Evaluating Continuing Professional Education in Ethics

Currently 31 states and the District of Columbia require psychologists to acquire some form of continuing education in ethics throughout their careers. Of the jurisdictions that do have mandated continuing ethics training, there is wide variation in the minimum hours, specificity of content, and acceptable delivery methods. Psychologist-managers both for their own development and to promote the ethical behavior of organizations often evaluate ethics training programs. This review suggests that a framework for the conceptualization of the goals of ethics education and the evaluation of ethics training programs is needed to move beyond the current self-reported satisfaction model of evaluation toward valid outcome measures. Rest's (1986) model of moral decision making is extended to organizational ethics and a conceptual model of evaluation is suggested.