Negotiating the Gray Areas of Ethical Decision Making: Deaf Therapists Working in the Deaf Community

<p>Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing psychologists, who provide services to the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community, face unique dilemmas when dealing with overlapping relationships. Similar to psychologists from other small or rural communities, dual relationships are generally unavoidable. The ethical guidelines for psychologists do not provide for the exceptional struggles that many Deaf therapists face in this regard.</p><p>This study was conducted to explore the decision-making patterns that Deaf therapists have used in negotiating nonsexual, multiple relationships with clients. Ten taped interviews were conducted to collect preliminary data on the overlapping relationship dilemmas of participants who are Deaf, licensed therapists and have been providing therapy in the Deaf community for at least a year. Grounded theory qualitative research approach was used when analyzing the data to identify themes and categories in an effort to identify primary topic areas for future research, further our understanding of ethical decision-making theory, and propose a model for ethical decision-making.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

Year

2010

Author dc:creator

• Thew, Denise Alice

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.und.edu/theses/1029

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.und.edu:theses-2031