The model in the text that I think of as
most rich and most representative of groups of my
experience is identified as the
The idea of these models is that the life of a group will tend to follow a certain pattern, and by our awareness of this pattern we can work more intelligently with the group. This is a little different from the social work process that is described in Interviewing Skills and other courses in that the social worker tends to have less control over the way in which a group develops than over the process that starts with preparation and ends with termination/evaluation. This has both advantages and disadvantages. One of the greatest advantages is that the worker can take less responsibility for the group’s development, meaning we don’t have to worry as much about going through the process because the group will naturally do that for us. It also means that the social worker needs to pay close attention to where in the process of development the group is at any point in time. This attention will result in more effective interaction with the group and a greater chance that the group will reach its goals.
These stages of development are fluid and not always linear. This means that the group may exhibit characteristics of two or more stages at times and that the group may go back to an earlier stage before moving on. These ideas are still very helpful because groups, especially successful ones, do tend to follow these patterns.
1. Preaffiliation: As groups get started, there tend to be questions in members’ minds about what the group is about and how much they should invest in the process. So there is a lot of tentative behavior at first: “How much should I participate?” “What do they think about me?” “Do I really have to be here?” “What are we going to accomplish?” These questions are reasonable. Although they are rarely verbalized, the worker should be aware that they exist. The Tuckman model identifies this stage as Forming. Once there is some affiliation or once the group is formed, it begins to move on to stage 2.
2. Power and Control: This is the stage during which members figure out who has influence and how that influence will have an impact on the group. Many things can happen: subgroups can form; some members will try to dominate; others will resist or collaborate; there may be rebellion, changing alliances, and people leaving the group. Tuckman’s term for this stage is storming because some times there is some bad weather, but I think this is too negative. This stage is often fun, usually quite exciting, and almost always leads to good things as the group moves on.
3. Intimacy: I really like this term and this conceptualization of what happens as the group matures. It becomes important to members and this inevitably means that members become more important to each other. Just as in a helping process there needs to be an effective relationship between worker and client, the group must develop a level of intimacy between members and a feeling of connection by members for the group. This process is barely suggested by Tuckman’s term of norming. That concept does have some value, however, in that this is the stage where the development of norms is evident.
4. Differentiation: Once you are secure in an intimate environment, you can try new things and give and receive increasingly honest feedback about your ideas or activities. As we recently discussed, the group process of integration provides the opportunity for members and the group as a whole to be tremendously creative through a combination of opposition and accommodation. This is the essence of differentiation and means that the group is working. This is also reflected in Tuckman’s term performing.
5. Separation: So the group has done its thing and now it
is time to move on. Just as with the termination stage of the generalist
process, saying goodbye may not be so easy. The social worker needs to
make sure that the group has the opportunity to work through this stage,
helping members recognize the accomplishments of the group as they deal with
the anger and sadness of ending an important and hopefully positive
experience. This is Tuckman’s adjourning
stage.