Helping Skills Training for Undergraduate Students

Abstract

We examined the effectiveness of the Hill model of helping skills training for 191 undergraduate students in six sections of a semester-long course. Students completed self-report, performance, and nonverbal measures at the beginning; they conducted one 20-min helping session at the beginning and another toward the end of the semester; and they completed self-efficacy measures at the end of the semester. Students' helping skills improved over the course of the semester, as evidenced by higher helper-and volunteer client-rated session quality, reduced proportion of words spoken in sessions, increased proportion of exploration skills used in sessions, and increased self-efficacy for using helping skills. Self-reported empathy predicted four of the five helping skills criteria at the beginning-of-semester assessment. Facilitative interpersonal skills predicted end-of-semester self-efficacy in helping skills when controlling for retrospective prelevels and instructor effects. Implications for training and research are presented.

Modeling therapist responses with structured practice enhances facilitative interpersonal skills

“…In addition, ratings of the FIS performance task were also significantly correlated with social skills and the natural helper measure. The magnitude of these correlations was consistent with those reported by Hill et al (), though Anderson, Crowley et al () reported higher magnitude correlates of FIS and social skills. In terms of self‐report measures, a common set of traits were moderately intercorrelated, including prior helping, empathy, social skills, and mindfulness.…”

“…In terms of self‐report measures, a common set of traits were moderately intercorrelated, including prior helping, empathy, social skills, and mindfulness. While FIS was significantly correlated with many of these variables, the overall magnitude of correlations was mild (and similar to patterns reported by Hill et al, ). We were somewhat surprised that participants’ self‐report of their individual FIS was moderately correlated with the expert ratings of the FIS performance.…”

“…In terms of trainee characteristics, relatively little is known about the individual differences that might facilitate training. While the predictive validity of the FIS is encouraging in terms of client outcomes (Anderson, Crowley et al, ; Anderson et al, ), the moderate to weak relationships with self‐reported traits, such as trait empathy (e.g., Hill et al, ), is concerning. The distinction between perceived traits and the demonstration of similarly named performance and skill is not well understood and research in professional training can provide researchers with a unique opportunity for understanding these issues while simultaneously enhancing training in psychotherapy.…”

“…First, the undergraduates in this study were not therapists-in-training but had entered the study because of interest in entering mental health professions and desire to help others. While such individuals might be similar to numerous studies on undergraduate students learning helping skills (e.g., Chui et al, 2014;Hill et al, 2008;Hill et al, 2016), it is not entirely clear how similar such samples are to persons who are engaged in professional therapy training. Second, the effects of the study were mild to moderate in size and it is unclear how robust and lasting these interventions would be for trainees.…”

Helpers' Self-Assessment Biases Before and after Helping Skills Training

“…As its very structured method appeared well suited to a short course, we kept the CMT components (skills, video examples, role plays). We added the theoretical content about the exploration stage from the Hill helping skills model because it had been evaluated as having the best coverage with regard to skills, culture, theory, cognition and affect, and relationship to therapeutic change (Hill et al, 2015 ). In order to remain within the time constraints, our helping skills course was limited to the Exploration level of the psychotherapeutic process (see Hill et al, 2008 ).…”