Evaluation of Ethical Training in Colombian Psychology

Abstract

An investigation aimed at evaluating the ethical education received by psychologists is presented. This research is part of the project “Ethical reasoning and judgement of psychologists in Iberoamerica, a study in Colombia”. A multi-method study was applied, with focus groups in six professional areas, a sociodemographic data questionaire and a scale evaluating ethics education, adapted from Pope et al. (1987). The scale was responded by 528 psychologists from different parts of the country, most of them graduated after the Act 1090 of 2006. Participants in the focus groups were 44 females and 17 males, with experience in the respective professional area. Results showed that 86.3 % of the participants qualified as good or excellent the ethics education in their graduate program, similar to the majority who received ethics education in their postgraduate or continued education programs. In the focus groups, commentaries about deficiencies in the academic programs were made, and also recommendations to orient ethics education towards situated models, with previous preparation of professors. The importance of the role of Colpsic —Colombian Psychologists College— in the promotion of spaces for ethical analysis and discusión, and of the role of Ascofapsi —Colombian Association of Psychology Programs— in promoting an ethical education of quality in the psychology programs were emphasized. Results are discussed in the light of the wider project and the specialized literature.