Asserts the essence of affirmation is that investigators should be less concerned with discrediting bad readings of questionable interpreations and more concerned with making better ones. The strongest tools carried by social scientists when they address problems are their beliefs, not their doubts. (Author/RC)

Suggests that research on small group behavior, in a wide variety of settings, will be enhanced by rethinking alternative modes of enquiry, e.g., a focus on induction, a study of whole systems of human enterprise, the utilization of subjective experience, and trans-causal thinking. (Author/RC)

Reports analyses by topical cycle and group meeting of nine videotaped group discussions to extend Bales and Strodtbeck's often cited phase research. The analysis by group meeting suggesting an underlying motivational structure for phase progression, offers support of a three-phase hypothesis. (Author)