CONTEXT IN ETHICAL DECISION MAKING 505 more related to virtue ethics, so the emphasis is on a proactive attitude that is directed toward the achievement of the best possible ethical practice instead of the avoidance of ethical violations The ethical and moral inquiry is thus a long-term process of growth in which the professional at tempts to answer the question"who shall I be"as opposed to the more reactive question"what shall I do that is characteristic of decision making as understood by traditional models. The in- corporation of this aspirational model of ethical judgment associated with virtue ethics has been repeatedly proposed by many authors (Jordan Meara, 1990; Knapp Vande Creek, 2007). Al- though the focus of this article is not intended to address these issues, it should be noted that an in- corporation of the context in the ethical decision-making process could contribute to the integra- tion of these two models of ethical judgment, as the ethical and moral judgment starts to be more proactive and involved in the search for the best practices. However this goal might require differ- ent models of training in ethics The recommendations that can be derived from the previous sections for teaching ethics are straightforward. Learning about models of ethical decision making and their application to differ- m寸○ ent ethical dilemmas should still be a central part of the training. However, the analysis of contex tual issues and the application of ethical decision-making models to those issues should definitely be encouraged to foster a proactive attitude toward the resolution of ethical problems With coming changes in health care, it is likely that the whole model of mental health service delivery that we have learned and practiced will change dramatically. The context in which learned the ethics of our profession will be different than the context in which we will have to ap ply them. n These changes will require a new set of skills that allow for a flexible but rigorous application the APA Ethics Code(APA, 2002)to situations that have not been even considered by those who wrote it. In this situation, a reactive ethical decision-making approach is likely to be insuffi- cient, so that students should be trained to be constantly aware of changes in their context of work in order to anticipate future problems. As Koocher(2003)stated, planning is the key to effectively address changes in professional practice. However, planning without paying attention to the hanges in context might be as ineffective as not planning at all t Asimilar approach to what is proposed here was taken by Mumford et al. (2008)in providing research integrity training to graduate students. Their results showed that an application of general principles to the particular context of research involving case examples and practical strategies was effective and that results were maintained after 6 months. Although the effectiveness of a training model for ethics in clinical practice based on contextual analyses is still to be tested, there are reasons to be optimistic about its potential results. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Gratitude is expressed to Jeffrey Barnett, PsyD, and Nan Presser, PhD, for their comments on ear- lier versions of this article REFERENCES American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychol Ogist,57,1060-1073more related to virtue ethics, so the emphasis is on a proactive attitude that is directed toward the achievement of the best possible ethical practice instead of the avoidance of ethical violations. The ethical and moral inquiry is thus a long-term process of growth in which the professional at￾tempts to answer the question “who shall I be” as opposed to the more reactive question “what shall I do” that is characteristic of decision making as understood by traditional models. The in￾corporation of this aspirational model of ethical judgment associated with virtue ethics has been repeatedly proposed by many authors (Jordan & Meara, 1990; Knapp & VandeCreek, 2007). Al￾though the focus of this article is not intended to address these issues, it should be noted that an in￾corporation of the context in the ethical decision-making process could contribute to the integra￾tion of these two models of ethical judgment, as the ethical and moral judgment starts to be more proactive and involved in the search for the best practices. However this goal might require differ￾ent models of training in ethics. The recommendations that can be derived from the previous sections for teaching ethics are straightforward. Learning about models of ethical decision making and their application to differ￾ent ethical dilemmas should still be a central part of the training. However, the analysis of contex￾tual issues and the application of ethical decision-making models to those issues should definitely be encouraged to foster a proactive attitude toward the resolution of ethical problems. With coming changes in health care, it is likely that the whole model of mental health service delivery that we have learned and practiced will change dramatically. The context in which we learned the ethics of our profession will be different than the context in which we will have to ap￾ply them. These changes will require a new set of skills that allow for a flexible but rigorous application of the APA Ethics Code (APA, 2002) to situations that have not been even considered by those who wrote it. In this situation, a reactive ethical decision-making approach is likely to be insuffi￾cient, so that students should be trained to be constantly aware of changes in their context of work in order to anticipate future problems. As Koocher (2003) stated, planning is the key to effectively address changes in professional practice. However, planning without paying attention to the changes in context might be as ineffective as not planning at all. A similar approach to what is proposed here was taken by Mumford et al. (2008) in providing research integrity training to graduate students. Their results showed that an application of general principles to the particular context of research involving case examples and practical strategies was effective and that results were maintained after 6 months. Although the effectiveness of a training model for ethics in clinical practice based on contextual analyses is still to be tested, there are reasons to be optimistic about its potential results. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Gratitude is expressed to Jeffrey Barnett, PsyD, and Nan Presser, PhD, for their comments on ear￾lier versions of this article. REFERENCES American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychol￾ogist, 57, 1060–1073. CONTEXT IN ETHICAL DECISION MAKING 505 Downloaded by [Shanghai Jiaotong University] at 07:04 23 May 2012