A major area of concentration for pressure groups in the United States is the Congress, which may draw up legislation affecting the interests of the group (see lobbying). Through promises of financial support or of votes by interest group members at the next election, the organization hopes to persuade certain legislators, especially appropriate committee chairmen, to endorse favorable legislation. This is one of the reasons that incumbents, regardless of party, receive the preponderance of campaign funds.

Much effort is also expended in influencing executive decisions, because the bureaucracy often possesses considerable discretion in implementing legislation. This is especially true of the independent regulatory agencies (e.g., the Federal Communications Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission). Such agencies are especially open to the influence of those they regulate because of their continuing relationship with those they oversee; they receive much more sporadic attention from possible countervailing forces such as Congress or public opinion.

Political parties are also targets for pressure groups. However, because influencing public policy rather than electing a certain candidate is the aim of an interest group, most groups avoid heavy involvement with one party and generally remain at least formally nonpartisan. Some large pressure groups make a considerable effort to mold public opinion by means of mailing campaigns, advertising, and use of the communications media. On the other hand, there are other groups, especially the more powerful organizations representing narrow interests, that prefer to have their activities and influence go unnoticed by the public at large.

Because any particular pressure group reflects the interests of only a part of the population, it is argued that such organizations are contrary to the interests of the general public. However, it is pointed out that some interest groups supply legislators with much needed information, while others, such as the labor unions, perform a broad representative function. The power of an interest group is usually dependent on the size of its membership, the socioeconomic status of its members, and its financial resources. There are a great many categories of interest groups, including economic, patriotic, racial, women's, occupational, and professional groups. The AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Legion, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws are examples of well-known American pressure groups.

Origins of Group Therapy

The technique of formally organized group therapy is said to have been devised by J. H. Pratt in 1905. Pratt was holding general-care instruction classes for recently discharged tuberculosis patients when he noticed the impact of this experience on their emotional states. In 1925 psychoanalyst Trigant Burrow became dissatisfied with individual psychoanalysis, and began experimenting with group techniques. Burrow hoped to decrease the authoritarian position of the therapist, and to more thoroughly examine interpersonal interactions. The application of group therapy methods to prison inmates and discharged mental hospital patients was pioneered by Paul Schilder and Louis Wender in the 1930s. At that time group therapy was found to be particularly useful in the treatment of children and adolescents. The development of group therapy was given impetus during World War II, as a result of the large number of soldiers requiring treatment.

Types of Group Therapy

There are various types of group therapy; approaches include behavior therapy, psychoanalytic therapy, sensitivity training, or Gestalt psychology (see psychotherapy). The composition of groups varies as well, with family therapy and marriage counseling common forms in recent years. Peer group therapy usually consists of a group of individuals who have similar problems, and can be mediated by a psychoanalyst or by the members themselves. Many people seeking help prefer this sort of group therapy over individual therapy, largely because of the comfort derived from knowing that others share their problems. The approach is nondirective, and in some cases, the individual can continue attending sessions whenever they are needed. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a well-known peer support group, run entirely by members. AA has been influential in the formation of similar groups, particularly support groups centered on addictions.

any association of individuals or organizations, usually formally organized, that, on the basis of one or more shared concerns, attempts to influence public policy in its favour. All interest groups share a desire to affect government policy to benefit themselves or their cause. It could be a policy that exclusively benefits group members or one segment of society (e.g., government subsidies for farmers) or a policy that advances a broader public purpose (e.g., improving air quality). Interest groups are a natural outgrowth of the communities of interests that exist in all societies, from the narrowest groups such as the Japan Eraser Manufacturers Association to broader groups such as the AFL-CIO to very broad organizations such as the military in authoritarian countries. Interest groups exist at all levels of government—national, state, provincial, and local—and increasingly they have occupied an important role in international affairs.

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All the genes on a single chromosome. They are inherited as a group; during cell division they act and move as a unit rather than independently. Variations in linkage groups can occur if a chromosome breaks, and the sections join with the partner chromosome if it has broken in the same places. This exchange of genes between chromosomes, called crossing-over, usually occurs during meiosis. Sex linkage is the tendency of a characteristic to be linked to one sex; sex-linked traits in humans include red-green colour blindness and hemophilia.

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Form of psychotherapy in which several patients or clients discuss their personal problems, usually in the presence of a therapist or counselor. In one approach to group therapy, the chief aim is to raise members' awareness and morale and combat feelings of isolation by cultivating a sense of belonging to the group; a notable example is Alcoholics Anonymous. The other principal approach strives to foster free discussion and uninhibited self-revelation; members are helped to self-understanding and more successful behaviour through mutual examination of their reactions to people in their lives, including one another.

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In molecules, any of numerous combinations of atoms that undergo characteristic chemical reactions themselves and in many cases influence the reactivity of the rest of the molecule. Organic compounds are often classified according to the functional groups they contain. Common functional groups include hydroxyl (singlehorzbondOH), in alcohols and phenols; carboxyl (singlehorzbondCOOH), in carboxylic acids; carbonyl (singlehorzbondCdoublehorzbondO), in aldehydes, ketones, amides, carboxylic acids, esters, and quinones; and nitro (singlehorzbondNO₂) and amino (singlehorzbondNH₂), in certain organic nitrogen compounds.

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Social group or category of the population that, in a larger society, is set apart and bound together by common ties of language, nationality, or culture. Ethnic diversity, the legacy of political conquests and migrations, is one aspect of the social complexity found in most contemporary societies. The nation-state has traditionally been uneasy with ethnic diversity, and nation-states have often attempted to eliminate or expel ethnic groups. Most nations today practice some form of pluralism, which usually rests on a combination of toleration, interdependence, and separatism. The concept of ethnicity is more important today than ever, as a result of the spread of doctrines of freedom, self-determination, and democracy. Seealso culture contact; ethnic cleansing; ethnocentrism; race; racism.

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Toronto-centred group of Canadian painters devoted to landscape painting (especially of northern Ontario subjects) and the creation of a national style. A number of future members met in 1913 while working as commercial artists in Toronto. The group adopted its name on the occasion of a group exhibition held in 1920. The original members included J.E.H. MacDonald, Lawren S. Harris, Arthur Lismer, F.H. Varley, Franklin Carmichael, Frank H. Johnston, and Alexander Young Jackson. The group was particularly influential in the 1920s and '30s. In 1933 the name was changed to the Canadian Group of Painters.

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Concentration of about 50 galaxies to which the Milky Way Galaxy belongs. Nearly one-third are dwarf elliptical galaxies, but the six largest are spiral or irregular galaxies. They are probably kept from separating by mutual gravitational attraction. The Milky Way system is near one end of the group; the great Andromeda Galaxy is near the other end, about two million light-years away.

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New York theatre company (1931–41) founded by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strasberg to present U.S. plays of social significance. Embracing the acting principles of the Stanislavsky method, the company—which also included actors and directors such as Elia Kazan, Lee J. Cobb, and Stella Adler—staged John Howard Lawson's Success Story (1932), Sidney Kingsley's Men in White (1933), Clifford Odets's Waiting for Lefty (1935) and Golden Boy (1937), Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead (1936), and William Saroyan's My Heart's in the Highlands (1939), among many other plays.

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A coterie of English writers, philosophers, and artists. The name was a reference to the Bloomsbury district of London, where between about 1907 and 1930 the group frequently met to discuss aesthetic and philosophical questions. Among the group were E.M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, the painters Vanessa Bell (1879–1961) and Duncan Grant (1885–1978), John Maynard Keynes, the Fabian writer Leonard Woolf (1880–1969), and Virginia Woolf.

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