and its subgroups. The SCT methods of functional subgrouping, boundarying, vectoring, and contextualizing are introduced as strategies to reduce both the restraining forces to group development and the symptomology that has brought members into the therapy group.

Diversity is an increasingly important factor in organizational life as organizations worldwide become more diverse in terms of the gender, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, and other personal characteristics of their members. The exact impact of within-group diversity on small group processes and performance is unclear. Sometimes the effect of diversity seems positive, at other times negative, and in other situations, there seems to be no effect at all. In this article, we suggest that these types of findings might be explained by using a "group-development" model to examine the impact of diversity on group processes and performance. Our model uses concepts from Jackson et al.'s (1995), Milliken and Martins' (1996), and other models, as well as our own concepts, to show how diversity affects group development and performance. Among the concepts included in the model are readily detectable personal attributes, underlying personal attributes, cognitive paradigm dissimilarity, cognitive costs and rewards, diversity management skills, group behavioral integration, and cognitive performance resources. In the pages that follow, we will explain each of the components of the model and suggest specific hypotheses generated from the model.

Building upon the pioneering work of Saravay, this article describes the first stages in the development of a therapeutic small group. We follow the classic psychoanalytic theory of psychosexual stages as described by Freud with the modifications of Karl Abraham. We feel that this understanding will help us better conceptualize a dynamic understanding of small group process. In order to illustrate the theoretical formulations, examples are given from the process of a therapeutic group run along Group-analytic lines.

The purpose of this study was to investigate two psychological group characteristics as indicators of the level of group development. These two characteristics, congruence of group goals and individual goals and congruence of attitudes, were studied in their relationship to performance and group cohesion. Participants were 53 firefighters in a small city in the Southeastern United States who were members of 20 groups of 2 to 4 members each. The hypothesis that linked agreement on group goals with congruence of attitudes was supported. Agreement on group goals was found to be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a high congruence between group goals and individual goals. There was also supportfor two of three hypotheses about the relationships between various indicators of group maturity and group performance. The study suggested that instead of trying to salvage the concept of cohesion, we should abandon it. In its place, we should construct more than one conceptually clear variable that describes social groups. Furthermore, the overall level of group maturity can only be useful if we know which specific variables contributed to it.

Constructivism can be used in small groups as specific techniques are applied for behavior changes in a group setting. Constructivism can also be used to describe group processes. The author presents a constructivist reexamination of group development, that is, how individuals come together to form a shared reality of their group experience. The study and treatment use of small groups present an especially good venue from which to view how constructivism and social constructionism meet. Several practice implications of the group-development model are identified and discussed, along with two constructivist techniques particularly well suited to the group modality.

At the outset Mr. Neeley and I wish to thank Professors Imig and Berry (henceforth, "IB Imig and Meyer 1993) to grapple with the thorny questions surrounding the relationship between political opportunity and group development. Nonetheless, we take exception to I&B's rejoinder, which amounts to a wholesale dismissal of our findings. This dismissal, we believe, rests upon a faulty interpretation of our intentions, and a misunderstanding of the central issues we address. In what follows we will briefly respond to each of I&B's three major criticisms.

This study focuses on development of self-analytic groups as a sequence of specific social realities. Assuming that the "cast" (composition) of a group is a determining factor in its actual enactment of this sequence of social realities, the question arises whether group members, who performed specific central roles on the various "stages" of group development, can be differentiated in terns of their "role scripts." The theoretical model, conceptually connecting stages, roles, and scripts, is presented first. Discriminant analysis on questionnaire profiles of 60 graduate students shows that the 4 hypothesized groups of (observed) actors (dependency leader, disciplinarian, conciliator, and nonconformer) are indeedsignificantly different. However, a solution with l0differenttypes shows better results: shaper, isolate, weak sibling, saboteur, organizer, tyrant, hero, leader, idol, and seducer; as we labeled thent. Finally, as a heuristic attempt to generate more specific hypotheses for future studies, compositions of the role scripts are made.

This article describes the theoretical underpiunings, construction, and validation process of an instrument designed to measure developmental processes in groups. A total of 164 employees of three health care facilities comprised the validation sample. Reliability and intemal consistency were assessed. The process of establishing content, concurrent, criterion-related, and construct validity is also reported. The results support the reliability and validity of the Group Development Questionnaire. The existence of a dependable measure of group development may stimulate more basic research of group development and may encourage the creation of more research tools in this important area of study.

Four studies were undertaken to investigate the relationship between cohesion and group size in exercise groups. Study 1 compared the perceptions of cohesiveness of members of small and large exercise classes assessed in the eighth week of group development in a 13-week session. Study 2 compared the perceptions of cohesiveness of members of small and large exercise classes assessed in the third week of group development in a 13-week session. Study 3 used a longitudinal design to assess the possible changes in perceptions of cohesiveness of members of small and large groups over time. The purpose of Study 4 was to determine how an intervention program focusing on team-building principles would influence perceptions of cohesiveness in small and large exercise classes. It was concluded that perceptions of task and social cohesion are greater in smaller groups, and that a team-building program can offset the negative impact of increased group size.