Editor Spotlight

Giorgio A. Tasca, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa.

Tell us a bit about your background: What is your area of research? What is your most recent journal-editing experience?

Although I am an academic and researcher now, I worked primarily in a tertiary care medical centre for the first half of my career and became a researcher in the last 15 years or so.

My areas of research include group therapy, practice-research networks, and research in the treatment and psychopathology of eating disorders.

Prior to becoming editor of Group Dynamics, I was an associate editor of the journal, and I am on the editorial boards of several other journals as well. I was a guest editor of a special issue of Group Dynamics in 2016 on Statistical Methods in Group Research.

Briefly, what are your main priorities? For example, how will you grow readership, what type of scholarship would you like to see in the journal, and what kind of content are you hoping to attract?

My main priority is to make Group Dynamics the go-to journal for group researchers.

To that end we will publish several special issues over the next few years, the first of which will be on how group psychology and group psychotherapy theory and research can inform each other.

We have also instituted two special types of articles.

The first is the Practice Review, in which authors can review the existing literature in a particular group domain with an emphasis on the practice implications of that research. The second is the Evidence-Based Case Study, in which authors can examine new interventions, theories, or group processes and present detailed empirical findings on outcomes and processes. This type of case study is meant to be a precursor to more intensive study of the intervention, theory, or process.

The journal continues to accept empirical research, reviews, and meta-analyses related to groups in social, organizational, treatment, military, sports, and other contexts.

Why is this journal important for the field? What is its relevance to society/public health? What are the hot issues in your area right now?

There are no other journals that cover the broad range of social, organizational, therapeutic, and team aspects of group research. In that way, Group Dynamics represents a place for group researchers to publish and discuss high impact empirical research.

Groups are at the core of most educational, social, work, community, and therapeutic contexts that affect our lives, so group research will have a direct impact on most aspects of our society such as where we work, play, heal, and create.

The hot issues right now in group research are related to inter-group dialogue, factors that have an impact on the effectiveness of therapy groups, and how work groups and teams can best be most productive and also be places for personal development of individuals.

What challenges, if any, lie ahead for the field?

The biggest challenge for the field is that, despite the fact that people live and work in groups, and that group dynamics affect all aspects of private and public life, the field of group research gets little recognition outside of its own borders.

Those outside of the field of group research do not often think about or appreciate how groups function, what factors make them effective, and the nature of group processes that bring out the best in individuals and societies.

Many in the public and in academia do not consider the impact of groups on our social institutions, on our productivity, and on our mental health.

Do you have plans for a special issue or changes to the editorial process? Are you making any changes?

Yes, we have a couple of special issues in the works.

The first is a special issue on the synergies between group psychology and group psychotherapy. We asked experts in one domain (e.g., group psychotherapy or group psychology) to review a key research area in their domain and then discuss how this research area might be applicable to the other domain. For example, attachment theory is an important topic in group therapy but less commonly studied in organizations — so, we asked the authors to write about how attachment theory might apply to and be studied in organizations. Similarly, we asked researchers in the field of leadership in social groups to discuss how their research might inform group treatment research and practice.

The second special issue will be on therapeutic alliance rupture and repair in the group context. Therapeutic alliance rupture and repair research has emerged as important in individual therapy research and practice, but has not been studied extensively in groups.

In the longer term, we will likely do another special issue on research and statistical methods in group research.

Anyone interested in proposing a special issue for Group Dynamics should contact me directly.

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