Counselor Educator Students’ Boundary-Crossing Decisions (1 CE)

Number of Credits: 1

This course is for:  Clinical psychologists, counselors, and LMFTs

Course By: Michael Parent, PhD

Content By: Burns, S. T. (2019). Students’ ethical decision-making when considering boundary crossings with counselor educators. Counseling and Values, 64, 53-71

Course Description: The author states that ethical decisions that are based on subconscious influences, hasty decisions, and advice from others are a cause for ethical concern. The majority of ethics concerns are boundary violations. A study of 224 counselor education students was conducted. Participants reviewed and rated 16 ethical scenarios, having received no ethics information support. Participants were then randomized into one of four ethics decision-making information support conditions; three were models of decision-making and one, the control condition, was a magazine article about ethics. The participants then re-rated the scenarios. Viewing the ethical resources had weak effects on decisions about the ethics scenarios. However, participants rated the models as helpful for ethical decision-making. The author suggests that the lack of impact of the ethical tools may be due to trainee’s sensitivity to potential ethical violations. Future research may examine how past concerns about boundary violations impact ethical decision-making, the influence of demographic characteristics on ethical decision-making, and students’ use of ethical decision models and information resources when considering boundary-crossing issues.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify what constitutes boundary violations
2. Name resources for ethical decision-making
3. Evaluate the impact of providing ethical information resources on students’ ethical scenario evaluations in this study

Course Outline:

1. Read and understand Students’ ethical decision-making when considering boundary crossings with counselor educators
2. Review the Course Description and Learning Objectives.
3. Review the models of ethical decision-making and the results of the study.
4. Complete the post-test questions. Recall that answers should be based on the referenced article.
5. Return to the referenced article for any missed questions and/or to understand boundary-related ethical decision-making among counselor education students.

Approvals: