DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE IN SMALL GROUPS

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Psychological Bulletin1965, Vol. 63, No. 6, 384-399DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE IN SMALL GROUPS1BRUCE W. TUCKMANNaval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland50 articles dealing with stages of group development over time are separated bygroup setting, as follows: therapy- group studies, T- group studies, and natural-and laboratory- group studies. The stages identified in these articles are separatedinto those descriptive of social or interpersonal group activities and thosedescriptive of group -task activities. Finally, 4 general stages of developmentare proposed, and the review consists of fitting the stages identified in theliterature to those proposed. In the social realm, these stages in the develop-mental SEQUENCE are testing-dependence, conflict, cohesion, and functional the task realm, they are orientation, emotionality, relevant opinion exchange,and the emergence of solutions.

Such groups may be characterized either by appointed or emergent leadership. Presidential advisory councils and industrial groups repre-sent examples of natural groups. Similar limi-tations to generalization based on the manner of data collection and number of groups ob-served applies in this setting as in the previous settings.

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