Effect of Debriefing in University Camp on Group Cohesiveness of Participants

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of debriefing and goal setting in university camp on group cohesiveness of participants. The subjects were seventy-nine university students who participated in a four-day camp. Treatment-group A was consisted of five groups (N=32) who supervised debriefing activity, and treatment-group B was four groups (N=27) who supervised goal setting and debriefing activity. The other hand, control group was consisted of three groups (N=20) who were not supervised goal setting and debriefing activity by their counselors. In treatment-group A and B, debriefing activity was conducted by their counselor at the end of each day, using Debriefing Sheet developed by authors. In treatment-group B, goal setting was conducted at the evening of first day. In order to measure the transfer of group cohesiveness during camp, the Group Attitude Scale (GAS) was administered three times, before, during and after camp. The results showed that treatment-group A and B significantly increased group cohesiveness with control-group. There was no significant difference between treatment-group A and B in score improvement of group cohesiveness. Consequently, the debriefing supervised by counselor during camp can improve group cohesiveness.