Head, Cory (12/11) Changes in mental activity and self-efficacy during doctoral psychology graduate training (Lisa Samstag, Ph.D.; Philip Wong, Ph.D.; Linda Penn, Ph.D.)
Few studies have focused specifically on the process of change during psychology doctoral training. Previous research has indirectly examined the effects of training by comparing novice and expert therapists or focusing on a short period of the training experience. The present study sought to provide a more comprehensive picture of a student's development over the course of graduate training. Specifically, this study investigated counselor self-efficacy and the ability to be aware of and use one's own reactions in clinical work, 2 variables important in the development of clinical competence. It was predicted that participants with more training would be more aware of and open to using their own reactions in clinical work, and that self-efficacy would increase over the course of training. Participants were psychology doctoral students ranging from newly admitted to recently graduated students. They provided detailed information about their training experiences, completed self-efficacy measures ( n = 146), and free associated to clinical vignettes (n = 94). Free association responses were coded using the Mental States Rating System (Bouchard et al., 1998), a measure that is designed to capture differences in mental activity. As hypothesized, amount of training was a statistically significant predictor of total self-efficacy scores as well as cultural competence self-efficacy scores. Further analyses revealed that the largest differences in self-efficacy scores occurred between the first 3 years and the last 2 years of training. Although inconclusive, results also suggest that trainees with more experience demonstrate more sophisticated reflective mental activity, more objective-rational mental activity, and less reactive mental activity when free associating to clinical material. Based on past research, the relationships between experience and objective-rational and reactive mental activity were unexpected, which may be due to methodological limitations of the study. These limitations, implications of the findings, and future directions for research are discussed.
