Who is credited with organizing the first formal group experience not primarily educational or work oriented?

• A. Joseph Pratt
• B. Kurt Lewin
• C. Carl Rogers
• D. Alfred Adler

Answer: (A)

The question tests knowledge of the origins of formal group therapy and who first created a group experience focused on emotional support rather than education or work tasks. Joseph Pratt is credited with organizing the first such group. In 1905, while running tuberculosis clinics, he brought patients together for regular discussions about their fears and experiences, creating an early, non-educational, non-work-oriented group that provided mutual aid and psychosocial support. This established a foundational model for group therapy that later researchers and clinicians built on.

Kurt Lewin is renowned for his work on group dynamics and leadership within social psychology, contributing theories about how groups function, but his work came later and did not originate the first formal group experience of this type. Carl Rogers is central to person-centered therapy, emphasizing individual counseling and the therapeutic relationship, not the inaugural group format described here. Alfred Adler advanced social interest and individual psychology with group implications, yet he did not inaugurate the first formal non-educational, non-work-oriented group experience.