Social Group Work

&
Historical Development
of
Group Work

SWRK 4010

BY- Dr. Aprajita Upadhyay

Assistant Professor
Dept. Of Social Work
MGCUB, MOTIHARI
 SOCIAL GROUP WORK
SWRK 4010

• UNIT - I: Understanding Concepts of Social

Group Work
• Classification of Groups; Primary &
Secondary Group; Formal & Informal
• Social Group Work
• Characteristics of Social Group Work
• Historical Development of Social Group Work
• Social group work is a method of social work
which develops the ability of individuals through
group activities. It is a different way of helping
individuals through group based activities and
enhancing - knowledge, understanding and skill.
• Social group work is concerned with the social
development of individuals. Practice of group
work requires a deep knowledge about how
humans interact in groups.
• Definition
• “Social group work is a psycho-social process
which is concerned no less than with developing
leadership ability and cooperation than with
building on the interests of the group for a social
purpose.” (Hamilton – 1949).
• “Social group work is a method through which
individuals in groups in social agency settings are
helped by worker who guides their interaction in
programme activities so that they may relate
themselves to others and experience growth
opportunities in accordance with their needs and
capacities.” (Trecker – 1955).
• “Social group work is a method of social work,
which helps individuals to enhance their social
functioning through purposeful group experiences
and to cope more effectively with their personal,
group and community problems.” (Konopka-1963)
• Social Group Work is used for the purpose of
reducing or eliminating roadblocks to social
interaction and accomplishing desirable social goals
(Skidmore – 1988)
Characteristics of Group Work:
• Group work makes use of multiple relationships
and a multi-person process (worker to member,
worker to group, member to member and
member to group)
• The group is an instrument for meeting basic
needs and strengthening human capacities. It
promotes identification of participants with
one another and provides freedom to relate as
and when the client is ready for it.
• A unique characteristic of group work is its
use of programme media such as play,
discussion, arts and crafts, music, dance,
drama, role play, outings and parties which
facilitate mastery of skills and serve as a vehicle
for fostering human relationships.
• Programme activities offer scope for utilisation
of non-verbal communication, a particularly
valuable tool for clients who cannot articulate
their needs and problems.
• Membership in the group, exposure to its
influences, participation in its activities and
acquisition of a role and status within it can
have potent effects for individuals.
• Group work is practiced by group itself
• Based on humanitarian philosophy:
• It gives aspiration to help each other:
• It develops human personality:
Objectives of Group Work
• Group work helps to achieve the overall objectives of social
work through its own specific objectives which are:
• to assist individuals in their maturation;
• provide supplemental emotional and social nourishment;
• promote democratic participation and citizenship; and
• remedy individual and social disorganisation or maladjustment
through group intervention strategies.
Purpose of Social Work with Groups
• In 1964 the Committee on Practice of the Group Work Section
of the National Association of Social Workers proposed that
group work was applicable for the following purposes:
• corrective/treatment;
• prevention;
• normal social growth and development;
• personal enhancement; and
• citizenship indoctrination ( Training, Teaching Education) .
Historical Developments in America, USA

Social group work began as 'group work' with its own

unique history and heroes.
It was not part of the mainstream of professional social
work.
The ideological roots of social group work were in the
self-help and informal recreational organisations, such as
YMCA, YWCA, settlement house in U.S.A. and
democratic ideas that all should share in the benefits of
society by following the Industrial Revolution.
Social group work was also influenced by progressive
education as it developed in Europe and stressed the use
modern and liberal techniques in group learning.
Era of Development of Social Group Work

Pre-1930s: Social group work and group psychotherapy have

primarily developed along parallel paths. Where the roots of
contemporary group psychotherapy were often traced to the group
education classes of tuberculosis patients conducted by Joseph Pratt in
1906, the exact birth of social group work cannot be easily identified.

There numerous philosophical and theoretical influences occurred in

the development of social group work. Chief amongst these
influences are as:-
• the ethics of Judeo-Christian religions
• the settlement house movement‟s charitable and humanitarian efforts
• Contribution of John Dewey (1910)
• Contribution of sociological theories about the nature of the
relationship between man and society,
• the democratic ethic articulated by early social philosophers
• the psychoanalytic theories of Otto Rank and Sigmund Freud.
• In 1930- The first course in group work was
offered by the Western Reserve University in
the U.S.A. in the early 1930s.

• In 1935 Grace Coyle, as the Chairman of the

newly established section of social group work
of the National Conference of Social Work,
began to clarify that group work was a method
within social work education.
• In the 1940s, with the great efforts of -Grace
Coyle, Clara Kaiser, Wilber Newsletter, G.
Wilson and Helen Phillips, group work became
fully established within the profession of social
work and began to be taught in many more
schools in the USA.
• In 1940 American Association of Group
Workers was established, which brought out
regularly a professional publications called “The
Group” and Several new text-books had been
published about the Group Work.
• By the early 1950s: Group Work method was
introduced in most schools of social work
throughout the U.S.A., Great Britain, Canada and
other parts of the world.
• Social group work now wrested or Captured itself
from the field of social psychology and also
distinguished its methodology from group
psychotherapy.
• It developed a refined and sophisticated set of
techniques as the National Association of Social
Workers and the Council of Social Work
Education produced new documents and
publications in group work. Gisella Konopka, and
William Schwartz were the new group work
writers.
• In the late 1960s, Ruth Smalley's published new text
book "Theory for Social Work Practice“ which
emphasised on the practice of Social group Work.

• Further, Social group work as a method being utilised

in new innovations such as the laboratory method,
sensitivity training, encounter groups and many
movements like transactional analysis, gestalt therapy.
Historical Developments in India
India has a long history of social work and
social welfare. There is evidence of the group
approach being used in charity, imparting
religious education through the oral
tradition, mobilising the people for the
freedom struggle against the British, social
reform and, more recently, in typically
indigenous welfare strategies such as the
Sarvodaya and Bhoodan movements.
The history of group work as a method of social
work practice can be seen only in the context of
social work education in India.
Social Group work began with the foundation of
the first School of Social Work in 1936, viz, the
Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social
Work.
In 1947-48 the second school of Social Work was
established in Delhi and started teaching group
work as a primary method of Social Work.

In 1950 : University of Baroda, started the Baroda

School of Social Sciences which had strongly
emphasised on group work.
• In 1960: The Association of Schools of Social
Work in India, jointly with Technical
Cooperation Mission (U.S.A) laid down
minimum standards for group work which was
the great step in growth of Group Work
Practice.
• Throughout India in schools of social work,
group work found a place in Social Work
Education.
• The theoretical framework and its practice
model was mainly American and until recently,
few attempts were made to indigenize it.
• Group work which could have played a
significant role in some of the major social
development programmes & in Area.

✓Self Help group

✓Health and Sanitation
✓Education and Training
 REFERENCES
http://files.drdeen.webnode.com/200000356-b5800b6f54/Social-Group-
Work.%20Complete%20notes.pdf

http://www.ignou.ac.in/upload/bswe-02-block2-unit-7-small%20size.pdf

https://www.slideshare.net/arulactovin/historical-evolution-of-group-work

https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/social-work/social-group-work/
Thank You