Ethical Decision-Making Model

The Ethical Decision Making Model is an ethical guideline that counselors use to handle ethical dilemmas and know what course of action to take. It’s based on counseling theory, types of dilemma and other issues counselors encounter. Counselors can determine the appropriate course of action when faced difficult challenge. The ACA Ethics Committee members developed “A Practitioner's Guide to Ethical Decision Making”, which address ethical questions in the workplace by identifying problems, deliberating potential consequences and determining dimensions of the dilemma. You can also consult your state or national professional associations to see if they can provide help you with any dilemmas. According to the ACA Code of Ethics, “there is no specific way to make a decision, but counselors are expected to be familiar with the credible model for decision making that can bear public scrutiny and its application” (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014). Two ethical decision-making models One of the ethical

It influences the moral developmentalism framework and structure that guides "approach to the study of ethics". 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