This is the first phase in the design of a sociometric test for the empirical identification of four leadership roles: Task, Emotional, Scapegoat, and Defiant Leaders and one Nonleader member role. Eighteen different questions have been used in studying 273 cases in 31 closed psychotherapy groups. (1) A factor analysis identified two factors that describe an involvement/commitment dimension (Factor 1) and a positive/negative change dimension (Factor 2). (2) A discriminant function analysis showed that the five roles were differentiated at a statistically significant level. (3) Role assignments, based on weights, produced by this test were compared to clinically identified leaders with an overall hit rate of 97%, indicating a low error factor when the formulas were applied to this data base. Steps for the next phases in the construction of this test are outlined.

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