Group Development Theory

Wilfred Ruprecht Bion

(1897-1979)
 Background
• Well known psychoanalyst who built on the
works of Freud and Klein
• Born in 1897 in India to British parents
• Raised by Indian “ayah” or nanny
• Sent to boarding school in London at age 8
and never returned to India
• Painful childhood memories provided insight
into human nature
 Background
• Volunteered for service as a front-line soldier
during WWI
• Tank commander on the battlefields of
Northern France
• Received the Distinguished Service Order
(DSO) and the Legion of Honor.
• After war, studied history at Queens College
in Oxford, and later medicine at University
College in London
 Background
• Psychiatric medical officer during WWII
– Developed a method for selecting officers that involved placing
candidates in groups and posing daunting tasks
– While working with officers who were being sent home after
breakdowns, developed a method of group therapy that restored their
self-esteem and willingness to fight
• Moved to London and underwent training in
psychoanalysis with John Rickman
• Worked at the Tavistock Clinic, where he did his best-
known work with groups, recording his experiences in 7
articles and a concluding paper
• In1961, articles were published in the book Experiences
in Groups
 Background
• After Tavistock, focused on psychoanalysis
practice with individuals
• 1962-1965: Head of Clinic of the Institute of
Psychoanalysis of London and President of
the British Society of Psycho-Analysis
• 1968: Moved from London to Los Angeles
• 1979: Returned to England
• 1979: Died, two months later
 Bion’s Theory of
Group Development
• Developed based on experiences with mental patients
during WWII and at Tavistock Clinic, with groups of men
and women interested in learning about the sources of
cooperation and conflict in organizational and social life.
• Used “common sense” which he intended to mean using
all of his senses to interpret group activity
• Focused on developing his “sixth sense”- ability to
register and attend to his own quality of emotional
experience (apprehension, boredom, irritation, etc.)
 Bion’s Theory of
Group Development
• Any group, organization, or society needs
and evolves a structure of tasks, roles,
procedures, rules, group culture in order to
contain the anxiety of the unknown and
the responses which unconsciously are
mobilized to defend against that unknown
 Bion’s Theory of
Group Development
• Within every group, two distinct groups
operate:
– Work Group: the manifest level of group
performance

– Basic Assumption Group: unconscious

defenses against anxiety/ unpleasantness
 The Work Group
• Overt group performance concerned with
solving a problem or completing a task

• Members are aware of the task and are

able to define it

• Members respect and accept one another

• Leadership and support roles shift

depending upon the demands of the task
 The Work Group
• Members are aware of their roles and
responsibilities

• Members use dialog and reflection to

transfer knowledge and enhance learning

• Work is structured and organized

• Group produces solutions and products of

high quality and usefulness
 The Basic Assumption Group
• Group experiences internal emotional and
psychological barriers not related to the task
• Members are not conscious of the barriers
• “Basic” because the anxieties expressed are
primitive and instinctual
• “Assumptions” because the group operates
“as if” the assumption was implicit truth
 The Basic Assumption Group
• Time boundaries vanish “as if” time was
unlimited
• Critical dialogue and reflection is avoided /
discouraged
• Result is a “breakdown” of group
effectiveness
Types of Basic Assumption Groups
• Dependence

• Fight / Flight

• Pairing
Basic Assumption: Dependence
• Feelings, thoughts and actions directed toward
making someone the sole leader of the group

• Members look to leader for all solutions,

structure, etc.

• Insistence on simplistic solutions

Basic Assumption: Dependence
• Members sabotage leader by providing
partial or inadequate information

• Members demonstrate disappointment and

hostility toward leader
• Leader may be expelled from
group or demoted
• Group seeks out a new
leader
Basic Assumption: Fight / Flight
• Group behaves “as if” its purpose is to fight or flee
a real or imagined enemy

• Members refuse to critically evaluate themselves

• Members are singled

out and scapegoated

• Weaknesses (as
perceived by the group)
are not tolerated
 Basic Assumption: Pairing
• Members rely on a pair within the group for all
creative effort

• Great interest in creative process

• Hopeful expressions of
anticipation / use of clichés

• Solutions or leaders generated

by the pair are sabotaged or
destroyed by the group
 The Concept of Valence
• Individual group members have preferences
toward one of the three basic assumptions
• Group performance depends on each
member’s awareness of his/her preference
and willingness to direct energy toward
maintaining a work group stance
• Basic assumption state is always present in a
group to some degree
 Observable Behaviors
• Long silence in which something is expected from a
leader or other group member

• Hypothesis offered by one member and contradicted

or shot down by another

• Search for something believed to be hidden and

waiting to be discovered

• Members seeking approval of leader or alliances

with other members
 Observable Behaviors
• Strong feelings of love, hate or comradeship

• Projection of strong feelings, beliefs or behaviors on

other group members

• Scapegoating

• Member expelled or voluntarily leaving group

Recommendations for Consultants
• Recognize that basic assumption group is
part of every group and functions as a
defense against anxiety
• Develop your “sixth sense” or awareness
of your own internal emotional
experiences
• Identify basic assumption behavior and
make it explicit
 Recommendations for Consultants
• Take responsibility for your own
projections and encourage others to do
the same

• Use and reinforce time boundaries

• Refuse to collude with group projections /

expectations of leadership