Group Development Theory
Wilfred Ruprecht Bion
Background
• Well known psychoanalyst who built on the works of Freud and Klein
• Born in 1897 in India to British parents • Raised by Indian “ayah” or nanny
• Sent to boarding school in London at age 8 and never returned to India
• Painful childhood memories provided insight into human nature
Background
• Volunteered for service as a front-line soldier during WWI
• Tank commander on the battlefields of Northern France
• Received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Legion of Honor.
• After war, studied history at Queens College in Oxford, and later medicine at University College in London
Background
• Psychiatric medical officer during WWII
– Developed a method for selecting officers that involved placing candidates in groups and posing daunting tasks
– While working with officers who were being sent home after
breakdowns, developed a method of group therapy that restored their self-esteem and willingness to fight
• Moved to London and underwent training in psychoanalysis with John Rickman
• Worked at the Tavistock Clinic, where he did his best-known work with groups, recording his experiences in 7 articles and a concluding paper
• In1961, articles were published in the book Experiences
Background
• After Tavistock, focused on psychoanalysis practice with individuals
• 1962-1965: Head of Clinic of the Institute of Psychoanalysis of London and President of the British Society of Psycho-Analysis
• 1968: Moved from London to Los Angeles • 1979: Returned to England
Bion’s Theory of
Group Development
• Developed based on experiences with mental patients during WWII and at Tavistock Clinic, with groups of men and women interested in learning about the sources of cooperation and conflict in organizational and social life. • Used “common sense” which he intended to mean using
all of his senses to interpret group activity
• Focused on developing his “sixth sense”- ability to register and attend to his own quality of emotional experience (apprehension, boredom, irritation, etc.)
Bion’s Theory of
Group Development
• Any group, organization, or society needs
and evolves a structure of tasks, roles,
procedures, rules, group culture in order to
contain the anxiety of the unknown and
the responses which unconsciously are
mobilized to defend against that unknown
Bion’s Theory of
Group Development
• Within every group, two distinct groups
operate:
– Work Group: the manifest level of group performance
– Basic Assumption Group: unconscious defenses against anxiety/ unpleasantness
The Work Group
• Overt group performance concerned with
solving a problem or completing a task
• Members are aware of the task and are
able to define it
• Members respect and accept one another
• Leadership and support roles shift
The Work Group
• Members are aware of their roles and
responsibilities
• Members use dialog and reflection to
transfer knowledge and enhance learning
• Work is structured and organized
• Group produces solutions and products of
high quality and usefulness
The Basic Assumption Group
• Group experiences internal emotional andpsychological barriers not related to the task • Members are not conscious of the barriers
• “Basic” because the anxieties expressed are primitive and instinctual
• “Assumptions” because the group operates “as if” the assumption was implicit truth
The Basic Assumption Group
• Time boundaries vanish “as if” time wasunlimited
• Critical dialogue and reflection is avoided / discouraged
• Result is a “breakdown” of group effectiveness
Types of Basic Assumption Groups
• Dependence
• Fight / Flight
• Pairing
Basic Assumption: Dependence
• Feelings, thoughts and actions directed toward making someone the sole leader of the group • Members look to leader for all solutions,
structure, etc.
Basic Assumption: Dependence
• Members sabotage leader by providing partial or inadequate information
• Members demonstrate disappointment and hostility toward leader
• Leader may be expelled from group or demoted
• Group seeks out a new leader
Basic Assumption: Fight / Flight
• Group behaves “as if” its purpose is to fight or fleea real or imagined enemy
• Members refuse to critically evaluate themselves • Members are singled
out and scapegoated • Weaknesses (as
perceived by the group) are not tolerated
Basic Assumption: Pairing
• Members rely on a pair within the group for allcreative effort
• Great interest in creative process • Hopeful expressions of
anticipation / use of clichés
• Solutions or leaders generated by the pair are sabotaged or destroyed by the group
The Concept of Valence
• Individual group members have preferences toward one of the three basic assumptions • Group performance depends on each
member’s awareness of his/her preference and willingness to direct energy toward
maintaining a work group stance
• Basic assumption state is always present in a group to some degree
Observable Behaviors
• Long silence in which something is expected from a leader or other group member
• Hypothesis offered by one member and contradicted or shot down by another
• Search for something believed to be hidden and waiting to be discovered
• Members seeking approval of leader or alliances with other members
Observable Behaviors
• Strong feelings of love, hate or comradeship• Projection of strong feelings, beliefs or behaviors on other group members
• Scapegoating
