Ethical Decision Making Ethical decisions are rarely easy to arrive at, and dilemmas can be very complex. When counselors encounter ethical dilemmas, “they are expected to engage in a carefully considered ethical decision-making process” and use a “credible model of decision making that can bear public scrutiny of its application” (ACA, 2014, Purpose). Although no particular decision-making model has been shown to be universally effective or applicable, many models do exist, and we briefly review them here for your consideration.
One of the earliest models was A Practitioner’s Guide to Ethical Decision Making (Forester-Miller & Davis, 1995). This guide presented a practical, sequential, seven-step model (Herlihy & Corey, 2015a) that was based on the moral principles already discussed in this chapter. Over a decade later, Koocher and Keith-Spiegel (2016) presented a nine-step model that took a similar, logical, and primarily cognitive approach to ethical decision making. The assumption inherent in these models, that the goal of ethical decision making is to minimize subjectivity (Woody, 2013), has been challenged by some writers, particularly those with a feminist orientation (Hill, Glaser, & Harden, 1995; Meara et al., 1996; Rave & Larsen, 1995).
Feminists have cautioned that traditional ethical decision-making models represent the information processing style of White males, in that they are linear, logical, rational, dispassionate, abstract, and paternalistic. Feminists have suggested that ethical decision making that is also holistic, intuitive, emotional, compassionate, personal and contextual, and mutual may be more inclusive of other processing styles and more culturally appropriate. Feminist theorists have emphasized the importance of remembering that ethical decision making does not occur solely within the mind of the professional. Walden (2015) urged including the client in the process, noting that clients are empowered when counselors make ethical decisions with them rather than for them.
Early models were also criticized for neglecting to consider multicultural issues, which led to the development of several models that emphasized cultural sensitivity. Garcia, Cartwright, Winston, and Borzuchowska (2003) offered a transcultural integrative model as being more appropriate when working with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds. They incorporated virtue ethics (already described in this chapter), along with the feminist concepts of reflecting on one’s own feelings and balancing the perspectives of all involved.
They suggested that a vital component, to be included early in the decision-making process, is for counselors to reflect on their own world views and how these affect their interpretation of the ethical dilemma. Frame and Williams (2005) presented a culturally sensitive ethical decision-making model that, like the feminist models, was based in an ethic of care and a consideration of power dynamics. To increase multicultural sensitivity, they added the element of assessing acculturation and racial identity development of the counselor and client.
Herlihy and Watson (2006) offered a model based in a social justice perspective that puts multicultural competence at the core of the ethical reasoning process. The model is grounded in virtue ethics, cultural identity development, and collaborative decision making. Tarvydas, Ramos, and Estrada-Hernandez (2015) proposed an applied participatory ethics model that is based in social justice principles.
Cottone (2001) proposed a social constructivist model. Social constructivism is a relatively recent movement in the mental health field and purports that a person cannot know reality through individual contemplation because reality does not exist as objective fact. Rather, reality is socially constructed through interactions with others. Social constructivists see ethical decision making not as a process that occurs in the mind of the decision maker but as a process that is always made in interaction with at least one other person and that involves negotiating and consensualizing (Cottone, 2001).
A recent trend in ethical decision-making models seems to be the development of specialized models that are focused on counseling specific populations or on particular ethical issues (Deroche, Eckart, Lott, Park, & Raddler, 2015). Models have been offered for managing boundary issues (Gottlieb, 1993; Herlihy & Corey, 2015b), resolving value conflicts (Kocet & Herlihy, 2014), integrating spirituality and religion into counseling (Barne
Struggling with online classes or exams? Get expert help to ace your coursework, assignments, and tests stress-free!