The view regarding social units as entities in their own right disappeared from scientific consideration in the mid-twentieth century as much for political and ideological reasons as scientific ones. Yet group psychotherapy rediscovered these ideas. The problem to re-establish them scientifically is lack of empirical methodology for investigating whole groups. / The study integrated theories of groups as psychic entities from sociology, social psychology and group psychotherapy to form hypotheses about therapeutic groups" functioning. Four dimensions of whole-group function were derived: Structure, Cognitive Organisation, Affect, and Action Coherence. An observational instrument, the "Group Function Record," was developed, categories defined for each dimension and a procedure established to rate minute-by-minute group function from videotaped psychotherapy groups. Therapists" Interventions were also recorded. The instrument treats the group as the object of study and quality of collective functioning is rated irrespective of members present or their roles. Reliability was established and ratings were made of one latency and four adolescent yearlong groups. / Results substantiated an eight-phase developmental sequence derived from the group development literature and outlined a theory of group formation. The most challenging, but creative state was found to be when the group is whole with all members in communication, though it is unstable and often managed by breaking into subgroups. A linear relation existed showing that the smaller the group, the better it functions. Groups also function best with one or two members missing, but more absentees threaten the group’s existence. More highly organized groups are more stable, but tend to destabilize when they become self-reflective. Homeostatic self-correcting tendencies and a close relationship between affective and action changes were evident. Change towards unpleasurable affect is associated with change from cooperation to conflict and vice versa. Crises tend to be precipitated by affective change, but correct themselves within the next minute or two. The effects of Therapists" Interventions towards members, the group or both were analyzed. Group interventions initially tend to reduce functionality, followed by improvement after several minutes; member interventions have inconsistent effects; interventions to group and members in the same minute tend to produce immediate improved function. / The findings and their implications for therapeutic goals and technique with adolescents are discussed in relation to the theoretical background. Considerable merit is found in the collective mentality theories, many of whose postulates are validated. Indications for therapeutic technique are outlined from the findings. The method provides a different view of group process posing new questions and suggesting simple techniques are therapeutically potent. Further avenues of research are suggested.

The purpose of this dissertation was to, from the point of view of interaction, study how the factors group size, group composition, group norm and problem type influenced group problem solving. Three classroom studies were performed in grades four and five of the Swedish nine-year compulsory school. In addition to the participants in various pilot studies, the experiment included 1146 pupils. The performance was measured both regarding group results and the individual short-term and long-term retention of knowledge. A fifth factor, group productivity, was formed on the basis of these two measurement values.Group size 1, 2, 3 and 6 were studied. The group composition was defined on the basis of, on one hand, the ability levels high, middle and low and, on the other, on the basis of sex. The group norms were included through instructions about cooperation and competition. A third group norm, so-called free norms, was also introduced. Two problem types were used. One of them was designed so that the other group members would easily be able to judge if a response from one of the group members was correct or not (high accessibility). The other problem type was defined in terms of low accessibility. The first study included the factors group size and group composition (ability), the second study included group composition (sex), group norm, problem type and group productivity, and the third study included all five factors. The factor group size turned out to be of great importance and interacted with each of the other factors. Only high ability pupils could make use of group size in interaction with e. g. the factor group composition. Group composition was also interesting regarding sex. Co-operation favoured girls and competition favoured boys. The results also indicate that girls remember what they learn better than boys. Interactions between the factor group norm and the factors group size, problem type and group productivity showed that, in no case, did co-operation produce poorer results than competition and free norms. Various interactions with the factor problem type and other factors showed that larger group sizes are more favourable to the solving of problems with a high accessibility than to the solving of problems with a low accessibility. However, the individual group members had a better recollection of the solutions to problems with a low accessibility than to problems with a high accessibility. The factor group productivity was included in interactions with each of the other factors and in the three-way and four-way interactions. These interactions indicate that the factor group productivity, in terms of both group results and individual results, is an important factor in group research and in other classroom research.By way of conclusion, the results are discussed regarding educational implications and continued research. / digitalisering@umu

In this thesis, we study the representation theory of the automorphism group Aut (Fn) of a free group by studying the representation theory of three finite subgroups: two symmetric groups, Sn and Sn+1, and a Coxeter group of type Bn, also known as a hyperoctahedral group. The representation theory of these subgroups is well understood in the language of Young Diagrams, and we apply this knowledge to better understand the representation theory of Aut (Fn). We also calculate irreducible representations of Aut (Fn) in low dimensions and for small n.

We investigate non-geometric sharp permutation groups of type {0,k} whose point stabilizers are certain Frobenius groups. We show that if a point stabilizer has a cyclic Frobenius kernel whose order is a power of a prime and Frobenius complement cyclic of prime order, then the point stabilizer is isomorphic to the symmetric group on 3 letters, and there is up to permutation isomorphism, one such permutation group. Further, we determine a significant structural description of non-geometric sharp permutation groups of type {0,k} whose point stabilizers are Frobenius groups with elementary abelian Frobenius kernel K and Frobenius complement L with |L| = |K|-1. As a result of this structural description, it is shown that the smallest non-solvable Frobenius group cannot be a point stabilizer in a non-geometric sharp permutation group of type {0,k}.

The problem of this study was to measure attitudinal and personality changes that took place in junior college counselors as a result of a short-term group counseling institute.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [67]-70). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [67]-70). Also available on the Internet.

No description available.

<p dir="ltr">A group is said to be matricially (Frobenius) stable if every function from the group to unitary matrices that is "almost multiplicative" in the point operator (Frobenius) norm topology is "close" to a genuine unitary representation in the same topology. A result of Dadarlat shows that for a large class of groups, non-torsion even cohomology obstructs matricial stability. However, the proof doesn't generate explicit almost multiplicative maps that are far from genuine representations. In this paper, we compute explicit almost homomorphisms for all finitely generated groups with a non-torsion 2-cohomology class with a residually finite central extension. We use similar techniques to show that finitely generated nilpotent groups are Frobenius stable if and only if they are virtually cyclic, and that a finitely generated group with a non-torsion 2-cohomology class that can be written as a cup product of two 1-cohomology classes is not Frobenius stable.</p><p><br></p>

The purpose of the study was to evaluate a growth/awareness group experience by determining the effects of the group on interpersonal personality characteristics of the participants as measured by six selected scales of the California Psychological Inventory (Dominance, Capacity for Status, Sociability, Social Presence, Tolerance, and Good Impression). The two main null hypotheses stated that (1) there would be no differences between the experimental (treatment) group, the informed control group, and the uninformed control groups on the six scales of the California Psychological Inventory, dealing with social interaction and (2) if change occurred, the change would not be sustained over a three month period. Eighteen sub-hypotheses in all were tested statistically with non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance and the Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed Ranks Test.The population of the study included seventeen experimental group participants, who volunteered in response to advertisements and took part in a three day (fifteen hour) growth/awareness group led by three experienced doctoral students in counseling. Two control groups were utilized: (1) an informed control group of twenty-two who knew about the experiment and stated that they would, if they could at a more appropriate time, participate in this or a similar group, and (2) an uninformed control group of twenty-seven who were taken from two university classes and were told nothing about the testing or the experiment. These three groups were not statistically different on their pre-test scores. Neither control group received any treatment.The group or treatment was a combination of exercises used in sensory awareness, sensitivity training, and human relations training groups. The activities were highly to moderately structured with a low to moderate level of threat (encounter or confrontation). The leaders were used as directors, giving instructions and facilitating the execution of the exercises. The leaders did not take an active part in interaction.Six scales of the California Psychological Inventory were administered to all three groups before and after the group experience. Analysis of the data revealed no significant difference between groups at the .05 level of confidence on any of the six scales of the California Psychological Inventory. Experimental group participants were administered the same instrument three months after the last group meeting. Statistical procedures for sustained growth were not significant.