TY - JOUR
AU1 - McGrath, Joseph E.
AB - This review chronicles prior approaches to research on small groups, critiques contemporary theories and methods, and notes some future possibilities. Early group researchers worked in isolated “schools,” treating groups as social systems for influencing members, for patterning interaction, or for performing tasks. Assumptions of those 3 schools are blended in some contemporary approaches, treating groups as systems for processing information; for managing consensus and conflict; and for motivating, regulating, and coordinating member behavior. Past and contemporary approaches are limited by their analytic focus, limited temporal scope, and failure to treat groups in context. The article points to an alternative theoretical approach that treats groups as complex, adaptive, dynamic systems and notes some methodological issues and possibilities raised by that approach.
TI - Small Group Research, That Once and Future Field: An Interpretation of the Past With an Eye to the Future
JF - Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice
DO - 10.1037/1089-2699.1.1.7
DA - 1997-03-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/american-psychological-association/small-group-research-that-once-and-future-field-an-interpretation-of-UD0WzYLCco
SP - 7
EP - 27
VL - 1
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -