Simulated patients in training and supervision for the evaluation of therapeutic competencies

• Applicants: Privatdozentin Dr. Franziska Kühne; Professor Dr. Florian Weck
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 417991996

Psychotherapy is highly effective and widely acknowledged for treating various mental disorders. In terms of methods for teaching effective psychotherapeutic approaches and competencies, there has been a lack of investigation. Training and supervision are the main strategies for teaching therapist competencies. Standardized role plays with simulated patients (trained persons playing someone with a mental disorder) are useful for evaluating training approaches. In medical education, this procedure is now internationally established. However, little use has been made so far of standardized role playing to evaluate training and supervision in the area of clinical psychology and psychotherapy. Yet, this approach has a considerable potential for systemizing research in the field of training and supervision. During the first phase of the research project, standardized role playing will be adapted to assess therapist competencies in clinical-psychological practice. A systematic for instructing simulated patients will be developed and validated. The first phase of the research project provides the basis for the second phase, in which standardized role plays are used to evaluate methods for training and supervision, in two experiments. In both experiments, central approaches for treating depression are trained (cognitive restructuring and behavioral activation). The first experiment compares an active training approach (model learning) with a passive one (reading the manual). The second experiment compares two methods of supervision (verbal report vs. video analysis). In each experiment 68, master students of psychology are randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Each student takes part in three role plays (pre, post and three-month follow-up) which are all videotaped. Two independent raters assess the therapist competence of each role play on the basis of an established competence scale. Thus, the research project makes a substantial contribution to the development of training methods in the area of clinical psychology. Furthermore, it provides important knowledge about specific approaches to training and supervision. This in turn will lead to more elaborated and sophisticated psychotherapeutic training, and an effective dissemination of psychotherapeutic treatment methods.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants