Students play therapist: Relative effects of role playing, videotape feedback, and modeling in a simulated interview.

Abstract

Assessed role playing, videotape feedback, and modeling in combination, using 18 male and 30 female undergraduates randomly allocated into 4 groups of 12 Ss each: no-treatment controls, role playing, video feedback, and modeling. The control condition consisted of a waiting period, and the other 3 groups "played therapist" for 2 12-min sessions with a "client" confederate. Interposed between Sessions 1 and 2 was a 12-min interval during which the role-playing group merely waited, the feedback group received a verbatim replay of Session 1, and the modeling group watched a modeling tape. All 4 groups were pretested and posttested on several measures, and "therapist behavior" was assessed by the Ashby Client's Personal Reaction Questionnaire and specially developed verbal and nonverbal behavioral coding systems. Results show, as predicted, that modeling produced the greatest overall behavioral change, feedback was next, and role playing was a poor third. It is concluded that modeling has significant impact on therapist behaviors in a brief quasi-therapeutic encounter, videotape feedback is inconsistent and erratic in its effects, and role playing is basically inert when used alone. (26 ref)

Enhancing the Effects of Modeling Through Role‐Play Practice

“…From these data, it seems that beneficial effects cannot always be presumed when role-play practice is added to some other training component. These findings, when considered along with ones reported by Bailey et al (1977), O'Toole (1979), and Stone (1975), point to role-play practice as a potentially facilitative treatment that needs further investigation if it is to yield the results anticipated by its many participants and by the professionals who routinely use it in training.…”

“…While this study and the studies reported by Bailey et al (1977) and O'Toole (1979) looked at role-play practice in the context of training novice counselors in rudimentary clinical interviewing skills, the implications for practice and for further research can and probably should be extended to other learning environments where role-play practice is introduced singly or in combination with another training component. The fact is that role-playing is a commonly used and well-received training activity in a variety of learning environments, and, although we seem to know very little about the conditions that control its effectiveness, it continues to be used without question.…”

“…His reference was to a study reported by Bailey, Deardorff, and Nay (1977) where undergraduate students who received a role-play treatment showed little or no skill acquisition, while videotape modeling and performance feedback resulted in significant change in counselor skill as well as change in several other behavioral and attitudinal measures. These findings led to the conclusion that "role-playing is basically inert when used alone" (p. 257), but that role-playing "may serve best as a medium to which other treatments may be productively applied" (p. 265).…”

Psychometric evaluation of a “standardized client” procedure with trainee counsellors

“…Alexander & Scriven, 1977;Bailey, Deardorff & Nay, 1977;Heller, Myers & Kline, 1963;Whiteley & Jakubowski, 1969). Although there have been criticisms of the inter-interview consistency of the coached client's presentation, Whiteley and Jakubowski (1969) showed that having the coached client make a list of 16 content-relevant statements and include these in interviews dramatically improved this consistency.…”

The Effects of Single and Multiple Models When Teaching Counseling Interviewing Behaviors

“…Use of observational learning, a basic component of social learning theory, is well-documented in the literature (e.g., Bailey, Deardorff, & Nay, 1977;Fridman & Stone, 1978;Gulanick & Schmeck, 1977;OToole, 1979; Dalton & Sundblad, 1976; Robinson, Froehle, & Kurpius, 1979a). There has been little research however, on how models can best be presented to enhance learning.…”