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Department of Uzbek and Foreign Languages, Fergana Medical Institute of Public Health , Fergana , Uzbekistan
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Associate Professor, Fergana State University , Fergana , Uzbekistan
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Lecturer, Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, Termez University of Economics and Service , Termez , Uzbekistan
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Lecturer, Jizzakh State Pedagogical University , Jizzakh , Uzbekistan
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Associate Professor, Department of Languages, Tashkent Institute of Chemical Technology , Tashkent , Uzbekistan
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Associate Professor, Tashkent State Medical University , Tashkent , Uzbekistan
Bukhara State Medical Institute named after Abu Ali ibn Sino , Bukhara , Uzbekistan
There is frequent conflict between diagnostic rigor and therapeutic empathy training in psychology undergraduates because students rarely encounter a variety of complex clinical presentations. This research investigates the usefulness of applying generative artificial intelligence (AI) clinical patient persona (GPT-4) by OpenAI to improve diagnostic accuracy and empathic interaction among psychology undergraduates. A quasi-experimental design was used, involving 124 third-year psychology students randomly assigned to either AI-persona training (n = 62) or traditional case-vignette training (n = 62) in a 6-week module. Structured simulated clinical interviews with dynamically responsive AI-generated personas simulating mood, anxiety, trauma-related, and personality disorders were provided to the intervention group. The measures were standardised using diagnostic accuracy rubrics and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE-S). Findings showed that students exposed to an AI persona had significantly better diagnostic accuracy (84.7% vs. 72.3%; p < .01) and better differentiation in diagnosis formulation (mean score change of 18.5; Cohen d = 0.74) than the controls. The JSE-S empathy scores increased by 21.2% in the intervention group compared with 8.9% in the control group (p < .01). Also, 89 % of the participants said they felt more confident in conducting clinical interviews, and 76 % said they felt more realistic than when using a static case study. The results indicate that clinical patient personas generated by generative AI can be a valuable addition to undergraduate psychology training, enhancing diagnostic competence and therapeutic empathy. A possible solution is to systematically incorporate simulated AI into training curricula, offering experience-based learning with scalable resource requirements at low cost, while maintaining ethical standards and pedagogical rigour.
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC BY-NC) License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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