Practitioner Question, August 10-Sept 10, 2008
Posted on Friday, September 19 @ 09:24:05 CDT
Topic: Questions and Answers
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Practitioner:
You are preparing to introduce some basic sociometry in your groups.
What sort of supplies are you gathering together? How will you use
these supplies? An answer supplied by Ann E. Hale, M.A., TEP
Here are the supplies I typically bring with me for introductory sociometry training:
Most basic:
roll of drafting (masking) tape, one-inch wide;
templates for the Sabelli Diamond of Opposites in a variety of sizes;
circle targets on 8/5 x 11 “ paper for social atom exercises’
a box of colored and pens;
green, red and yellow disc labels for “streetlight sociometry” with cork boards; colored push-pins
flip chart paper;
A few extras:
cloth sociometric cycle (1) which is about 8' in
diameter and written explanation: I developed the sociometric cycle in
1987 to look at the movement of belonging within a group based on
sociometric position. The circle is a quadratic one, similar to
seasons, the birth process, the medicine wheel and other cyclical
processes with which we are familiar.
handout on Moreno’s sociometric system (2); short bibliography with websites added
small pad of multi-colored arrows (available at
office supply stores). These I use so people can add a direction onto
the social atom, move closer, move further away, move in this direction
in relation to me, or another group member.
Group familiarity exercise for pre and post look at
connections: This uses a line drawn on a half-sheet of paper which each
person selects a placement along the continuum identifying the persons
who are most known to least known. The bottom half of the sheet
also has a line, and the person find their placement of each members
continuum and copies that placement onto the paper, matching the
placement with the other person’s name. This way each person has a
record to refer to when matching changes during a later period in the
group’s history.
A ten to fourteen-inch flat drum or a single bongo,
which I can use to facilitate a non-verbal exchange between two or more
people. Other instruments may also be included.
Teaching basic sociometry
I like to begin with Moreno and his vision that we need to participate
in creating a world organized in such a way that “all can
survive”. That this means taking responsibility for the impact of
our choices on others, all our choices spiraling out through the
universe. ( If I want to take time for this I might give out the
one-page handout on Moreno’s system.) I teach about individual
choices, such as my choices for others, and the composite of all these
choices becoming group choices, everyone’s choices for each other
creating a matrix. A good metaphor to describe group sociometry
is that of the safety net, placed by circus high wire acts, to catch
the performer in case of a misstep causing a fall. I ask the
group to imagine lines extending from oneself to all the others and to
take a momentary aerial view of all the lines from all the group
members. The linkages between people creates a cris-cross of
lines which when strengthened form a net, allowing us to take risks.
I introduce the Diamond of Opposites (Carlson-Sabelli and Sabelli)
(3) , each person receiving one of the templates. I use the
tape to create a large Diamond in the workspace. I talk
about inner pulls to choose, and not choose (positive/negative) and
ways we embody the choices with degrees of intensity which result in
low level charge (neutral) and high level charge (conflictual).
Ambivalence is when the charge is experienced as equal. I discuss
that there are underlying pulls which we experience and then we make a
decision how to choose, or whether to choose. This choice made
and revealed is the sociometric choice and the internal dialog is
the “sociodynamic”.
I have group members interact with the Diamond of Opposites and become
familiar with the internal process and the more public choosing
process. Next I introduce the social atom templates having three
circles, to represent degrees of connection, including outside the
circle.
I discuss nearness and distance in relationships. Each persons has
colored pens which they can use to indicate green (good, growing),
yellow (cautiou) and red (stopped) as they place persons on their
individual social atom. I like to begin with people making a
social atom of a group other than the one we are in in this
moment. I say that at some time in the future we may explore our
own group sociometry, but for this moment is helps to become familiar
with the subject first.
On the flip chart paper I draw the same three circles. I give each
person three push pins, colored in red, green, and yellow. When
the group has assembled, I ask each person to write their name on
a disk and using a push pin for how they feel about him/herself (using
a criterion) , place their disk on the social atom based on the way
they feel here and now about their centrality or peripherality in this
group. Once we have done this, people can make changes based on
responses from group members. Examples: “I would like for you to be
closer to me. Will you move your disk closer?” Or, I am surprised
at how distant you feel to the center of the group. In fact I am
surprised about how few people placed themselves there. Are we
being modest or something?”
Based on the discussion of the group sociometry I will proceed with
additional ways to explore the group using methods and exercises which
expand their understanding of both group dynamics and the process of
choosing.
_________________________
(1) Hale, Ann E. (1987) “Sociometric Elements Related to the “Healing
Circle” as presented by John Mosher” in Journal of Group Psychotherapy,
Psychodrama and Sociometry, Vol. 40, no. 3 pages 115-118
(2) Hale, Ann E “The Interrelationships of Moreno’s Theories” in .
Conducting Clinical Sociometric Explorations: a Manual for
Psychodramatists and Sociometrists. Roanoke, VA: Royal Publishing,
1985, p. 5.
(3) Carlson Sabelli,Linnea, Hector Sabelli and Ann E. Hale, (1994)
“Sociometry and sociodynamics” in Psychodrama Since Moreno, Edited by
Marcia Karp, Paul Holmes and Michael Watson. London, Routledge, p.
150-154.
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