Reasons for Ethical Misconduct of Counseling Students: What do Faculty Think?

Authors

David Burkholder, Monmouth UniversityFollow
Jessica Burkholder, Georgian Court UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Ethics Violations, Counseling, Attribution Theory, Counselor Education, Ethics Violations, Ethical Misconduct

Subject Area

Clinical Supervision, Counseling, Counselor Education

Abstract

The ethics training of students in the helping professions has been a frequent topic in the literature, yet students still commit ethics violations (Li, Lampe, Trusty, & Lin, 2009). No known research has examined the attributions faculty give for student ethics violations. This qualitative study used a conceptual framework of attribution theory and explored faculty attributions of counseling master’s students’ ethical misconduct. Emergent themes were grouped across two broad domains, attribution themes and prevention themes. Attribution themes include: (a) the person, (b) educational factors, and (d) performance. Prevention themes include (a) education and training, (b) gatekeeping and screening, (c) monitoring, (d) personal growth, and (e) support. Singular data for the ethics training of students in the helping professions is discussed.

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.7729/62.1063

Recommended Citation

Burkholder, D., & Burkholder, J. (2014). Reasons for Ethical Misconduct of Counseling Students: What do Faculty Think?. Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision, 6(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.7729/62.1063