Confidence and experience trump self-doubt in self-assessed competence amongst clinical psychology trainees

Objective Effective self-assessment is a skill involving evaluation of one’s performance and competence against professional standards. However, several psychological factors can affect self-appraisals of competency. The present study examines the impact of imposterism, professional self-confidence, fear of negative evaluation and hours of direct client experience on competency self-assessment.Method Participants were 74 postgraduate professional psychology students in training. They completed an online survey assessing professional self-confidence, imposterism, fear of negative evaluation, client contact hours and competencies.Results Multiple regression analysis revealed self-assessed competency was significantly predicted by the four variables in the model. Professional self-confidence and direct client contact hours were the strongest predictors.Conclusions Even when direct client experience is accounted for, professional self-confidence appears to play a key role in shaping how trainees evaluate their own competence in professional psychology training.