Empathy Training for Psychology Students Trainees

NCT06352034 | Not Yet Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: Empathy Training for Students
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 50
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of empathy training for psychology student trainees who plan to become mental health practitioners. The training consists of five sessions of psychoeducation, three-role group exercises, and Q\&A. Empathy assessment will be based on self-reported, listener-reported, and observer-reported measurements.

Conditions

Empathy

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (7)

• Change from counseling duration

  A 10-minute counseling simulation will be conducted for each participant. The simulation will last 10 minutes or before 10 minutes if the participant gives up midway. The duration time will be recorded to measure the counseling tolerance of the participants. Longer duration indicates better counseling tolerance.

  Through study completion, an average of 3 month

• Change from Baseline of 12-Item Version of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory

  A 12-item empathy self-report, senior-psychological-counselor-report, and simulate-client-report scale measures regard (R), empathic understanding (E), congruence (C), and unconditionality of regard (U) of the therapist. The scoring of each item is from -3 to +3 (12 items, total score varies from -36 to 36). A higher score represents better facilitative conditions the therapist can shape.

  Through study completion, an average of 3 month

• Change from consultation willingness question inquiry

  A single item inquiry "How willing are you to come back for consultation next time?" will be asked to the simulation "client" to measure the ability to build the counselor-client relationship. The item scores from 0 to 4. A higher score represents a higher ability to build the counselor-client relationship.

  Through study completion, an average of 3 month

• Change from morphed emotion perception task

  An experimental task measures the ability of emotion perception. Participants need to identify the emotion of facial pictures out of six basic emotions (i.e., anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, and happiness). The higher accuracy indicates better emotion perception ability.

  Through study completion, an average of 3 month

• Change from Baseline of the Measure of Empathy Scale

  An 8-item empathy self-report scale measures cognitive empathy and emotional empathy on a 5-point Likert scale (score from 1 to 5, and total score vary from 8 to 40). A higher score represents higher empathy ability.

  Through study completion, an average of 3 month

• Change from Baseline of the Emotion Perception Scale

  A 13-item emotion perception scale measures the extent of emotions within a month, including anger, happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, guilt, shame, pressure, depression, inner anger, numbness, and aggrievedness. Each item scores from 0 to 5, with total score varying from 0 to 65. A higher score represents a higher extent of feeling the emotions.

  1 month

• Change from Baseline of the Peking Alexithymia Scale

  A 23-item Peking alexithymia scale measures the ability and willingness to feel, recognize, and share emotions on a 5-point Likert scale (scores from 1 to 5, and total scores vary from 23 to 115). A higher score represents more severe alexithymia.

  1 month

Secondary Outcomes (10)

• Change from Baseline of the Patient Health Questionnaire

  2 weeks

• Change from Baseline of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale

  2 weeks

• Change from Baseline of the Peking Irritability Scale

  1 month

• Change from Baseline of the the Fatigue Assessment Scale

  Through study completion, an average of 3 month

• Change from Baseline of the the Patient Health Questionnaire

  4 weeks

Study Arms (2)

Empathy Training

EXPERIMENTAL

The Empathy training consists of five sessions. Each session contains psychoeducation, three-role group exercises, and Q\&A. The interval between every session is 5-14 days. Sessions are scheduled for 1.5 hours, including 30 minutes of psychoeducation, 45 minutes of three-role group exercises, and 15 minutes of Q\&A.

Behavioral: Empathy Training

Wait-List

NO INTERVENTION

The participants in the wait-list group will not receive the empathy training or other similar training until all the groups finish their one-month follow-up measurements.

Interventions

Empathy Training BEHAVIORAL

The intervention contains five themes: 1) An overview of empathy and emotions. 2) Cognitive empathy and clarification technique. 3) Emotional empathy and reflection of feelings technique. 4) Awaring and dealing with the inner feelings while empathizing. 5) Empathy timing and "emotional pendulum" technique.

Empathy Training

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 65 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Adult male and female (aged between 18 and 65 years old)
• Major or double major in psychology
• Currently enrolled undergraduate or graduate students
• Taking psychological counselor as one of the major occupational chooses

You may not qualify if:

• Hearing, speech, reading, or writing impairments
• A diagnosis of mental disorders
• Simultaneously participating in other emotional skills training
• Suicidal ideation or self-injurious behavior

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Peking University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Peking University

Beijing, Beijing Municipality, 100871, China

Location

Study Officials

• Yinyin Zang, PhD

  Study Principal Investigator Peking University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Yinyin Zang, PhD

CONTACT

15553201610; yinyin.zang@pku.edu.cn

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 21, 2024
• First Posted: April 8, 2024
• Study Start: May 20, 2024
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2024
• Study Completion: December 30, 2024
• Last Updated: May 10, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-05

Locations

CN (1)