ETHICAL POSITIONS OF PROSPECTIVE COUNSELORS WITH RELATION TO MINDFULNESS

Abstract

Ethical positions shape within life experiences via confronting and resolving ethical dilemmas of moral issues, and were consisted of idealism and relativism. Within cultural context, Western cultures had low scores on both idealism and relativism (exceptionists) while Eastern ones had high relativism scores with both high idealism (situationists) and low idealism (subjectivists) scores on Ethical Position Questionnaire. Recently, a combination of ethical decision making and awareness started to be investigated under the roof of ethical mindfulness while enabling ethical clinical practices and implementation. Prior to stepping into that area, more explanatory presentation of the relationship between ethical decision making process and mindfulness among prospective psychological health professionals, psychological counseling students were presented in this descriptive study. Results of preliminary analyses showed that approximately half of the participants (39.85 %) are on the situationist side on ethical decision making. As a result of main analyses, it was found that level of mindfulness is related with high scores on both idealism (Mlow=3.90, Mmiddle=4.02, Mhigh=4.26) and relativism (Mlow=3.34, Mmiddle=3.75, Mhigh=4.08).