Handbook of Small Group Research Author:A. Paul Hare Excerpt from the Introduction: — Everywhere I turn the small group is being rediscovered... — The research results which pour in from the academic laboratories are being supplemented by applied research in the armed services, hospitals, industrial plants, court houses and government bureaus. From all these sources together have come more than one ... more »thousand books and articles relevant to the study of social interaction in small groups...My own response to this rapid development has been to make a first excursion through the literature in order to make available to students, researchers, and practitioners a catalogue of the field together with some suggestions of principles by which it may be organized.
This book is intended as a reference work rather than as a college text. Since the goals of producing both a comprehensive reference work and a selective introductory text are basically incompatible, I found that I could not write one book to serve both needs. I chose to write the reference work at this time because it seemed to represent the next step along the path which has led away from bibliography to readings and which may lead eventually to a unified theory of small group behavior.« less