TY - JOUR
T1 - Empathic Communication Skills Across Applied Undergraduate Psychology Courses
T2 - A Replication Study
AU - Reich, Catherine M.
AU - LaCaille, Lara J.
AU - Axford, Katherine E.
AU - Slaughter, Natalina R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Background: Although undergraduate psychology curriculum should cultivate performance-based skills to prepare students for helping professions, little work to date has addressed this standard. Objective: This research replicates the methods used in a previous study by examining pre-post changes in empathic communication skills and perceived communication competence across two applied psychology courses: Basic Helping Skills and Internship. This study extended this work by also exploring learning gains from different formats (i.e., face-to-face vs. online), internship types (mental health-related vs. not mental health-related), and the longevity of learning gains. Method: Psychology students (N = 171) completed a measure of communication competence and provided written empathic responses on a vignette-based performance measure at the start and end of the semester. Results: Students perceived their communication skills as improving over time; however, only students in the Basic Helping Skills course showed improved empathic communication skills, especially when the instruction was in a face-to-face format. Students with previous skill training maintained their learning gains over time. Conclusion: Student empathic communication improves most with face-to-face instruction in Basic Helping Skills rather than an internship experience. Teaching Implications: For the development of empathic communication skills, prerequisite requirements for Internship and instructive scaffolding for the application of skills may be recommended.
AB - Background: Although undergraduate psychology curriculum should cultivate performance-based skills to prepare students for helping professions, little work to date has addressed this standard. Objective: This research replicates the methods used in a previous study by examining pre-post changes in empathic communication skills and perceived communication competence across two applied psychology courses: Basic Helping Skills and Internship. This study extended this work by also exploring learning gains from different formats (i.e., face-to-face vs. online), internship types (mental health-related vs. not mental health-related), and the longevity of learning gains. Method: Psychology students (N = 171) completed a measure of communication competence and provided written empathic responses on a vignette-based performance measure at the start and end of the semester. Results: Students perceived their communication skills as improving over time; however, only students in the Basic Helping Skills course showed improved empathic communication skills, especially when the instruction was in a face-to-face format. Students with previous skill training maintained their learning gains over time. Conclusion: Student empathic communication improves most with face-to-face instruction in Basic Helping Skills rather than an internship experience. Teaching Implications: For the development of empathic communication skills, prerequisite requirements for Internship and instructive scaffolding for the application of skills may be recommended.
KW - active listening
KW - confidence
KW - empathy
KW - experiential learning
KW - helping skills training
KW - internship
KW - undergraduate curriculum
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102440082&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85102440082&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0098628321995431
DO - 10.1177/0098628321995431
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102440082
SN - 0098-6283
VL - 49
SP - 49
EP - 56
JO - Teaching of Psychology
JF - Teaching of Psychology
IS - 1
ER -