Ethics

In The Ethics of Bias in Counselor Technology published in 2006 in the journal Counseling and Values by Anne Dorre and Richard Kinnier, the authors address the incongruity that they see exists between the ideal image of mental health professionals (MHCs) of being emphatic and caring professionals in comparison to prevailing use of biased counselor terminology. The first two tasks set by the researchers is to provide a definition of what constitutes biased terminology as well as a description of the ideal counselor. Their third objective is to be able to evaluate the ethics of bias, differentiating between principle ethics and virtue ethics.

The main reference subjects and standards used by the studied involved in previous similar studied developed by the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) as well as considered the ethical and professional standards set by the American Psychologists Association (APA). The hypothesis of the study is that there is a presumptive association of ideal characteristics to MHCs which can conceal distressing which can have significant negative effect to clients therapy and welfare. Research findings show, based on the definition of the ideal counselor and bias in terminology, that there is existing bias in counselor terminology. However they also pointed out this can still be effectively addressed by developing greater sensitivity and responsiveness to the issue by practicing MHCs and professional organization efforts such as The Task Force for the Development of Practice Recommendations for the Provision of Humanistic Psychological Services. The study then concluded that MHCs should take up the responsibility of challenging the biases in counselor language not only as an effort to be more politically correct but because of a real recognition of the importance of the issue. Finally, they recommended a thorough of existing vocabulary and terminologies which can then be incorporated to professional and ethical standards.