The relationship between the establishment of pregroup goals and post-
group assessment of progress toward goals was investigated in ten-week
counseling groups in a natural agency setting. For purposes of analysis,
198 group participants were categorized by their selection of three top
goals, with interpersonal-relationship and self-confidence goals deter
mining the category. The progress-toward-goal post-test revealed more
progress on top-ranking goals than on other goals. Less obtrusive seman
tic differential scales revealed no differences on post-tests mediated by
pretreatment goal selection, but there was across-category gain on the
semantic differential post-tests.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adler, N.E., & Goleman, D.Goal setting, T-group participation, and self-rated change: An experimental study. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1975,11, 197-208.
2.
Bednar, R.L., & Lee, F.A.A theoretical and empirical review of structure and ambiguity in systems of interpersonal influence. Journal of Counseling Psychology , in press.
3.
Bednar, R.L., Melnick, J., & Kaul, T.J.Empirical guidelines for group therapy: Pre-training, cohesion, and modeling . Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1974 ,10,149-165.
4.
Bryant, F.B., & Wortman, P.M.Secondary analysis: The case for data archives. American Psychologist , 1978, 33, 381-387.
5.
Egan, G.Encounter: Group procedures for interpersonal growth. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole1970 .
6.
Goldstein, A.P., Heller, K., & Sechrest, L.B.Psychotherapy and the psychology of behavior change. New York: John Wiley, 1966.
7.
Jacobs, A.Strategies of social intervention, past and future. The group as agent of change. New York: John Wiley , 1974.
8.
Kolb, D., & Boyatzia, R.Goal setting and self-directed behavior change. Cambridge, MA: Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1968.
9.
Lee, F., & Bednar, R.L.Effects of group structure and risk-taking disposition on group behavior, attitudes and atmosphere. Journal of Counseling Psychology , 1977, 24, 191-199.
10.
Lieberman, M.A.Some limits to research on T-groups. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1974,11, 241-249.
11.
Osgood, C.T., Suci, G.J., & Tannenbaum, P.H.The measurement of meaning. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1957.
Shaffer, J., & Galinsky, M.D.Models of group therapy and sensitivity training . Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall , 1974.
14.
Sherman, R.Will goal attainment scaling solve the problems of program evaluation in the mental health field? In R. D. Coursey , G. A. Specter, S. A. Murrell , & B. Hunt (Eds.), Program evaluation for mental health: Methods, strategies and participants . New York: Grune & Stratton , 1977.
15.
Stockton, R., & Dowis, J.The ability of the goal setting instrument to distinguish between three significantly different groups of goal selectors and their outcomes . Paper presented at the Fourth National Conference on the Teaching of Group Psychology, Temple University, Pennsylvania, February 1978.
16.
Yalom, I.C.The theory and practice of group psychotherapy. New York : Basic Books, 1975.
