Development and Initial Psychometric Properties of the Participatory Ethics Scale

Abstract

This article describes the development and initial validation of the Participatory Ethics Scale (PES). The PES assesses counselor’s self-reported ethical orientation in relation to consumer participation in the solution of ethical dilemmas. Study 1 includes the results of a Delphi study conducted to develop and assess content validity of PES items. This first study resulted in the creation of 90 potential items to evaluate a participatory ethics orientation. Study 2 reports on the results of a pilot study conducted to assess the usefulness of the PES items measuring an ethical orientation guided by consumer participation. Results indicate that data from this pilot study provide enough evidence of the usefulness of these items in measuring aspects related to ethical knowledge, working alliance, consumer involvement, and consumer empowerment. Discussion, limitations, and implications for future research are presented.