Mum's not the word! An investigation of the effects of a group support system on a men's counseling group

摘要

The study examined the effects of a group support system on the communication process of one men's counseling group that met ten times over a three-month period. The GSS appeared to facilitate two important forms of therapeutic communication present in most successful counseling groups: self-disclosure and feedback. Anonymity and group memory were found to be the most important features of the GSS. However, the physical environment of the GSS room coupled with certain GSS characteristics reduced the participants' perceptions of intimacy, a negative outcome contrary to the expressed desires of most group members.