Group Analytic Contexts, Issue 77, September 2017

CONTEXTS’ COLUMNISTS
Quantitative Unease
By Susanne Vosmer
Newsletter – Autumn 2017 135
A column dedicated to demystifying psychotherapy research –
love it, hate it, or both…at least try to know what it’s all about!
The ‘Suprapersonal Research Matrix’: Error & Reproducibility
- It’s all in the Matrix
Foulkes (1973) recognised the enormous complexities of processes,
actions and interactions that occur when people come together in a
group. It’s quite impossible, he thought, that we can perceive and
disentangle what’s happening at the same time. You might have the
same feeling when you engage in research activities, looking at the
plethora of data.
How come that people nevertheless understand each other
when coming together so that a shared understanding of what is going
on can emerge? And how come that we can make sense of data?
Foulkes’ answer to this conundrum was a ‘suprapersonal matrix’
(psychic system) and he thought that we share a fundamental mental
matrix (foundation matrix). When we interact, pattern-forming,
coherent properties can emerge.
Foulkes’ matrix has much in common with scientific
research where we find the same complexity of processes, actions and
interactions when we gather, analyse and interpret data. The research
matrix, a grid-like arrangement of data in form of a spreadsheet is a
mould, in which a record is shaped. It’s comparable to a group, where
individuals are shaped through group processes. And just as people
share fundamental biological and cultural characteristics, so do raw
data (e.g. demographic information, sex, gender). In both foundation
matrices, we find similar changes through biological and cultural
evolution (e.g. transgender as a new category in the research matrix).
Through analysis of interaction data, coherent data sets emerge. At
least that is what researchers are hoping for. And we are looking to
achieve coherence in groups as well through interactions. In ‘scientific’
research, researchers systematically attempt to avoid error and aim for
reproducibility of statistical analysis and results. In Group Analysis,
we also like to avoid error (e.g. history taking).