Training Ethical Psychologists: An Acculturation Model.

This paper posits the thesis that socialization into the profession of psychology is a process of acculturation. Students enter training with their own value traditions but are required to learn new ones when they become psychologists. The assumptions of the framework are that this "professional acculturation" (a) takes place over time, (b) includes various stressors, obstacles, and challenges that (c) can lead to several different outcomes. The authors believe that the profession can and should do a better job of socializing students into the cultural values and ethical standards of the discipline and propose that this process can be better understood by thinking of ethics education by applying Berry's model of acculturation strategies. Doing so may improve ethical behavior in students and be more responsive to an increasingly complex and diverse world. (GCP)