Group Process - Theories that Guide Group Development

Why Groups?

• Groups require interpersonal learning

• building social skills

• networking and building peer relationships

Humanistic Approaches

• Humanistic groups are about tapping into humanity and facilitating growth, self-development and healing through belonging and shared experience

• Concepts of humanistic groups include respect, understanding, genuineness, spirituality and self actualization

• The Recovery Model

Developmental Approaches

• Paradigm

• The developmental stage is part of personal context and inherent in every group

• Cannot consider group activities without considering the developmental level of the group members

• Levels are defined by points of growth, crisis or conflicts that need resolving

• Several theorists - Levinson, Jung, Erikson

• Considers motivation and a person’s natural desire for mastery

• Includes group development

Psychodynamic

• Ground in psychoanalytic theory that focuses on ego development and insight into the underlying processes behind behavior and thought

• Relationship to OT Groups

  • Considered symbolic meaning of activity 

    • Ex: gardening for people who are uncomfortable with being messy

  • Provision of activities that fit the person’s personality - or that help to alter the person’s personality if need be

  • Focused on the impact of unresolved childhood interpersonal issues that interfere with the person’s ability to derive pleasure from activity

  • Includes concepts of transference and object relations

Behavioral-Cognitive

• Emphasis is on learning, practice and cognitive restructuring

• Relationship to OT Groups

  • Behavioral goals and objectives

  • Conditioning and development of habits 

  • Shaping and chaining

  • Rehearsal and practice

  • Modeling and reinforcement

Sensory Motor Approach

• Include a range of Frames of References that address motor, sensory, perceptual or cognitive changes that are a result of developmental or acquired conditions affecting the brain

• Incorporates concepts from many theorists including Trombly, Rood, the Bobaths, Ayres and Dunn

  • Neurology/Brain/Behavior 

• Stress the importance of sensation as well as practice and feedback in the approach - new FoRs incorporate a holistic approach - experiencing your body doing 

• Encompasses motor learning theory which emphasized the relationship between neuroplasticity, movement and development of new patterns of movement to accomplish desired tasks

Allen’s Cognitive Disabilities

• Applied when there is need to measure and monitor problem solving ability and safety during performance tasks

• Relationship to OT Groups 

  • Designed to apply to daily function with a particular focus on available cognitive structure and process in daily tasks 

  • Used in acute and long-term settings with people who have cognitive changes due to illness or injury 

  • Quantifies ability and disability into categories and helps direct intervention to support of compensate

Ecology of Human Performance

• Self determination model - adapting to changes in life

• Ecology - the transaction between people and their contexts/environments 

  • Four contexts - personal, cultural, temporal and virtual 

  • Two environments - social and physical 

• Basic assumptions

  • Four constructs work together - person, task, context and performance

    • There is a dynamic relationship between person and task and contexts

    • Environment is a factor in performance 

    • OT promotes self determination and inclusion

    • Environment and person are constantly changing, requiring adaptation

    • Independence is achieved when wants and needs are satisfied (adaptations inc)

Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance (PEOP)

• Begins with the PEO paradigm - assuming these are not separable

• Performance - a dynamic experience of a person engaged in purposeful activities and tasks in the environment 

• 4 step process

  • Narrative (Occupational Profile)

  • Assessment of occupational performance 

  • Intervention - addressing performance barriers

  • Determining outcomes 

• Environments are considered part of performance (ex - cooking in the kitchen)

KAWA Model

• You will only use this in groups if the group is a family!!!!!

• Japanese Model of Occupational Engagement - Considers the aspects of Japanese culture (not held in western cultures)

  • Occupation is embedded in nature

  • Occupation is collective - families, social groups, work groups

  • Reason and reality are situational - problems can change depending on the situation

  • Ideas and opinions are accepted or rejected based on the hierarchy of individuals 

  • River metaphor exemplifies this - every changing and complex intervention is multifactorial - with change being determined by the collective group, the environmental changes, not just individual needs

Model of Human Occupation

• Based on the assumption that people are open systems that interact with their environment

• That there are internal processes impacted by underlying anatomy and physiology as well as motivation, life experience and daily habits 

• There is a developmental process to create occupational identity and competence

• Groups are a combination of education, engaging in processes and/or engaging in occupations of interest or value