logist and one social worker intern) met once every two weeks. The length of each session was 90 minutes.
Purpose of the Group. The purpose of the group was therapeutic intervention. In this regard, both the group psychologist and the social worker intern utilized the group intervention mode delineated by Yalom (1983:5-70) who has stated that therapeutic intervention has the purpose of enriching group members' lives through eleven basic factors. These factors are:
(1) renewing group members faith that they can be helped;
(2) letting group members know they are not the only people in the world having the problems which they are experiencing;
(3) imparting didactive information about mental health, mental illness and general psychodynamics as well as life guidance information; (4) teaching that group members can receive by giving; (5) providing a healthier (corrective) recapitulation of members' early childhood experiences with their families;
(6) assisting members to develop their social skills: (7) using the therapeutic role to provide role model behavior which group members are encouraged to imitate; (8) assisting members with interpersonal learning; (9) increasing group cohesiveness and utilizing it as the basis for forming real and trusting relationships between group members and therapists; (10) providing catharsis; and (11) dealing with existential mechanisms and realities. It was felt that the element of cohesiveness was a particularly important part of therapeutic intervention because prior research had shown it to be repeatedly related to successful therapeutic outcomes in groups (Corey & Corey, 1977).
As noted by both Rogers (1985:250-252) and Yalom (1985:381-402 and 459-463), dealing with schizophrenic patients requires some modification of standard therapeutic technique. The need for modification was quite evidence tin the group being evaluated here. In this regard, the single most important requireme...