Ego Development, Ethical Decision-Making, and Legal and Ethical Knowledge in School Counselors

摘要

School counselors require high levels of ego development, sound ethical decision-making processes, and significant knowledge regarding legal and ethical practice to provide effective services to their clientele. The authors report the findings of a descriptive, correlational study of 186 school counselors' levels of ego development (Hy and Loevinger in Measuring ego development, 2nd edn. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 1996), ethical decision-making (Dufrene in Dissertation Abstracts International, 61(10): 3906, 2000), and ethical and legal knowledge (Lambie et al. in Counselor Education & Supervision, 49, 228-246, 2010). Higher ego maturity was associated with higher legal and ethical knowledge scores. Implications for counseling and adult development are discussed.