Dm. Kivlighan et al., TRAINING GROUP MEMBERS TO SET SESSION AGENDAS - EFFECTS ON IN-SESSIONBEHAVIOR AND MEMBER OUTCOME, Journal of counseling psychology, 40(2), 1993, pp. 182-187
This research addressed Yalom's (1983) hypothesis that group members w
ho set session agendas would participate more effectively in group ses
sions and have enhanced outcomes. The independent variable, agenda, wa
s manipulated by assigning the 24 members of established personal grow
th groups to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) training in agenda setting, (b) st
abilizing interviews, and (c) no-contact control. Group members filled
out pre- and posttest measures of enactments of intimate behaviors an
d attitudes toward these enactments. They also filled out self- and ot
her ratings of in-group enactments of intimate behaviors, and group le
aders rated group members' intimate behavior at the end of each group
session. Group members who set here-and-now session agendas enacted mo
re in-group intimate behaviors and had better outcomes. Implications o
f these results and suggestions for group counseling are discussed.