This study is concerned with the effect of involving small groups in team research work in a large psychology class at Illinois State University. Phase I (fall) dealt with developing, organizing, and evaluating a lab team method and sought to have students actively participate in discussion of study questions and in team research by combining a small interaction group approach one day a week with the traditional large lecture twice a week. Based on the results of the fall semester, Phase II (spring) incorporated several stated changes in the course and emphasized an improved lab team method. Phase II data offered the opportunity to explore the kind of students elected as team leaders and the relationship of team and leader variables to the students' final rating of their laboratory team experience. Course achievement, leader power, group cohesion, individual team members' contributions, course ratings, and lab team aspects were measured by various quizzes; exams; sociograms; and rating scales. Findings indicate that lab teams tend to elect female leaders who are relatively high achievers in psychology. School level or previous high school psychology had no effect on the selection of leaders. Three variables seemed to be positively correlated with group ratings of their team experience: the leader's final exam score, the team cohesion ratio, and the final evaluation of the whole course. (SJM)