Ethical Knowledge of Counselors

Abstract

This study attempted to gain a representative description of the ethical knowledge of the members of one of the largest state counseling associations in the United States, for the purpose of generating profiles of counselor ethical knowledge, making demographic comparisons, and seeking implications for counselor preparation and practice. It was also an effort to gather relative knowledge of these standards by counselors in one state. In a survey of a random sample of members, respondents made dichotomous ethical judgments of counselor behavior in 25 vignettes drawn from an ethics casebook. Ten demographic membership variables were defined, and the respective relationships of those variables to ethical knowledge were made. Ethical knowledge scores were compared with respect to professional membership division, sex, age, number of years of formal education, degree level, years of counseling experience, primary work setting, previous formal course work in ethics, counseling theory, and earned counseling credentials.