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  • The application of a deliberate practice training in the improvement of students’ and in-training psychotherapists’ empathic skills
    Publication . Barata, Matilde Taveira Soares Madeira; Sousa, Daniel Cunha Monteiro de
    Contrary to other professions, research suggests that psychotherapists do not improve their performance with experience. The application of Deliberate Practice into psychotherapeutic training has been suggested as one way to improve psychotherapists’ performance. Objective: Study 1: Compare the impact of a deliberate practice training and an expositive training (without feedback) on the empathic quality of undergraduates’ therapeutic responses to clinical simulation videos. Study 2: Follows the same objective as study 1, controlling for practice and individualized feedback effects, with experienced in-training therapists. Method: Study 1: Psychology undergraduates (N = 36) were randomly assigned to the Deliberate Practice or the Training As Usual conditions. They recorded empathic responses to two videos at three different time points, over the course of three weeks (once before having received any training and twice after the DP or TAU interventions). Study 2: This follows the same procedure as Study 1 but the sample consists of experienced in-training therapists (N = 11). To control feedback and practice effects, participants in both conditions received individualized feedback and responded to 6 videos. In both studies, blind raters evaluated the empathic quality of the responses using the Measure of Expressed Empathy (Watson, 1999). Results: Study 1: Undergraduate students in the DP condition improved their empathic responses compared to participants under the TAU condition. Additionally, they were the only group that improved over the two interventions. Study 2: When using a sample constituted by more experienced therapists and controlling for both practice and feedback effects, the effects of DP are inconclusive.
    2020-07-25Master thesis Open access Show more