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

心理疗法在治疗各种精神障碍方面非常有效，并得到了广泛的认可。关于教授有效的心理治疗方法和能力的方法，一直缺乏调查。培训和监督是教授治疗师能力的主要策略。模拟病人(受过训练的人扮演精神障碍患者)的标准化角色扮演对于评估训练方法是有用的。在医学教育中，这一程序现已在国际上确立。然而，到目前为止，在临床心理学和心理治疗领域，很少使用标准化的角色扮演来评估培训和监督。然而，这种方法在培训和监督领域的系统化研究方面具有相当大的潜力。在研究项目的第一阶段，将采用标准化的角色扮演来评估临床心理实践中的治疗师能力。将开发和验证用于指导模拟患者的系统。研究项目的第一阶段为第二阶段提供了基础，在第二阶段中，使用标准化的作用来评估培训和监督的方法，在两个实验中。在这两个实验中，训练了治疗抑郁症的中心方法(认知重建和行为激活)。第一个实验比较了主动训练方法(模型学习)和被动训练方法(阅读手册)。第二个实验比较了两种监督方法(口头报告和视频分析)。在每个实验68名心理学硕士研究生被随机分配到试验组和控制组。每个学生都参加了三个角色扮演(前、后和三个月的跟踪调查)，这些都被录了下来。两个独立的评分者根据既定的能力量表评估每个角色扮演的治疗师的能力。因此，该研究项目对临床心理学领域训练方法的发展做出了实质性的贡献。此外，它还提供了关于培训和监督的具体方法的重要知识。这反过来将导致更详细和更复杂的心理治疗培训，并有效地传播心理治疗方法。

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.