The Effects of Practical Experience on Expertise in Clinical Psychology and Collaboration

Two studies are presented. The first study examined the effects of growing practical experience on expertise in clinical psychology. 85 persons with different amounts of practical experience (novice, intermediate, and advanced students, trainee therapists, and experienced therapists) took part in the study. All participants completed an instrument consisting of a test measuring basic and clinical knowledge in a multiple choice format, two open-format questions on a basic and a clinical concept, and two short case studies. Up to and including the level of trainee therapists, the results followed the picture known from studies on expertise development in medicine. However, at the level of experienced therapists, the results point to a decrease in knowledge The second study examined the effects of domain experience on interdisciplinary collaboration of physicians and clinical psychologists. 27 dyads with different experience levels (student dyads, trainee dyads, and experienced dyads) collaborated on a complex case study. In most measures on the quality of the collaboration, experienced dyads scored lower than trainee dyads and advanced student dyads. For the quality of the joint solution, results were more mixed. When discussing the results, it should be noted that the experienced therapists taking part in our studies had not undergone postgraduate professional training comparable to that completed by trainee therapists in Germany today.