Effectiveness of teaching psychopathology through the analysis of movie characters: a randomized controlled trial in Shandong Province, China

We studied the effectiveness of movie character analysis for teaching psychotic symptomatology to medical undergraduates. We randomly selected two of six medical schools in Shandong Province, China, then randomly assigned eight undergraduate classes at those schools to intervention or control groups. The intervention group (n = 162) participated in seminars in which psychotic symptoms were explored through analysis of movie characters. The control group (n = 165) participated in conventional seminars. The participants in both groups were surveyed with a custom-designed questionnaire, and their knowledge was assessed using a written exam. Compared to the control group, the intervention group showed greater interest in the topic (t = 5.63, p < 0.001), better understanding of psychotic symptoms (t = 2.37, p = 0.02), and greater acceptance (t = 9.80, p < 0.001). In addition, the intervention group showed significantly greater knowledge on the written exam (t = 5.78, p < 0.001). Analyzing movie characters can improve the teaching of psychotic symptomatology and should be further explored and promoted.