ABSTRACT
Personal gain-what it is and how it occurs in groups-is central to the whole enterprise of using groups to help people. Why have a group at all if individuals cannot gain from participating in it?
The issue of personal benefit or gain was first discussed in Chapter 3. Benefit was defined, and some concepts were presented to assist in thinking out just what gain is for different population categories. A list of potential gains was presented, and the point was made that what constitutes significant gain for one population, subpopulation, or individual might not be relevant to others. Examples of personal gain appear in some of the earlier chapters in Part III. In Chapter 9 it was shown that gains can begin to occur very early in a group’s life. Chapter 11 showed that many situations which are at first regarded as problems can be turned into opportunities for personal gain.
