65th Annual Conference

Friday, February 21

Early Bird Open Sessions

7:15 A.M. – 8:15 A.M.

Session 212           

Advising "Twelve Angry Men" About Their Group Process

Chair:

Barbara Finn, Ph.D., CGP, Private Practice, Menlo Park, California

Presenter:         

Edmund Kal, M.D., CGP, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, UCSF (Fresno), Fresno, California

This 1957 classic with Henry Fonda happens to be a word for word record, very true to life even if fictional, of the deliberations of 12 jurors, lasting 90 minutes; a fascinating portrayal of small group process. We shall view segments of this movie and assuming the role of "consultants" to these jurors, interpret their process according to our various theoretical frames of reference and discuss how we might want to intervene at various crucial junctures in their process.

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Explain the 'jury' (group) members' behavior by focusing on their goals (both short and long-term) as manifested in their verbal (and non-verbal) communications.
2. Point out how the respective individual goals mutually influence (and alter?) each other, as well as the process of the group as a whole.
3. Identify two (at least) different leadership styles, and their respective desirable or undesirable results.
 

Course References:

1. Agazarian, Yvonne: Systems Centered Therapy for Groups (1997), Guilford Press, NY.

2. Berne, Eric. Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups (1973), Random House Group.

3. Skyttner, Lars. General Systems Theory (chapters 2,3,8 2005), World Scientific Publishing.

4. Whitaker & Lieberman (1964): Psychotherapy through the Group Process, Chicago.