Effect of a Pregroup Collective Project on the Cohesiveness of Inpatient Therapy Groups

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Abstract
An attempt was made to increase the cohesion of inpatient therapy groups by having the group members work collectively on a creative art project immediately prior to their second therapy session. Ten short-term inpatient psychotherapy groups, having 6 to 8 members each, were randomly assigned either to this collective project or to an individual project on which group members worked individually on a similar art project. In the therapy session which followed, groups on the collective project showed a significant decrease in physical distance between group members relative to a baseline therapy session and relative to groups on the individual project. Groups on the collective project also scored significantly higher on a cohesion questionnaire than those in the individual project. The questionnaire and intermember-distance measures of group cohesion correlated highly (0.72). Intermember distance returned to baseline during a follow-up therapy session. No differences in the frequency of three types of verbal behavior were found during therapy. Collective art projects may be used to increase cohesion in short-term groups. Further exploration of intermember distance as a measure of group cohesion was suggested.

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