Psychotherapeutic competence and the role of professional self-doubt in novice therapists

Background: The quality of psychotherapy varies across the people who provide it. For this reason, effective therapist training is of central importance. Overall, psychotherapy training displays positive effects on self-efficacy, but the results for clinical knowledge and for applied skills are less clear. In addition, the research to date has several limitations, such as cross-sectional designs, no control groups, short time intervals, and the use of self-reports only. This makes it difficult to draw reliable conclusions about the development of therapeutic competencies. Accordingly, research on therapist development requires longitudinal studies with control group designs and a combination of self- and observer-ratings to investigate whether competence improvement is indeed due to specific training, and not due to life experience. Research Questions: (1) To what extent do psychotherapy students develop clinical competences (i.e., clinical knowledge, skills) during a two-year master’s program in clinical psychology and psychotherapy? (2) To what extent is competence development training-specific, that is, attributable to the master’s program and not, for example, to an increasing life experience? Methods: We will conduct a longitudinal study examining the development of competences of psychotherapy students in comparison to a control group of general psychology students. At three measurement points (pre, middle, post), both student groups will complete online surveys regarding clinical knowledge, self-assessed therapeutic skills, self-efficacy, satisfaction with their studies, professional self-doubt, and personality. In addition, a subsample will demonstrate their practical skills in role-plays with standardized patients, which will then be evaluated by independent and trained raters.