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Publication
Does deliberate practice surpass didactic training in learning empathy skills? A randomized controlled study
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
A large body of research identifies therapist expressed empathy as one of the most
important predictors of psychotherapy outcome. Deliberate practice (DP) is an effective
method to improve skills in many fields. We asked if DP also can be used to enhance the
skill of expressing empathy. Objective: The aim was to compare the efficacy of DP to
didactical learning methods (DLM) in enhancing the skill of empathic expression in
students. Method: A repeated measures randomized controlled group design was used.
Novice students (N ¼ 36) from psychologist-, medicine-, social work-, and nursing
programs received two training sessions of either DP (n ¼ 21) or DLM (n ¼ 15).
Participants’ skills in empathic expression were assessed with the Measure of Expressed
Empathy (MEE) on three occasions: before the first, between, and after the last training
session. Results: Participants in the DP-group showed improved empathic expression,
whereas participants in the DLM-group did not. Conclusions: These findings suggest that
DP is an effective training method for therapeutic skills such as empathic expression and
holds implications for the future development of educational practices to incorporate
active skill training methods.
Description
Keywords
Deliberate practice Empathy Randomized controlled trial Repeated measures Therapeutic skills
Citation
Larsson, J., Werthén, D., Carlsson, J., Salim, O., Davidsson, E., Vaz, A., Sousa, D., & Norberg, J. (2025). Does deliberate practice surpass didactic training in learning empathy skills?A randomized controlled study. Nordic Psychology, 77(1), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/19012276.2023.2247572
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Ltd.