PAC 420 Module 4 Group Development and Stages Example

From Polite to Honest: Tracing a Parents in Recovery Group Through Its Stages of Development

Student Name

Psychology and Addiction Studies Program, Aspen University

PAC 420: Group Therapy

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

From Polite to Honest: Tracing a Parents in Recovery Group Through Its Stages of Development

In Module 3, Lake Erie Recovery Center, the invented outpatient program in these papers, planned a ten-week closed group for parents in early recovery. Seven parents joined: five mothers and two fathers, between one and six months into recovery, each with at least one child under twelve. This paper traces the group's development through its ten sessions and describes how the leader's role changed. The seven parents are fictional; the research on how groups develop is not.

Stage Models

Tuckman (1965) read across dozens of published accounts of therapy groups, training groups and laboratory and natural groups and found a recurring sequence. At first, in what he called forming, people are cautious: they look to the leader, figure out why they are there and watch how others behave before risking much. Next comes storming, when members push back, against the task, the leader or one another, and disagreements surface that early politeness had covered. If the group gets through that, it enters norming, in which members settle on how they will treat each other and begin to feel like a group. Finally, in performing, little energy goes to managing the relationships and most goes to the work itself. A decade later, Tuckman and Jensen (1977) looked at the studies that had appeared in the meantime and added adjourning, the period when a group winds down and members take their leave.

Size and Development

Wheelan (2009) studied work groups of different sizes, measuring their stage of development and their productivity. Smaller groups, of roughly three to eight members, were more likely to reach advanced stages of development and were more productive than larger groups. Wheelan suggested that larger groups have more difficulty building the trust and structure that advanced stages require. The parents' group, with seven members, falls within the size Wheelan found most likely to develop well.

The Group Week by Week

The Leader's Changing Role

In the forming stage, the leader provided structure and safety: explaining the format, reviewing agreements and linking members' experiences so that they began to speak to each other. In the storming stage, her task was to keep conflict safe without shutting it down. When Marcus and Kayla clashed, she slowed the exchange, asked each to speak from their own experience rather than accusing and told the group that disagreement often means a group is becoming real. In the norming stage, she supported the group's own decisions, such as the new rule about lateness, rather than imposing rules. In the performing stage, she stepped back, letting members carry the work and intervening mainly to deepen it. In adjourning, she helped members acknowledge what the group had meant and plan their next supports.

The Relapse in Week Eight

In week eight, Kayla arrived and said she had drunk on Saturday for the first time in three months. The group fell quiet, and for twenty minutes members spoke politely about other things, as they had in the first weeks. The leader named what she saw: the group seemed to have stepped back to being careful with one another, perhaps because Kayla's news frightened everyone. That observation opened the conversation. Marcus, who had clashed with Kayla in week four, said he was scared because he had almost done the same thing on Friday. The group returned to honest work, now including the reality that relapse could happen to any of them. The episode showed the group moving back through earlier stages and forward again within a single session.

Limits of Stage Models

Stage models describe a typical sequence, but real groups do not always follow it neatly. Stages overlap, groups can return to earlier stages when a crisis occurs and some groups stall in storming and never reach performing. In week eight, a member's relapse briefly returned the group to anxious, polite behavior before members could discuss it honestly. The model is best used as a map rather than a timetable.

Closed and Rolling Groups

The parents' group was closed, so its members moved through the stages together. Most of Lake Erie's groups are rolling, admitting new members every week. In rolling groups, the group as a whole may remain in a mix of stages, with long-term members performing while new members are forming. Leaders of rolling groups must orient new members repeatedly, rely on experienced members to carry the group's norms and accept that a full sequence of stages may never occur for the group as a whole. The contrast suggests that closed groups are better suited to deep work on a shared theme, while rolling groups serve the need for immediate entry into treatment.

Conclusion

The parents' group moved from polite forming through a sharp storm in week four to norming, honest performing and a careful adjourning. Tuckman's sequence and Tuckman and Jensen's addition of adjourning describe that path, and Wheelan's research on size helps explain why a group of seven developed well. The leader's role changed with each stage, from providing structure to holding conflict to stepping back, which is what a stage model asks a leader to do.

References

Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-399. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022100

Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group & Organization Studies, 2(4), 419-427. https://doi.org/10.1177/105960117700200404

Wheelan, S. A. (2009). Group size, group development, and group productivity. Small Group Research, 40(2), 247-262. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496408328703