Trainer Style and Patterns of Group Development

Abstract

Developmental trends in two lo-man training groups were studied by checklist and rating scale techniques throughout a four-day laboratory. In one group, the trainers were inactive and nondirective at the outset. This elicited substantial negativism from the group, and an increasing confrontation of the trainers occurred over the next several sessions. As the challenge of the trainers grew, participants simultaneously showed increasing solidarity and openness with one another. After an apparent resolution of the authority crisis, the later sessions of this group were marked by high cohesiveness and productivity. In the second group, the trainers were relatively active and directive from the outset. While this approach resulted in an immediate encounter and more favorable initial attitudes between members and trainers, the succeeding sessions were characterized by low confrontation of the trainers. Moreover, this group subsequently showed significantly less solidarity, openness, and productivity than the first. The differences in the developmental patterns of the two T Groups are interpreted as consequences of the contrasting approaches of the trainers.