Growth Groups and Alienation: A Comparative Study of Rogerian Encounter, Self-Directed Encounter, and Gestalt

Compared short-term variants of 3 group approaches—Rogerian encounter, Gestalt sensory awareness, and self-directed encounter—in relation to intermember empathy and cohesiveness and outcomes of decreased feelings of alienation and increased sense of self-autonomy. The Solomon 4-group experimental design was used with 80 college students. All growth-group experiences significantly decreased feelings of alienation and increased sense of self-autonomy. The order of efficacy on outcomes was (a) self-directed encounter, (b) Rogerian encounter, and (c) Gestalt sensory awareness. Increases in intermember empathy, feelings of being understood by group members, and cohesiveness were found in the same order. Among the implications for practice are the needs (a) to respect the natural curative factors of the intensive small-group experience, (b) to focus on member-to-member interaction, (c) to gather feedback about important process variables during group facilitation, (d) to make legitimate human relations training per se in the helping professions' work with groups, and (e) to consider further symbolic interaction theory as a guide to group research and practice.