Teaching Trainee Psychologists Soft Skills

Abstract

The effective delivery of behavioural analytic practice involves fluency in both technical skills for developing tailored interventions, and soft skills for building therapeutic alliances with clients. Hence, this research replicated and expanded upon Canon and Gould (2022), evaluating the effectiveness and acquisition of using clicker training to teach trainee psychologists the following soft skills: Asking Questions with Curiosity, Mindfulness, and Appreciation. The multiple baseline study analysed a training package consisting of verbal instructions, prompts, and acoustic feedback. This study found that clicker training as a component of a training package is effective at teaching trainee psychologists valuable soft skills for clinical interviews. Participants in this study generalised these relationship-building skills across time and novel scenarios. This study used a new approach, distinguishing Mindfulness into two sub-categories to increase verbal responses. Furthermore, it observed unprompted alternative behaviours for all target skills.