THINGS UNSAID IN GROUP-COUNSELING - AN EMPIRICAL TAXONOMY

Two studies were performed to examine things unsaid in group counselin g. In Study 1, 28 group members described 317 things they had left uns aid during group counseling sessions. Cluster analysis identified 10 c ategories of things unsaid. In Study 2, the derived clusters were used by trained raters to categorize a new set of things unsaid by 28 grou p members. In addition, the relationships between the type of things u nsaid, the stage of group development, and participant sex were examin ed. As hypothesized there were more advice and outside things unsaid d uring the orientation-inclusion stage and more positive feeling and em pathic things unsaid during affection-cohesion stage of group developm ent. There were also a number of significant interactions between part icipant sex and stage or group development for several categories of t hings unsaid. Implications for counseling are discussed.