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

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. Author's Notes Correspondence concerning this article should be sent David Burkholder at dburkhol@monmouthedu.