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Abstract

Introduction:The objective of the study is to explore the presence and the evolution of a common orientation among the participants to two closed groups participating in a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training. One group is composed by adolescents and the other by some of their parents. The evolution was assessed via their answers to the "absurd questionnaire" and we will analyze the results in the light of the previous experiments we have conducted. Methods: The "absurd questionnaires", composed of 50 pairs of images was administered to the participants who were asked to choose one image from each pair. In this experiment we were able to submit to the participants a version of the questionnaire before the groups were formed. We have analyzed their initial picture choices and how these evolved over time considering the changes in the choices, the differences in the two groups of participants, the flux and the focus of the answers. Results: In both groups we found statistical evidence that both the initial choices of the pictures and their evolution during the training are not simply governed by randomness. The initial picture choice in each pair is highly skewed toward one of the two pictures, and there is a statistically significant change in the picture choice in the first part of the training in both groups. The evolution of the picture's choice is compared in the two groups. Conclusions:The results show that the answers to the questions are strongly polarized before the groups convene, and this reveals an initial socio-cultural bias. The group environment causes a relaxing of this initial strong bias and a subsequent recovery. This could indicate the formation of a "groupal continuum", coming from the entanglement of individuals psyches toward the formation of a groupal unity having its own identity. The adolescents seem to fear this loss of individuality and they tend to abandon the group. The parents, on the contrary, are more constant in the participation to their group, a sign that they are perhaps less exposed to incomplete individuation and clanic loyalties typical of a younger age.