Why do Italian psychology graduates dream of becoming psychotherapists? A study on decision-making in undertaking psychotherapy

Abstract

The role of potential motivations for psychotherapy training is receiving growing attention in the context of psychotherapy research. The present study examines the entire decision-making process for undertaking psychotherapy training in Italian psychology graduates. This is a quali-quantitative study using mixed methods and recruiting from a convenience sample. An on-line questionnaire - with open-ended questions about problem/need recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase outcomes - was administered to psychology graduates interested in, undertaking or having already completed psychotherapy training (as types of respondents), overall including 549 participants (86 % females, Mage = 36.27 years). The strategy of analysis consisted of computer-aided text analysis (by using T-Lab software) and content analysis for examining responses and identifying the main themes for each open-ended question. Then, a cluster analysis was performed for grouping respondents from the previously detected themes. Three different clusters of participants were detected (respectively composed of 14.6 %, 51.2 % and 34.2 %) that were different by age, F (2, 455) = 11.878, p < .001, and type of respondents, χ² (4, N = 459) = 27.588, p < .001. Such clusters were mainly featured by different key factors for selecting a psychotherapy school, orientation preferences and motivations for psychotherapy training (p < .05, at 95 % confidence level). Overall, the results highlighted the perception of a gap in previous academic training, a reduced focus on professional development and the use of rigid strategies as critical issues related to the decision to undertake psychotherapy training.

Keywords

• psychotherapy training
• career development
• text analysis
• motivation
• decision-making