Personality Determinants of Leadership and Participation in a Sociotherapy Program

Abstract

The present study explores the relationship between personality and the differing modes of participation in a sociotherapy program set in an open, voluntary, long-term psychiatric hospital, in order to further our understanding of the relationship between sociotherapy and psychotherapy. Three groups of patients were defined from the recent population of the hospital: leaders, workers, and nonworkers, and clinical and psychometric data were compared across the groups. Mode of participation, as expected, was found to be unrelated to diagnosis or severity of disturbance. TAT stories were rated for power and affiliation motivation and power motivation was found to be positively correlated with leadership for female subjects, and strongly negatively correlated with leadership for males. Affiliation needs were found to be slightly negatively correlated with the adoption of a worker role. These findings were interpreted both in terms of the psychodynamics of the individual patient and in terms of the group and institutionalforces that influence individual roles. The interaction between group and institutional dynamics and individual psychodynamics in determining behavior of hospitalpatients was stressed.

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