Professional issues in group work

Abstract

This article first describes the explosion of interest in and practice of group work, with the resultant lag between the development both of standards for training and practice and of a code for ethical behavior/ practice. We used a questionnaire to fill in some gaps regarding the number of cases of unethical behavior/practice in group work and the respondents' recommendations for dealing with the problems raised both externally by the public media and internally by professional association members. The data from the questionnaire are summarized, analyzed, and made relevant to the problem of ethics for group practices. We drew conclusions from these data, from others who have addressed themselves to the problems, and from our own experiences in the group field. From these conclusions we list recommendations for alleviating the problem.

A Curative Factor Framework for Conceptualizing Group Counseling

“…In other cases theoretical perspectives originating through study of the individual have been applied, unmodified, to groups. These theories are inadequate because they do not take into account the powerful effects of group dynamics (Gazda, Duncan, & Sisson, 1971). Rigid adherence to a theoretical perspective is likely to blind group counselors to important forces active in groups.…”

Group Work in Counselor Education: A Decade of Growth

“…A review of the literature between 1968 and 1979 yielded only three references that even dealt tangentially with group work preparation in counselor education programs (Graff & Belluci, 1971;Jones, 1976;Remer, Omvig, & Watson, 1978). Noting this paucity of references, we decided to survey group workers in an attempt to assess any possible changes in group work preparation in counselor education programs and to compare the demographic characteristics of this respondent group with those of the Gazda et al (1967) and the Gazda, Duncan, and Sisson (1971) surveys. The rationale for using this approach was that it would not only provide for these comparisons, but would also reflect the extent to which the group work experiences for counselors in training programs influenced their current professional status and group practices.…”