The Behavioral Analysis of Interpersonal Intimacy in Group Development

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Numerous theories of group development point to the importance of intimacy to the facilitation of group awareness, yet none articulates the behavioral dimension of this process. Using Bennis and Shepard's theory of group development as an illustration of this omission, it is argued that the analysis of intimate relations in small groups must move beyond the exclusive reliance on personality variables to articulate this process. The aim of this study is to develop a method for detecting the behavioral occurrence of intimate (primary) relations, apply this to a study of self-analytic groups, and test the hypothesis that such relations constitute a necessary condition for enhanced group awareness.A comparison of two self-analytic groups that differed in their respective abilities to analyze their ongoing processes revealed a significantly greater prevalence of overt primary relations in the relatively more effective group.

This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit: