A Review of Psychodrama and Group Process

Abstract

In recent years, group work therapy has been expanded rapidly throughout the world in helping professionals. Psychodrama, as a form of group psychotherapy, has already shown the potential for bringing about positive change in participants for almost 80 years. However, while psychodrama is primarily a form of group psychotherapy, psychodrama practitioners and researchers have seldom recognized it as a group work. Hence, the connection between psychodrama and group process has rarely been addressed. This review examines the development of research in the connection between psychodrama and group process. An extensive literature search including books, reports, monographs and journal articles has been conducted. It is found that before the new century, psychodrama practitioners and researchers have largely ignored the group process. In addition, most research findings were not published in peer-review journals. Encouragingly, in the last ten years, most empirical studies of psychodrama have incorporated group process in their analysis or discussion. Moreover, most of these studies are reported in peer-reviewed journals. However, there is still a lack of research studies which examine the interaction of psychodrama and the group process. It is hoped that the results of this study will stimulate further research in this area and can increase the awareness among psychodrama practitioners, trainers, and researchers of the need to be equally cognizant of both psychodrama processes and group work.