Cognitive and Affective Elements of Practice Confidence in Social Work Students and Practitioners

Confidence has been identified as both a positive outcome of social work education and as a factor which in excess (defined as overconfidence) can lead to diagnostic error. This study sought to better understand the nature of professional confidence and investigate factors that might be associated with confidence in performance in a clinical interview among social work students and experienced social work practitioners. In this study, thirty-seven final-year Masters of Social Work (MSW) students and thirty-four experienced social workers who participated in two simulated interviews rated their confidence in their performance in the interviews and discussed their subjective views of the interview. Factors associated with confidence fell into three themes: emotional self-regulation; the acquisition and application of knowledge; and relational skills which are the intersection of knowledge and emotional regulation. Emotional regulation appears as a primary factor that differentiates high and low confidence as it affects participants' perceived ability to continue to draw upon knowledge and integrate client reactions into their assessment. Social work education that focuses on self-awareness and the regulation of emotional responses may contribute to increased abilities to manage high-anxiety clinical experiences.