Sensitivity Training and T-Group

• Sensitivity training is often offered by

organizations and agencies as a way for
members of a given community to learn how
to better understand and appreciate the
differences in other people. It asks training
participants to put themselves into another
person's place in hopes that they will be able
to better relate to others who are different
than they are.
• Sensitivity training often specifically addresses
concerns such as gender sensitivity, multicultural
sensitivity, and sensitivity toward those who are
disabled in some way. The goal in this type of
training is more oriented toward growth on an
individual level. Sensitivity training can also be used
to study and enhance group relations, i.e., how
groups are formed and how members interact
within those groups.
• SENSITIVITY TRAINING involves such groupings
as --T groups (T for training), encounter
groups, laboratory training groups, and human
awareness groups are all names usually
associated with what is known as sensitivity
training.
• Unlike training methods that serve to teach more or
less predetermined content, sensitivity training
attempts to teach people about themselves and why
and how they relate to, interact with, impact on, and
are impacted upon by others.

• Essentially, this is accomplished by having trainees

observe and analyze their own, actual, "here and
now" behaviour in groups.
• It would be impossible to describe precisely all
of the ways in which sensitivity training is
conducted, since the style, content, and goals
of sensitivity training depend so much upon
the particular leader who conducts it. This
discussion, therefore, will provide only a
general description of the nature and process
of sensitivity training.
• A vital part of sensitivity training is the sharing,
• by each member of the group
• his or her own unique perceptions of everyone else present.
This, in turn, reveals information about his or her own personal
qualities, concerns, emotional issues, and things that he or she
has in common with other members of the group.
• A group's trainer refrains from acting as a group leader or
lecturer, attempting instead to clarify the group processes using
incidents as examples to clarify general points or provide
feedback. The group action, overall, is the goal as well as the
process.
• Sensitivity training resembles group psychotherapy (and a
technique called psychodrama) in many respects, including the
exploration of emotions, personality, and relationships at an
intense level.
• Sensitivity training, however, usually restricts its focus to issues
that can be reasonably handled within the time period available.
• Sensitivity training does not include among its objectives therapy
of any kind, nor does it pass off trainers/facilitators as healers of
any sort.
• Groups usually focus on here-and-now issues; those that arise
within the group setting, as opposed to issues from participants'
pasts. Training does not explore the roots of behaviour or explore
into deeper concepts such as subconscious motives, beliefs, etc.
 What Is a T Group?

• Within most training groups (T-groups), eight to ten people meet

with no formal leader, agenda, or books-only a somewhat passive
trainer. Trainers do not necessarily direct progress, just help
participants to understand what is happening within the group.

•
A T group consists of interdependent individuals who are
committed to a shared examination of the behaviour and
interrelationships of themselves and others. This occurs in a
seemingly unstructured setting which requires people to become
more aware of and sensitive to one another's feelings and
behaviour.
• group members can help each other identify when
they are: attempting to control others or, conversely,
when they are seeking support; punishing
themselves or other group members; withdrawing
from the group; trying to change people rather than
accepting them; reacting emotionally to a given
situation; and ignoring, rather than scrutinizing,
behaviour between group members.
• The learning situation appears to be unstructured
because there is no formal lesson plan and the
instructors do not teach in the traditional sense.
Instead, they help people learn about themselves.
• Exactly what is learned is largely determined by
the group members themselves, although the
instructors provide some guidance. The focus of
attention is not on abstractions, but on real, "here
and now" behavior.
Three distinguishing features of the T groups, which are as follows:

• 1. It is a learning laboratory.
2. It focuses on learning how to learn.
3. It does so via a "here and now" emphasis on
immediate ideas, feelings, and
reactions.
 A learning laboratory

• Not a laboratory in the usual sense, the T group

is a laboratory in that it offers the opportunity
for inquiry and exploration of behaviour and
permits experimentation with new forms of
behaviour. Characterized by some as a miniature
society, the T group is oriented toward creating
a "psychologically safe" atmosphere which is
conducive to learning through exploration and
experimentation with behavior.
• That which is learned is largely determined by
what takes place among the group members.
However, the instructor usually provides
guidance. This guidance is usually of a nature
that facilitates learning by getting trainees to
pursue particular trains of thought which will
lead to increased understanding of themselves
and others.
• The goal of the T group is not to make people
change. The T group is a laboratory that aims
at creating a group that will provide feedback
to its members in a supportive way and will
thereby permit them to discover whether new
behaviour will yield more of what they desire
from interpersonal and intergroup
relationships.
• The so called real world denies this. Most
people are only remotely aware of their daily
behavior, its effectiveness, and how it is
perceived by and impacts on others. The T
group encourages its members to level with
each other to discover these things, which the
real world largely fails to do.
• The T group experience encourages its
members to experiment with new forms of
behavior. Thus, for example, a person who is
mild and timid might try a more aggressive
role in a T group to discover from the eventual
feedback how this new behavior affects others
and whether he or she is more or less satisfied
with it and its consequences.
 Learning: how to learn

• Learning how to learn from a T group experience

means essentially three things.

• First it means that T group participants learn that they,

and not necessarily some authority figure or teacher,
can provide real answers to all kinds of questions.
• The inductive nature of the experiences
encourages participants to search for meaning
from their own experiences and arrive at their
own conclusions, which can be just as valid
and meaningful as conclusions made by some
authority.
• Second, learning in a T group setting helps participants to learn to
tolerate and live with ambiguity. A T group situation, for most
people, is highly ambiguous. Typical reactions to it are, "What are
we doing just sitting here talking aimlessly.

• Why doesn't the instructor teach us something?" To most people

it is not clear what it is they are going to learn in such a setting.
Learning how to tolerate ambiguity, to see and examine their
own behavior in this kind of a setting, and then finally to make
some sense out of what has occurred are some of the ways in
which T groups help people learn how to learn.
• Third, T groups teach their members to learn from one another
and to appreciate the potential contributions others can make
to their learning. Contrary to traditional education, which holds
that the instructor is the only one who can teach, T groups
operate primarily on the basis of lateral learning that is,
learning from one's peers.
• Thus the instructor's role in a T group setting is played, from
time to time, by whomever provides meaningful information
for the group's learning. Thus, in a T-group, trainees help each
other learn and also learn to value the help others can provide.
 How does it work
• This group will meet for many hours and serve
as a kind of laboratory where each individual
can increase his understanding of the forces
which influence individual behavior and the
performance of groups and organizations. The
data for learning will be our own behavior,
feelings, and reactions. We begin with no
definite structure or organization, no agreed
upon procedures, and no specific agenda.
• It will be up to us to fill the vacuum created by the
lack of these familiar elements and to study our
group as we evolve. My role will be to help the
group to learn from its own experience, but not to
act as a traditional chairman nor to suggest how we
should organize, what our procedure should be, or
exactly what our agenda will include. With these few
comments, I think we are ready to begin in whatever
way you feel will be most helpful.
• In this unstructured situation, some members may
try to take charge or monopolize the discussion.
Others may remain passive. Others may criticize
those who remain passive, challenging them to
say something or complaining that they are not
contributing or are acting superior. Others may be
critical of those who try to dominate the group.
Still others may try to get the instructor to take a
more commanding role and be more directive.
• No matter what role a person plays, he or she also
observes and reacts to the behavior of others.
These perceptions and reactions are given as
feedback and become the focus for discussion and
further exploration. This is so unlike what most
people are accustomed to that some degree of
frustration is often experienced. Moreover, the self
examination of one's behavior, or its evaluation by
others, is threatening.
 The principal assumptions underlying sensitivity training as being the following:

• 1. A substantial number of group members, when confronted with

others' behaviors and feelings in an atmosphere of psychological
safety, can produce articulate and constructive feedback.

2. A significant number of the group members can agree on the

major aspects of a particular individual's behavior exhibited in the
group situation. Certainly a complete agreement is not to be
expected, but neither must the feedback go off in all directions. A
certain degree of communality is necessary if the feedback is to be
helpful for the individual.
• 3. Feedback is relatively complete and deals
with significant aspects of the individual's
behaviour.

4. The behaviour emitted in the group is

sufficiently representative of behaviour outside
the group so that learning occurring within the
group will carry over or transfer.
• 5. Psychological safety can be achieved
relatively quickly (in the matter of a few hours)
among either complete strangers or among
associates who have had varying types and
degrees of interpersonal interaction.
• 6. Almost everyone initially lacks interpersonal
competence; that is, individuals tend to have
distorted self images, faulty perceptions, and
poor communication skills.

7. Anxiety facilitates new learning.

8. Finally, transfer of training occurs between the

cultural island and the 'back home" situation.
 Goals of Sensitivity Training
• While the emphases, styles and specific goals of the
multitude of sensitivity training programs vary, there does
seem to be some consensus as to general goals. These
include:
•
1. Increased understanding, insight, and self awareness
about one's own behavior and its impact on others,
including the ways in which others interpret one's
behavior.
• 2. Increased understanding and sensitivity about the
behavior of others, including better interpretation of
both verbal and nonverbal clues, which increases
awareness and understanding of what the other
person is thinking and feeling.

• 3. Better understanding and awareness of group and

intergroup processes, both those that facilitate and
those that inhibit group functioning.
• 4. Increased diagnostic skills in interpersonal and intergroup
situations. For the authors, the accomplishments of the first
three objectives provide the basic tools for accomplishing
the fourth objective.

5. Increased ability to transform learning into action, so that

real life interventions will be more successful in increasing
member effectiveness, satisfaction, output, or effectiveness.
• 6. Improvement in individuals' ability to analyze
their own interpersonal behavior, as well as to learn
how to help themselves and others with whom they
come in contact to achieve more satisfying,
rewarding, and effective interpersonal relationships.

Different sensitivity programs may emphasize one

or more of these goals or may neglect some.
However, they are goals that are common to most T
groups.
 Outcomes of sensitivity training

• . The
outcomes they depict (self, role, and organization) are
only possibilities, and cannot be guaranteed for everyone
attending a sensitivity training program.

• This is because some participants do not learn or learn very

little from a T group experience, others learn some things,
and others learn a considerable amount and variety of things
and because programs vary so much in terms of their nature
and goals.
 Possible outcomes are as follows:
Self:

1. Increased awareness of own feelings and

reactions, and own impact on others.

2.Increased awareness of feelings and reactions

of others, and their impact on self.
• 3. Increased awareness of dynamics of group action.

4.Changed attitudes toward self, others, and groups;

i.e., more respect for, tolerance for, and faith in self,
others, and groups.

5.Increased interpersonal competence; i.e., skill in

handling interpersonal and group relationships
toward more productive and satisfying relationships.
 Role

6. Increased awareness of own organizational

role, organizational dynamics, dynamics of
larger social systems, and dynamics of the
change process in self, small groups, and
organizations.
• 7. Changed attitudes toward own role, role of others, and
organizational relationships, i,e., more respect for and
willingness to deal with others with whom one is
interdependent, greater willingness to achieve
collaborative relationships with others based on mutual
trust.

8. Increased interpersonal competence in handling

organizational role relationships with superiors, peers,
and subordinates.
 Organization
• 9. Increased awareness of, changed attitudes
toward, and increased interpersonal
competence about organizational problems of
interdependent groups or units.

10. Organizational improvement through the

training of relationships or groups rather than
isolated individuals.