Applied knowledge of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): developing and assessing the utility of a situational judgement test (SJT)

Abstract

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an innovative form of cognitive behavioural therapy that aims to increase psychological flexibility. Currently, challenges exist with measuring practitioners' application of the ACT approach. A situational judgement test (SJT) may offer a novel approach of assessing a practitioner's ACT consistent knowledge and how it can be applied in practice. In the current research, two consecutive studies were completed to develop and evaluate the utility of a SJT assessing clinicians' applied ACT knowledge. First, expert consensus via three iterative rounds of Delphi methodology was used to develop the 10-item ACT SJT via questionnaires: 13 panellists participated in round one, 12 in round two, and 10 in round three. Secondly, a field study examined the utility of the ACT SJT, with significant pre-post changes following ACT training. Developing and assessing the ACT SJT has potentially important implications, for clinicians to self evaluate their clinical application of ACT, to assess training needs, in research trials, or for evaluating the effectiveness of ACT introductory training.

Assessing inter- and intra-personal effectiveness of those employed in healthcare is challenging, however SJTs have been proposed as a tool that could be helpful in this regard. The current systematic review aimed to explore SJTs assessing inter and intra-personal competencies of healthcare professionals. Searches were completed on PsycInfo, Scopus and MEDLINE. A total of 12 studies met the inclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis was completed, with SJTs found to be mostly applied to assess “professionalism”. Medical residents in specialist training represented the most assessed group. Emerging evidence from concurrent validity and training task exercises suggests that SJTs may be promising measures of inter- and intrapersonal competencies. Implications are discussed, including the utility of SJTs outside of recruitment and academic settings, to identify training gains, assess applied competencies and potentially detect gaps in service provision.

Thesis is embargoed until 31st December 2026.

Date of Award	Dec 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	David Curran (Supervisor), Ross White (Supervisor) & Victoria Samuel (Supervisor)