SOCIODRAMA: WHAT IT IS FOR, STRUCTURE AND HOW IT IS DONE - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The sociodrama is a therapeutic technique based psicodrama used to troubleshoot a group. It is used to help participants understand the point of view of other people, so that they can put themselves in their shoes and find alternative behaviors to those previously existing.

Sociodrama as a psychological tool was developed by Jacob Levy Moreno in 1959, and is traditionally used in the field of group therapy. However, today its use has been extended to other fields, mainly that of social intervention to treat problems related to society.

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The main technique of sociodrama is the representation of a concrete situation as if it were a small play. In this way, the participants (the therapy patients or the target group) can put themselves in the shoes of other people and better understand their points of view.

The sociodrama helps to solve social problems by encouraging the discussion of the different points of view that intervene in each of them. Thus, empathy between those involved is increased, achieving all kinds of benefits such as the reduction of conflicts or discrimination to the different.

What is sociodrama for?

When Jacob Levy Moreno developed sociodrama as a psychological technique, his intention was to use it to solve all kinds of problems within a group. Each of the participants has to adopt a role that is not their usual one, and "live" first-hand the experience on which the conflict is based.

The original psychodrama technique was developed to work on traumatic experiences lived by a single person during their childhood, with the aim of reliving them and overcoming the problems caused by them in adult life. This first version was based on psychoanalysis, especially on the works of Sigmund Freud.

Later, Levy Moreno gave his present form to the sociodrama based on this psychoanalytic approach. This author wanted to use the sociodrama to work on all kinds of group conflicts during psychological therapy sessions. Thus, in general it was used to solve problems between relatives, couples or groups of any kind.

Today, however, the sociodrama has continued to develop and broaden its horizons. At present, this technique is also used in the field of social intervention.

In this field, its objective is to help all kinds of people to put themselves in the place of others, to combat problems of a cultural nature.

In this way, today sociodrama is one of the most used techniques to combat hatred, sexism, racism, harassment and discrimination; and it can be used both in therapy and as prevention, with people of all kinds. It can also be used to intervene with groups in times of crisis.

Structure and how it is made

Next we will see what are the most common stages in which a sociodrama session takes place.

Choice of scenery

Before starting a role play session, the first step is to choose what type of problem to work on. In some cases, such as interventions in times of crisis, the scenario will already be determined in advance. However, in most cases it is the facilitator who has to choose the topic to be discussed.

Thus, for example, a social intervener who is helping the victims of a terrorist attack will have to work directly on the issue in question.

On the other hand, a therapist who wants to work with a high school class will have to choose an appropriate topic for them, such as discrimination or bullying.

Cast of roles and introduction of the scene

Once the facilitator has chosen the topic to be discussed during the sociodrama session, the next step will be to select who will play each of the roles involved in it.

Ideally, all group members can participate, but sometimes this is not possible and a selection is necessary.

When all the papers are distributed, the facilitator will also have to explain to each of the participants what the scene consists of.

In this way, everyone can start to prepare a little what they want to do or say. To facilitate this task, it is possible to give each one a small script, although this is not necessary.

Before beginning to act, the participants can discuss among themselves about the content of the scene, and even collaborate to write what will happen during the same.

Depending on the characteristics of the group and the subject, the freedom granted by the auditor in this regard will be greater or lesser.

Representation of the scene

The group participants will then act out the scene previously discussed. Depending on whether a script has been written or not, there may be room for improvisation, or it may simply be a matter of following the steps outlined previously.

The main idea of ​​the representation is that the actors can feel in their own skin what a real person would feel if they were experiencing the situation represented. This helps them put themselves in their shoes and understand all kinds of conflicts from other points of view.

Reflection and discussion

At the last point of a sociodrama session, participants have to reflect on what they have lived and experienced while the scene was performed.

In this part, they will have to talk with their classmates about what they have felt, the experiences of each character and how these relate to their own life.

In this section, the entire group has to exchange ideas about what has happened. This will help them to better understand similar situations that may arise in the future, to process their emotions, and to modify their behavior if necessary.

Advantages and disadvantages

Sociodrama is an increasingly used technique because it has many advantages. When it is used, the group on which it is intervened is able to understand with much greater ease situations on which they would not normally reflect. In this way, negative phenomena such as hatred or discrimination can be reduced.

On the other hand, in cases where a group has had a traumatic experience, the skit can help its members to process their emotions and make sense of what they have experienced. In this way, psychological recovery will be faster and easier.

However, psychodrama can sometimes present some problems as well. Among them, the most important are the representation of a scene in the wrong way (which can lead to erroneous interpretations of what happens), and the introduction of biases by the facilitator or the actors.

Even so, the advantages of this social intervention technique often far outweigh its disadvantages, which is why it is increasingly common in a large number of different settings.

References

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