Sometimes people think they know a lot about role play. Sometimes people question the value of role play. However, role play -- a relative of improvised theatre which has its roots in the method known as psychodrama -- is everywhere.
Not everybody who does role play has received actual training in the technique, and thereby is the problem. But there are groups that value and use role play in their work and standardize its use.
You'll find mentions of role play in various disciplines, although it sometimes goes by other names in its documentation.
There is a group called the Association of Standardized Patient Examiners, for example. The group trains using role play, otherwise known as simulations, helping nurses, doctors and others improve their skills. Some firms train attorneys using simulations -- Trial Lawyers College is a leader in this work in the legal profession-- and the U.S. military could not function without it.
Gregory Ford, a well-known psychodramatist in Washington, D.C., offers these resources:
Here's an example of exploration of the use of role play in training in the medical profession.
For a history of the Standardized Patients methodology, you'lll find information here.
The organization that governs the licensing of people who teach using simulation in the medical profession is here.
Researchers who are interested in doing more research on the efficacy of role play might look under the specific discipline area in which which the training is to take place and then look under training and then look under simulations or role play.
