Design and Delivery of Developmental Interventions

This outline is a summary of Developmental Interventions: Theories, Principles, and Practice by David Drum and Alice Lawler (1988). Columbus, OH: Merrill Publishing Company.

Formats for Developmental Interventions

• Stand-alone interventions - pamphlets, workbooks, computer self-discovery programs, etc.
• Workshops - single topic, single session intervention
• Theme groups - multiple session intervention designed to resolve specific needs or conflicts

Intervention Strategies

• Preventive - prevent onset of a problem
• Developmental - facilitate normal development by adding new skills or providing helpful strategies
• Psychotherapeutic - to repair or reconstruct the self

Levels of Change

• Raising awareness
• Improving self-understanding
• Increasing response flexibility
• Working through the problem

Interaction Patterns

• Low interaction - stand alone interventions
• Leader-oriented or controlled interaction with minimal participant-to-participant interaction
• Maximum participant-to-participant interaction with the leader acting as a facilitator

Stages of Change In Developmental Interventions
Leader Goals / Participant Tasks

• To involve and include / Engage or disengage
• To Inform and enlighten / Develop self-awareness
• To Inquire and build awareness / Build understanding
• To catalyze change and rebuilding / Adapt and grow
• To stabilize and transfer gains / Refine and apply new understanding
• To establish closure / Complete and terminate

Factors and Elements of Developmental Interventions

1. Environment - conducive to safe interpersonal exchanges, self-exploration, and hopefulness
   • Building trust and acceptance
   • Clarifying participant roles
   • Providing encouragement
2. People - management of interpersonal processes
   • Self-disclosing
   • Giving and receiving feedback
   • Handling resistance
   • Managing problem participants
3. Problem - intrapersonal aspects of confronting an issue
   • Providing Information
   • Assessing the problem
   • Directing intrapersonal discovery
   • Establishing dominion over one's life
   • Working through the Issues
   • Stabilizing gains and terminating
4. Procedure - structure the procedure into a comprehensive plan for change
   • Developing facilitative activities
   • Sequencing the intervention
   • Pacing change
   • Focusing attention
   • Processing meaning

Planning and Designing a Workshop

1. Initial Planning
   • Specifying objectives
   • Depth of change
   • Intended audience
   • When to intervene
2. Establishing Basic Change Assumptions - Developmental assumptions drawn from theory
3. Participant Interaction Patterns - Listening, disclosing, interacting, and receiving feedback, etc.
4. Establishing a Therapeutic Milieu = Environment Factor
5. Management of Interpersonal Dynamics = People Factor
6. Attacking and Working Through the Problem = Problem Factor
7. Structuring Procedural Elements = Procedure Element