The ethical decision-making self-efficacy of psychologists and counselors.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the ethical decision making self-efficacy of a sample of state-credentialed psychologists and counselors. A questionnaire was constructed which asked respondents to rate the confidence they possessed in relation to thirty items (reflecting ten a priori ethical decision-making domains). The items described ethical knowledge and ethical decision-making tasks and situations. The questionnaire also included eight questions pertaining to respondents' personal characteristics and professional education, training, and experience. The questionnaire was mailed to 400 Arizona-licensed psychologists and 340 Arizona-certified counselors. Although no formal, a priori hypotheses were established prior to the survey, it was expected that the extent and quality of professional ethics training might be associated with higher scores on factors generated by an exploratory factor analysis performed on survey results. In particular, it was anticipated that a values-clarification component of ethics training would be associated with higher ethical decision-making factor scores. Approximately 50% of the total sample responded to the survey. The factor analysis of scorable questionnaires resulted in a six-factor model of ethical decision-making self-efficacy. The six factors were: (1) Knowledge, (2) Behavior, (3) Thinking, (4) Awareness, (5) Resources, (6) Authorities-Conflict Analysis/Resolution. Having taken an ethics course as a student was associated with higher scores on factors 1, 5, and 6. Having taken an ethics training seminar as a postgraduate was associated with higher scores on factors 1, 2, and 5. Those respondents with a values clarification component to their ethics training scored higher on factors 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. Study results suggest that further development of an Ethical Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale and pursuit of a national survey of psychologists and counselors addressing issues raised in this study are warranted.