Lifelong learning and the structure of professionals' thinking, on the example of case conceptualisation

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the elements of psychotherapists' informal education and features of concept maps reflecting the properties of thinking structure. Design/methodology/approach To study the structure of professional thinking, a complex diagnostic task (computer-aided conceptual mapping task) was used. The diagnostic task consisted of categorising the client's statements, presenting relations between the categories and concept maps accounting for problems reported by the client and contributing factors and links between them. Findings The obtained results showed that self-education, through participation in scientific conferences and attending training courses, was significantly associated with the number of perceived causal relationships between categories and the number of perceived reciprocal links between conceptual categories. Originality/value This research show factors which may contribute to more reliable case conceptualisation in psychotherapy. The method used to measure integrative complexity was original.