A systematic review (SR) in Coaching Psychology: Focus on the attributes of effective coaching psychologists

Objective: This submission is an extension of a previous paper presented at the 3rd European Coaching Psychology Conference 2011. The current focus is on a Systematic Review of evidence in Coaching Psychology with particular reference to effective Coaching Psychologists’ attributes. Design: Transparent Systematic Review methodology synthesised 140 Coaching Psychology studies to examine in what way are Coaching Psychologist’s attributes associated with the effectiveness of coaching. Narrative Synthesis integrated study findings through within- study and cross-study synthesis to summarise the key coaches’ attributes, taking account of variations in study quality and other variations that may affect the generalisability of the results. Method: The major phases of this SR research: ● A pilot literature search was carried out to ascertain if a SR is needed and how it fits into existing research evidences. ● 10 coaching experts were invited (either academics or practitioners from international locations) to obtain their perspectives on the review topic, elicit review questions and review methods by semi-structured interviews. ● 58 search terms were identified and used to search eight electronic databases including PsycINFO, Business Source Complete. ● Initial search results were screened with seven inclusion criteria such as if this study examined or investigated effective coaches’ attributes. One-hundred-and-forty papers that meet a priori standards were included in the final analysis by means of narrative synthesis. Results: ● The top five most frequently applied and examined psychological coaching approaches were elicited; such as Cognitive Behavioural Coaching model which was examined by 10 quantitative studies from the included studies is the most frequently applied psycholog- ical coaching approach from this SR. Eight factors that enhance the coaching relation- ship were identified including trust and communication. ● Effective Coaching Psychologist attributes (required knowledge, attitudes and behav- iours) were summarised in a preliminary framework. Conclusion: ● More rigorous studies are needed to promote evidence-based coaching study and prac- tice: Some coaching methods are widely discussed or applied, however, there are no rigorous existing studies (e.g. NLP). ● The preliminary coaching psychologist competency framework which will feed into follow-up experimental studies