The use of tape-recorded feedback in an analogue group therapy setting
Date
1970
Authors
Reid, James Robert
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Abstract
This study explores the effectiveness of tape-recorded feedback in improving the level of self-actualization and the accuracy of interpersonal perception in a group setting. Previous researchers dealing with objective feedback have used such techniques as written minutes, photographs, tape recordings and videotapes but have not provided experimental evidence as to the usefulness of such feedback. The widespread use of the taped feedback technique by therapists indicates a belief in its effectiveness, and such a belief should have some grounding in experimental evidence.
Forty-eight senior undergraduate university students participated in the research. The subjects were divided into eight groups of six people each, three male and three female. Four conditions were included in the design, with two groups operating under each condition. In one condition the groups met for 30 minutes of analogue therapy and then listened to a tape recording of that discussion. A second condition involved 60-minute meetings with no taped feedback, and a third had 30-minute meetings with no feedback. Groups met one evening a week for six weeks. The fourth condition consisted solely of assessment with no meetings.
Assessment of improvement in self-actualization was made with the Personal Orientation Inventory. A rating scale of self and others was devised to measure accuracy in interpersonal perception. The hypotheses in the study were that greater improvement on the POI and the rating scale would be achieved by those subjects receiving taped feedback.
The hypotheses received little support from the results of the study. Increases were noted generally in all conditions on the scales of the POI. The accuracy of perception increased to a greater extent in the feedback condition on one of the three sections of the rating scale.
Failure to support the hypotheses was explained partially by differences in initial levels of functioning on the measurement devices. Some limitations of the study were discussed in terms of their possible contributions to the failure to find the expected results.