Abstract

Ethical decision-making is an important part of the daily practice of therapists. In recent years several authors have made a strong assertion for addressing the ethics of family therapy models based on systems theory and cybernetics. The concerns expressed focus on the lack of consideration for the rights of the individual in a theoretical paradigm that focuses on systems. It is recognized in these concerns that existing ethical models utilized by professional organizations focus on individual rights, a perspective associated with Cartesian dualism and traditional psychology that focuses on the individual. ;This study investigated the ethical decision-making of 30 individual and 30 family therapists to detect the types of decision-making currently being used by practicing therapists. Informants responded to three ethical dilemmas. Two of the situations were hypothetical and provided by the investigator. One of these dilemmas involved an HIV positive client who continued to have sexual relationships and the other was a family situation involving sexual abuse of the daughter. The third dilemma was a situation the informant had experienced in their own practice. Each of these interviews was assessed for decision-making style using content analysis. Kohlberg's justice reasoning that emphasizes the morality of rights and with treating all persons equally, and Gilligan's care reasoning, emphasizing relationships and the particular needs of others in specific relationship contexts, provide the conceptual foundations for this analysis. ;The results of this study suggest that both family and individual therapists prefer care reasoning on all dilemma types. The highest care scores were on the dilemma from the therapist's own practice. The second highest care scores were found on the individual dilemma followed by the family dilemma. Characteristics of informants or dilemmas did not provide clear explanations of the differences in reasoning found. This study suggests that therapists, whatever their theoretical orientation, are concerned with issues related to an ethic of care when making ethical decisions in practice. Suggestions for further research are given