With growing trends toward preventative, community-based health care, art therapists must expand their scope of practice beyond the medical model and individual psychodynamics in order to serve, include, and empower those in need. In this article the authors review literature that illustrates the unique qualities art therapists can contribute to…

This paper reviews and integrates best practices for online teamwork for students and instructors from current and classical literature as well as the author's own six years of online teaching experience (over 40 online courses). A qualitative reflection of six graduate and six undergraduate courses in management, human resource management and…

Purpose: Although conflict has traditionally been considered destructive, recent studies have indicated that conflict management can contribute to effective teamwork. The present study explores conflict management as a team phenomenon in schools. The author examined how the contextual variables (task interdependence, goal interdependence) are…

Conflict within organizations must be managed to maximize its useful aspects while minimizing those that are dysfunctional. Conflict can be interpersonal or can stem from the structural characteristics of the organization. Sources of conflict include win-or-lose situations that reduce cooperation by fostering competition, incompatibility among the…

Reviews the articles on peer and intrafamily conflict in this issue, focusing on ways in which conflict in these two different settings might be related to one another. Notes that although conflict-resolution styles may carry over to some extent from conflict among family members to conflict among peers, there are some important differences. (MDM)

Noting that research is inconclusive regarding the role of mediation in groups, this paper represents an initial attempt to integrate specific communication skills into the teaching of mediation. The paper begins with a literature review investigating literature on communication competence during conflict to establish a foundation for the basic…

Efficacy in working with recollection can be increased by understanding reminiscence. Informative reminiscence involves recollection for the pleasure of reliving and retelling. Evaluative reminiscence has a more favorable resolution when it ranges over the lifetime and is shared. Obsessive reminiscence may result from guilt, stress or grief.…

Virtually everyone involved with forensics has, at one time or another, seen or heard references to debate teams or squads as "groups." Many questions concerning the label "group," however, exist. A brief examination of definitions of the term group by scholars in the field of small group communication confirms that T. M.…

Because of a multiplicity of approaches to small group argument, research in this area often needs to be summarized, condensed, and redirected. Researchers have identified the rational, cognitive and interactive components of argumentation, and have demonstrated that arguments can take several forms and fulfill a variety of functions. The result…

Describes scapegoating encountered during the author's third-year experience as psychological consultant to the oncology unit of a large medical center. Therapeutic strategies for managing the crisis within the structure of an ongoing staff support group are discussed. A conceptual framework for understanding the scapegoating process is…

Research shows that well-managed conflicts can enrich a group, if good (cognitive) conflict is encouraged and bad (affective) conflict is discouraged. A model developed to understand how disabled people are treated at work suggests that there is a need to change beliefs about, as well as behavior towards, disabled people. Implications for camp are…

Research on learning styles has shown that students learn better when teachers plan class learning activities to fit students' learning styles. This paper describes three "ways of knowing" and discusses the role they play in "knowing the culture" of a school. The first part relates ways of knowing to the usual three domains of learning--cognitive,…

Discusses the impact of conflict in small group development theory. Views conflict as a positive, normally occurring behavior and presents leadership strategies involving withdrawal, suppression, integration, compromise, and power. Examines situational contingencies and presents a rationale for strategy selection and intervention. (Author)

To provide a theoretical base for investigating the influence of inferential error on group decision making, current literature on both inferential error and decision making is reviewed and applied to the Watergate incident. Although groups tend to make fewer inferential errors because members' inferences are generally not biased in the same…

The human species seems to have a virtuoso capacity for making harsh distinctions between groups and for justifying violence on whatever scale the technology of the time permits. This essay explores the possibilities associated with using education as a means to avoiding conflicts or resolving them peacefully. Focus is placed on teaching humans to…