A DELPHI STUDY AND VALIDATION OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE COMPETENCIES FOR PRACTITIONER PSYCHOLOGISTS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Reflective practice (RP) competencies are regarded as one of the foundational competencies required by all practitioner psychologists. However, there is currently a lack of consensus on the specific domains of RP competencies which practitioner psychologist should develop. Additionally, methodological flaws have plagued previous research into RP. Therefore, this research attempts to develop and validate a list of RP competencies for the trainee / newly-graduated practitioner psychologist. An extensive review and qualitative content analysis was conducted to craft a set of a priori competencies from extant literature. Forty-two subject matter experts (SMEs) then rated these competencies via a two-round Delphi poll to come to a consensus on the most important RP competencies for practitioner psychologists to develop. A final content validity analysis was conducted to determine the degree to which the generated RP items adequately represented the construct of “reflective practice competency”. The following five domains of RP competency emerged from this research: supervision, self-evaluation of skills, critical reflections on culture and life experiences, process issues, and personal commitment. Training in these five areas could prove fruitful in producing thoughtful and reflective practitioners.