Group Cohesiveness: An Analysis of Its Theoretical Implications for the Practice of Social Group Work in an Institution for Delinquent Adolescent Girls, St. Germaine’s Home, Peekskill, New York, 1962–1963

Involved in a study of this kind, one is made aware of the difficulties incumbent upon researchers who choose for their study some aspect of that most fluid of phenomena, the group. One social scientist stated the difficulties very well when she observed that any one attempting to systematize theory about the group faces a situation which might be paraphrased from Gertrude Stein - a group is a group is a group. Nevertheless, this writer is going to make an attempt to penetrate one aspect of a group is a group is a group, by concentrating on one of its most elusive and fascinating properties, that of group cohesiveness. A more technical evaluation of this particular quality of group will be considered later in this paper but we will linger for a moment and consider the suggestive meaning of the concept of group cohesiveness. The term expresses an emotional connotation which would be palely expressed by competing synonyms such as: group spirit, bond, or we feeling. For the social group worker, the term has a magical connotation when it represents the desired upper limits of positive group experience. The group worker knows when his group is cohesive and when it is not. The group worker shares in the joy of a group experience when the members find mutual compatibility just as he shares in the frustrations of an experience when group membership is incompatible and group needs are not met