A Comparison of the Ethical Beliefs of Certified Rehabilitation Counselors and National Certified Counselors

Abstract

Results of a national survey of certified rehabilitation counselors (CRCs) are compared with those obtained by Gibson and Pope (1993) from a national sample of national certified counselors (NCCs) to determine their beliefs about whether particular behaviors are ethical, and the degree of consensus or controversy about these behaviors. Commonalities and differences in the beliefs of these two groups are described. Implications for education and the field of rehabilitation counseling are discussed. The authors conclude that the high degree of similarity between beliefs of CRC and NCC respondents provides empirical support that these counselors share a fundamental set of ethical beliefs.

Ethical Judgments of Counselors: Results From a Turkish Sample

“…Court decisions, federal and state laws, and national literature were the least favored. Tarvydas et al (2004) found similar results for the most and least favored sources of ethical information for the top three choices.…”

“…In line with the results of Gibson and Pope (1993) and Tarvydas et al (2004) studies, same items in this study were judged predominantly as ethical. Participants in this study similarly judged "Offering or accepting a handshake from a client" and "Addressing client by his or her first name" as overwhelmingly ethical.…”

“…In cases of ethically challenging situations, Turkish counselors' choices of most frequently consulted resources of ethics information were similar to those in Gibson and Pope (1993), and Tarvydas et al (2004) studies. Similar to findings in these former studies, colleagues, ethical codes of professional association (TGCA) and national research literature were the top three most frequently consulted resources of ethics information in the present study, and court decisions were the least consulted.…”

“…Tarvydas, Leahy, and Saunders (2004) found similar results in a sample of 658 rehabilitation Downloaded by [Stony Brook University] at 11:55 02 July 2015 counselors surveyed, as 99% judged offering or receiving a handshake from a client, joining a partnership that makes clear their specialty (98%), and addressing a client by his or her first name (98%) as ethical. The same items had the lowest percentages of endorsement: disrobing in the presence of a client, engaging in sexual contact with a client, engaging in erotic activity with a client, disclosing a name of a client to a class you are teaching (each 0%) and tape recording without client consent (1%).…”

“…Isaacs and Stone's (1999) study revealed that counselors would breach confidentiality in cases of suicide ideation, violence victimization, substance abuse, theft, depression, and abortion. Similarly, Gibson and Pope (1993) and Tarvydas et al (2004) found that the participants overwhelmingly judged breach of confidentiality in cases of serious harm to someone else or the client and in reporting child abuse as ethical.…”