Group Development

OT Dude Academy’s Free NBCOT® Exam Prep Course Groups in Mental Health Group Development
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1 Stages of Group Development
1.1 Tuckman (1965) / Formative Stages
1.2 Life Cycle Model
1.3 Rutan, Stone, Shay’s Life Cycle Model (2014)
2 Cole’s 7-Step Group
3 Group Structuring

Stages of Group Development

Tuckman (1965) / Formative Stages

  • Forming – the testing of and dependence on the leader
  • Storming – intragroup conflict and emotional expression
  • Norming – developing group cohesion and increasing group member compliance to the rules of engagement.
  • Performing – members take on the functional roles and relatedness in the service of work.1 
  • Adjourning (Tuckman and Jensen 1977) – disengagement and review of the group and its achievements.2 

Life Cycle Model

Views the group in the stages of normal human development from infancy to maturity and end of life.

  • Infancy – establishing safety
  • Toddler exploration – getting to know the group and experimenting with interactions
  • Latency – feeling at ease but still needing to explore underlying issues
  • Teenage rebellion – dissatisfaction and the search for identity
  • Mature functioning – comfort with the process and each other; working productively
  • End of life – coming to terms with the group ending

Rutan, Stone, Shay’s Life Cycle Model (2014)

  • Formation – trust and safety
  • Reactive – maintaining individual identity
  • Mature – reflection
  • Termination3 

Cole’s 7-Step Group

  1. Introduction: warm-up, setting the mood, and expectations, explaining the purpose, session outline
  2. Activity: timing, therapeutic goals, member capacities, leadership knowledge and skill, activity adaptation
  3. Sharing: each member shares their own work or experience with the group
  4. Processing: sharing how each member felt about the experience, the leader, and each other
  5. Generalizing: addresses the cognitive learning components of the group by reviewing responses to the activity and providing general principles
  6. Application: takes generalizing one step further and helps the group understand how the principles can be applied outside of the group
  7. Summary: emphasizes the most important components of the group for comprehension and recall.4 

Group Structuring

  • Group member selection
  • Preparation of new members
  • Instruction on how to make the best use of the group
  • Outlining group norms and expectations
  • Modeling group norms and expectations5 
  1. Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Development sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384–399.[↩]
  2. Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group and Organization Studies, 2, 419–427.[↩]
  3. Rutan, J., Stone, W., & Shay, J. (2014). Psychodynamic group psychotherapy (5th ed.). New York: Guilford.[↩]
  4. Cole, M. B. Group dynamics in occupational therapy. (4th ed.). Thorofare, NJ: SLACK Incorporated.[↩]
  5. Leszcz, M, Malat, J. (2012). The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Group Psychotherapy[↩]
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