ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how Systems-Centered Therapy (SCT) group members learn to subgroup functionally. It discusses the difference between functional subgrouping and stereotype subgrouping and the advantages of functional subgrouping. In all kinds of groups, people have a greater tolerance for the differences between members in their own subgroup than for the differences between themselves and the members of other subgroups. Stereotyping maintains stability in the SCT system-as-a-whole but slows down the rate of change. Stereotype subgrouping, the simplest level of subgrouping, serves an important function by contributing to the stability of the group in the short run. In SCT groups, conflicts are managed by channeling the group's tendency to form subgroups on the basis of stereotypical differences into creating functional subgroups instead. Functional subgrouping provides a structure within which the splits in a group can be contained in a way that enables the group to work toward integrating those splits.
