An Assessment of Methodological and Cognitive Fundamentals of the United States of America Code of Ethics for Counseling

Abstract

The United States of America Code of Ethics for Counseling (ACA) has specific epistemological fundamentals and ideological assumptions that the assessment and analysis of it is very important. ACA is one of the most famous codes which is a model for many other codes of ethics in other countries; thus, it is very significant to discover its structure and epistemological themes in order to identify the main tendency of other codes and their shortages. In other words, searching the general soul of this Code and finding its theoretical background and cultural-attitudinal assumptions can be useful to formulate other countries' codes of ethics, including our own country, and avoid repeating some possible mistakes. As a result, the main question is as follows: what are the epistemological basis and cultural-attitudinal assumptions of ACA? This study tries to identify the cultural and ideological background of this Code and its shortages. Given that a psychological issue is not apart from a religious and ethical issue and there is an internal unity in them, some of the key ethical recommendations are studied. The epistemological foundation of this Code is based on some assumptions and understandings of Western liberalism about human's nature, denial or neglect of human's spiritual and transcendental dimension, as well as individualism in the method of cognition. Therefore, while a core criticism is presented about the epistemological and methodological foundations of this Code, its structural elements are mentioned.

Keywords

• the united states of america code of ethics for counseling (aca/apa)
• counselor
• client
• ethics
• culture
• secretiveness
• piety