Ethical Decision‐Making Models: A Review of the Literature

Key Points

• To provide a comprehensive overview and critical evaluation of ethical decision-making models in the counseling literature published between 1984 and 1998.
• Conducted a comprehensive literature review encompassing published and in-press ethical decision-making literature from fall 1984 through summer 1998.
• Categorized and examined models across theoretically/philosophically based, practice-based, and specialty-relevant frameworks.
• Identified an extensive volume of published literature describing diverse decision-making models across counseling domains.
• Determined that few proposed models have been empirically assessed or tested in practice.
• Observed that a limited number of models are well grounded in theoretical or philosophical frameworks.