Comparison of two styles of leadership in small group discussion

Abstract

Previous research favors democratic group discussion leadership. "Three small groups of adult Ss viewed and discussed a motion picture film under directive discussion leadership, while three additional groups followed the same procedure under nondirective leadership. Following the discussion, the Ss rated the leader in terms of 20 adjective pairs, each of which defined favorable and unfavorable ends of a continuum. They also answered questions relative to the value of the discussion." The results indicate that a directive approach by a discussion leader is favored by members of sophisticated adult discussion groups. 24 refs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)