The effect of patient-centeredness and gender of professional role models on trainees' mentalization responses. Implications for film-aided education

Objective: To examine how certain characteristics of film-presented practitioner role-models influence trainees' mentalization.

Methods: In an experimental setting, psychology students watched four film clips presenting a patient-practitioner session; the clips varied in the practitioner's patient-centeredness (positive vs. negative) and gender. Participants commented on the practitioner's thoughts, emotions and intentions through the session. Analysis of 116 comments focused on the effect of patient-centeredness and gender variables on mentalization and judgment utterances.

Results: Negative role-models and female role-models induced higher levels of mentalization compared to positive and male role-models. There was no gender difference in the level of mentalization; however male participants gave more judgmental responses than female participants. The patient-centeredness had a larger effect on mentalization when trainees described the opposite gender role-model.

Conclusion: In a systematic comparison, students' capacity for mentalization differed according to role-models' patient-centeredness and gender, as well as the gender-match of students with role-models.

Practice implications: When working with film-presented role-models, educators should be aware of the differences in the level of mentalization elicited by positive and male role-models, as opposed to negative and female role-models. Educators should also consider the gender-match between trainees and role-models, therefore students should be exposed to both cross- and same-gender role-models.