[From Dick Robertson]
(To gsgnet in general) I've been amused and bemused at the way the term for
referring to our mutual interest keeps growing over time. First it was just
CT, then it got to be PCT, and lately I notice, it seems to have become HPCT.
Now suppose we moved on again, to Hierarchically Emerging Perception-
Controlling Action Theory? Dig that acronym, as we old timers used to say.
(David Goldstein on group therapy post)
I would appreciate some comments on how to apply HPCT to a group therapy
situation with adolescents. I am taking a look at how the groups are run...
The residents are sometimes stirred up by the group discussion and act out
afterwords. The residential living staff complain of having to deal with this.
The residential living staff participate in the group therapy and the clinical
staff feel powerless to influence how they participate. The worthwhileness of
the group therapy is being called into question.
Then you give nice analysis of the goals that you believe can be achieved by
group therapy. However, you kind of mix together the colloquial statements and
the CT (or PCT, OR HPCT OR HEPCAT) expressions. I wonder if it would add any-
thing to the analysis if you followed the scheme that Bill used in his book &
the textbook for translating commonsense experiences into analyses of
controlled variables, remember: (let me have some liberties with the order)
Behavior Action Variable Reference
(informal word
or phrase ) _____________ _____________ _____________
Learn about self Receive (solicit?) Descriptions made Aha, I can use
from the group comments of S by others that
Learn to relate Observing attempts "should statements" Other -> S = 0
w/o control'g at control S -> O = 0
Improve Communi- State intentions "I want..."s- OK, you got it
cation skills Hear intentions "You want..."s- Hey, you hear me
Infer intentions "I'm guessing you want- That's right
<statements>
Learn emotional Make "you're OK" Complimenting Feelings of
supportiveness statements & & encouraging pleasure
Hear the same w/o statements
ease or pleasure
Well, this is pretty crude, just what I batted out in a few minutes, but I
think you can see that by separating your everyday-language formulations from
PCT formulations it can help to zero-in a little faster on the controlled
variables in the situation. Then you ask
how should the meeting be organized to reach these goals?
and you follow up with some mighty sensible suggestions. Again I would suggest
that you might find it useful to try and organize them in a hierarchical
fashion AND I'd suggest separting what you perceive (infer) as the resident's*
goals, the treatment staff's* goals, the residential living staff's* goals and
your own known goals. I put an (*) behind each of those group names because,
as I'm sure you're aware, those groups consist of individuals whose personal
goals may be so much at odds that no coherent action from that group is
possible. HOWEVER, there is one group that I think should be treated as a
quasi-control system. That is the group you started with: the group
comprising
each group therapy meeting. Over the years I have found it very
useful to stop watching individuals for a while in group meetings and try to
observe the group as a unit, find out how its sense of "being a group" is
defined by the members (that is, what common denominator do the majority of
them, at least, seem to agree on), what common denominators do they seem to
share as to what values or attitudes should be implemented to maintain their
sense of who they are and what they stand for, and what do they have to do
implement those values {you get the idea, I'm sure}. When you start looking at
things that way you (I, at least) begin noticing where a group goal if
implemented could help individuals realize their individual goals.
Here's where some of Ed's descriptions of his work with groups comes in so
beautifully, if the residents want to become ex-residents, it should be useful
to suggest they share their lore as to how that's accomplished. And then where
does the work of the residential living staff come in? What variables are they
trying to control? We presume they are controlling things that they perceive
as having consequences like, praise from the boss, thanks from graduates,
raises in pay, etc. What can the residents, and the treatment staff, offer to
help, what can they offer in turn? Well, you know how to do all of that, in
principle, anyway. So I'm wondering about your statement that
the groups are often chaotic< I wonder if that means that reorganization gets
triggered for some people in the meetings and they don't understand about how
anxiety often goes with reorg. so they panic, and you're seeing that distress.
Or, might it be that members of the different subgroups perceive their personal
self-interests as inimical to those of the others, in which case maybe the
staffs need to have their therapy meetings before being turned loose on the
residents??
Anyway, David, are you interested in giving one of your excellent case
descriptions of a segment of group interactions for the rest of us netters -
who like to keep trying to understand higher order system problems better - to
have a look at? I'd be interested for one.
(Mary Powers) You asked about people who would be leaving the conf. on Sunday
afternoon. I guess that includes me. I've got my travel agency working on
tickets for me, and I told them to bring me back Mon am if Sunday is out of the
question.
Best to all. Dick Robertson Northeastern Il U. 5500
N St Louis, Chicago 60625
Home 5712 S. Harper, Chicago, Il 60637 ph 312 643 8686