Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Fambrough, M. J.
Right arrow Articles by Comerford, S. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Changing Epistemological Assumptions of Group Theory

Mary J. Fambrough

Alliant International University

Susan A. Comerford

University of Vermont

Recent world events have brought the need to better understand how to work and live in a heterogeneous world into relief. The origins of group dynamics and development theory are reviewed, arguing that although traditional group theory has proven useful in homogeneous groups, applying these theories to the heterogeneous groups common to organizations today counters efforts to honor and promote multiculturalism. The ways in which traditional theory, due to its epistemological origins in organicism, tacitly undermines efforts to promote the inclusion of multiple voices in groups is described. The authors demonstrate how a paradigmatic shift from organicism to contextualism provides a framework for generating more useful theories and practices of group dynamics and development that include heterogeneity and pluralism and acknowledge the role of power and privilege. Principles for a contextualist theory of group dynamics and process are developed, stressing the pragmatic values of utility and action.

Key Words: group theory • contextualism • pluralism • pragmatism • Stephen Pepper

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 42, No. 3, 330-349 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0021886306286445
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Small Group ResearchHome page
D. Bargal
Book Review: Wheelan, S. (Ed.). (2005). The Handbook of Group Research and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Small Group Research, April 1, 2007; 38(2): 301 - 308.
[PDF]