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********** years, counseling professionals have expended considerable research time, literature production, and educational effort on the topics of morals and ethics. As a result, professional association standards and ethical codes have been published to provide direction for counselors concerning ethical issues (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 1998; Herlihy & Corey, 1996; Kitchener, 1996; Rest & Narvaez, 1994; Van Hoose & Paradise, 1979). However, many moral and ethical dilemmas that counselors encounter are intricate, challenging, and often ambiguous, making it difficult for counselors to apply professional standards and codes. Because ethical dilemmas are complex in nature, researchers have found it difficult to identify an instrument to assess a counselor's ethical reasoning abilities (Bebeau, 1994; Rest, 1994; Rest & Narvaez, 1994; Van Hoose & Paradise, 1979). The purpose of this study is to present and assess an instrument, based on a theory of ethical development, that is designed to assess a counselor's ethical decision-making abilities when faced with an ethical dilemma.
THEORY OF ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT
There is no single universal model or theory recognized by the counseling profession that addresses how one understands moral or ethical decision making. Although the terms ethics and morals are often used interchangeably, they are not identical in meaning. Morals typically refer to societal perspectives of what is right or wrong (Corey et al., 1998). In contrast, "ethics are moral principles adopted by an individual or group to provide rules for right conduct" within a professional context (Corey et al., 1998, p. 3). Piaget (1970) and Kohlberg (1969) strongly influenced a theory of moral and ethical decision making that is based on a developmental stage approach to moral reasoning, which is sensitive to educational practices (Rest & Narvaez, 1994).
Kohlberg used Piaget's (1970) methods of assessing students' moral reasoning by presenting a story or a hypothetical moral dilemma that evoked students' views of and possible decisions regarding a given dilemma. Using this methodology of presenting hypothetical moral dilemmas, Kohlberg (1969, 1984; Rest, 1979, 1994) differentiated between three levels, which included six stages of moral decision making. At the preconventional level (i.e., Stages 1 and 2) of moral decision making, an individual's societal expectations are external to the self. The individual follows rules to avoid punishment, satisfy needs, and maximize his or her interest. At the conventional level (i.e., Stages 3 and 4), an individual views rules, obligations, and expectations as being part of the self. Priority is given to living up to shared norms of specific groups, society, laws, religions, or institutions. At the postconventional level (i.e., Stages 5 and 6), an individual has interpersonal moral principles such as freedom, benevolence, equality, and respect for individual dignity. The self is differentiated from the expectations of others, although obligated to all members of society.
Rest (1979) continued Kohlberg's (1969, 1984) research by developing the Defining Issues Test (DIT). By using Kohlberg's (1969, 1984) method of presenting an individual with a hypothetical moral dilemma through a written paragraph, the DIT measures an individual's moral decision-making stage. The structure of the DIT includes six dilemmas followed by 12 items for each dilemma that an individual first rates and then ranks from unimportant to important. The ranking of items provides a principle score (i.e., P index) for an individual's stage of moral decision making.
The Ethical Orientation Model
Van Hoose and Paradise (1979), influenced by "moral developmentalists" such as Piaget and Kohlberg, theorized that "moral developmentalism" provides a framework and structure that support an "approach to the study of ethics" (p. 32). Within this approach, ethical decision making is defined as the process by which a counselor reasons that one course of action in a particular situation is ethically right or another course of action is wrong (Kitchener, 1996; Rest, 1979; Rest & Narvaez, 1994). Although Van Hoose and Paradise's approach was based on Kohlberg's (1969, 1984) theory of six stages of moral development, Van Hoose and Paradise proposed "five levels" of ethical orientation of counselors. Together, these five levels are viewed as a complex model that characterizes a counselor's reasoning when deciding what action is ethically right. Similar to Kohlberg's theory, the ethical orientation model (Van Hoose & Paradise, 1979) is based on the theory that a counselor's ethical reasoning progresses along a continuum of five qualitatively hierarchical levels of ethical orientation: (a) punishment, (b) institutional, (c) societal, (d) individual, and (e) principle. Level 1 (punishment) refers to a counselor's decisions that are based on a strict adherence to prevailing rules because one will be punished for bad behavior and rewarded for good behavior. Level 2 (institutional) pertains to a counselor's decisions that are based on a strict adherence to the policies of the agency in which the counselor is employed. Level 3 (societal) refers to a counselor's decisions that are based on the maintenance of standards, the approval of others, and the laws of society and the public. Level 4 (individual) pertains to a counselor's decisions that are oriented to the needs of the individual (i.e., the client) while avoiding violations of laws and rights of others. Finally, at Level 5 (principle), a counselor's decisions are based on self-chosen principles of conscience and internal ethical formulations.
Counselors functioning at lower levels (i.e., Levels 1 and 2) tend toward oversimplifications, self-protectiveness, and authoritarianism in their ethical reasoning, whereas counselors functioning at higher levels (i.e., Levels 4 and 5) are more flexible, complex, and contextually sensitive to a situation. Van Hoose and Paradise's (1979) theory of ethical orientation is proposed as a means of describing a counselor's level of ethical development. The purpose of such an assessment is to depict how counselors operating at lower levels reason differently from counselors operating at higher levels of orientation. For a more descriptive explanation of the model, see the work of Van Hoose and Paradise.
Measurement of Ethical Decision-Making Abilities
Although quite identifiable in previous research, a counselor's level of ethical decision-making abilities has been difficult to measure (Bebeau, 1994; Rest, 1994; Rest & Narvaez, 1994; Van Hoose & Paradise, 1979). Few assessment instruments have been developed that measure counselors' ethical decision-making abilities. Most researchers interested in ethics have relied on instruments that indirectly measure ethical decision-making abilities, such as the DIT (Rest, 1979), the Moral Judgment Interview (Kohlberg, 1984), or the Sociomoral Reflection Measure (Gibbs, Basinger, & Fuller, 1992). These instruments, however, measure moral decision making rather than ethical decision making.
In 1979, the Ethical Judgment Scale (Van Hoose & Paradise, 1979) was one of the first instruments to be developed based on ethical dilemmas in counseling. However, follow-up research (Post, 1989; Tarvydas, 1994; Welfel & Lipsitz, 1984) has raised questions about the Ethical Judgment Scale. More recent research has suggested the need for improvement in assessment instruments that measure counselors' ethical decision-making abilities relevant to the responsibilities delineated within their professional situations and code of ethics (Bebeau, 1994; Rest, 1994; Rest & Narvaez, 1994). In response to this suggestion, R. S. Paritzky (personal communication, September 22, 1999) constructed a new instrument, the Ethical Decision-Making Scale (EDMS). The preliminary framework for developing the EDMS was based on the ethical orientation model (Van Hoose & Paradise, 1979), whereas its structure was...
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