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People Feeling: Joy, More Joy, and the "Slough of Despond"

Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Inspiration and elation are commonly expressed outcomes of T Group experiences. Yet, compelling as such feelings may be, they are not, in themselves, sufficient for understanding what takes place in sensitivity training. To date, much research about the behavioral outcomes of T Groups has suffered from problems of faulty experimental design and imprecise measurement. We seem to be trapped in a sort of "Slough of Despond," bogged down in the mire of unsupported claims, the self-satisfaction of laboratory training advocates, and the doubt and apprehension of nonbelievers. Much of the research on interpersonal perception is summarized by our information processing model (presented here) of behavior prediction in interpersonal perception. It points up the complexities of knowing and learning to know others and summarizes many of the methodological problems which have plagued researchers. A new methodology for studying interpersonal perception judgments is described, along with results (using the new technique) showing that members of highly interactive T Groups successfully increased their skills of accurate social differentiation. It appears that greater empathy was developed in the more effective groups and that the increase was not the result simply of using strategies involving stereotypy or assumed similarity. The results support the notion that T Groups may truly help their members learn to know others better.

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