[Conversation contents in person centered conversation groups and their relationship with process variables in...

90 persons of different professions and ages (18 to 85 years old) took part in a total of 9 person-centered encounter groups of 2 1/2 days each. The groups were completely tape-recorded (163 hours) and rated by experts into 7 categories of "contents-of-talking". These categories were correlated with process-variables (talking behaviour and individual problems of the participants).

For 26% of the total time of these groups the participants talked about their problems about interpersonal relations. After these groups the participants stated that they had experienced relief in their dissatisfaction with own behaviour and emotional problems. They experienced this relief although they had talked relatively little about these problems.