The importance and impact of the practice of laboratory training have been increasingly recognized in recent years. However, as with most innovatory techniques of social change, invention and creativeness in practice have far outstripped our systematic knowledge of the internal dynamics of laboratory training and its results. Several general models suggest broad stages of group development or list some conditions of personal learning-although seldom have these models been accompanied by systematic research. However, as several reviews have noted (Stock, 1964; Schein & Bennis, 1965; Lieberman et al, 1969) these general models do not seem to deal adequately with the intrapersonal dynamics of the learning process and the phenomenology of the participant. This research project aimed to examine some fundamental questions: how, more precisely, do people learn in laboratory training; what dynamic mechanisms and specific theory of learning are involved; and what relation does this personal learning process have to the interpersonal context of the group and particularly to the trainers
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