Describe the premise of the study and the cultural implications on ethical decision-making. What were the results of the study? How does culture influence decision-making? Des

ETHICS & BEHAVIOR, 24(6), 510–522

Copyright © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1050-8422 print / 1532-7019 online

DOI: 10.1080/10508422.2014.891075

Influence of Culture on Ethical Decision Making in Psychology

Ping Zheng and Matt J. Gray Department of Psychology

University of Wyoming

Wen-Zhen Zhu and Guang-Rong Jiang Department of Psychology

Central China Normal University Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Human Development and Mental Health

This study focused on the influence of American and Chinese cultures on consequentialism ori- entation in decision-making within the broader context of psychologists’ academic roles and responsibilities. In addition, this study hypothesized that educational level would affect cultur- ally influenced ethical decision making in both cultures. Based on the American Psychological Association Ethics Code, 20 ethical scenarios in 5 domains in psychology were created and used to examine the influence of culturally ethical beliefs on psychologists’ decision making among 181 par- ticipants. The results indicated that significant cultural differences in consequentialism orientation differentiated Chinese and American participants and influenced their resolution of ethical issues.

Keywords: American, Chinese, rule consequentialism, state consequentialism, ethics in psychology

INTRODUCTION

Because it is one of the fastest growing populations in the world and is a collectivistic cul- ture, Chinese samples have increasingly been the focus of cross-cultural behavioral research (Li, 2011). However, the great majority of ethics research bearing on the practice of psychology has been conducted in Western nations, and findings are typically published in English. Thus, we know little about how psychologists from non-Western societies might respond to specific ethical dilemmas in the practice of psychology (Tang, 2007). Further, there are few published studies on how Chinese psychologists make their ethical decisions in clinical practice (Zhao et al., 2011). Taken together, these factors speak to the importance of investigating possible differences in ethical decision making between Chinese and American psychologists.

In the domain of moral psychology, dealing with ethical issues during psychologists’ activities is central to their scientific, educational, and professional roles. The American Psychological

Correspondence should be addressed to Ping Zheng, Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Department 3415, 1000 E University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071. E-mail: [email protected]

Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/hebh.

CULTURE AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING 511

Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (American Psychological Association, 2010) provide guidelines for ethical issues encountered in psychologists’ activities in the United States. Areas covered include but are not limited to the clinical practice of psychology: research, teaching, supervision of trainees, public service, social intervention, program design and evaluation, and administration (Campbell, Vasquez, Behnke, & Kinscherff, 2010).

American ethics and Chinese ethics stem from different historical backgrounds and are derived from different philosophies. Consequentialism, the view that morality is all about producing the right kinds of overall consequences, is a controversial issue in the area of ethics (Darwall, 2003). Rule consequentialism, typically representing major understanding of cause and effect of human nature, is popularly accepted among Westerners (Goodman, 2008). Rule consequentialists, like John Stuart Mill, argue that following rules can produce the most impartial good (Van Norden, 2011). Rule consequentialism is the view that it is morally wrong for an agent to do an action if and only if that action violates the ideal moral code, where the ideal moral code is the set of rules for which internalization would have the best consequences (Kahn, 2012). Rule consequentialism is alleged to be operative among American psychologists, who believe that a morally right action is one that produces a good and impartial outcome or consequence (Hooker, 2000). For example, a psychologist found that one of his colleagues had a private encounter with a current client in a hotel and therefore became aware of the fact that there was a sexual relationship between them. If this psychologist shows a strong orientation toward rule consequentialism, he would report the relationship to a supervisor or licensing board.

In contrast, traditional Chinese ethical beliefs with their roots in Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism emphasize the maintenance and propriety of relationships as the most important con- sideration in ethical deliberation. Confucians advocated differentiated caring—the doctrine that one should care more for and have stronger moral obligations toward friends and relatives than strangers (Van Norden, 2011). However, Mohists argue that we should treat our friends and rel- atives the same way as we do to strangers. Mohism, seen as a major rival to Confucianism, evolved at about the same time as Confucianism in ancient China. No matter how they weigh the importance of different human relationships, both Confucians and Mohists consider human relationships more important than any other aspect of human life. According to Mohists, evalu- ation of the moral worth of an action should be based on how much it contributes to the basic goods of a state and the harmony of a group. One of the keys to achieving the basic goods of a state is to maintain good human relationships. To be ethical is to do what one’s relationships require, because “the basic goods in Mohist consequentialist thinking are . . . order, material wealth, and increase in population” (Loewe & Shaughnessy, 1999). The importance of outcomes that are good for the state outweighs the importance of individual pleasure and pain. Thus, state consequentialism or Mohist consequentialism may be more influential among Chinese psychol- ogists because it evaluates the moral worth of an action based on how much it contributes to the social harmony of a state (Ivanhoe, 2005). In the context of the previous example, if the psy- chologist shows a strong orientation toward state consequentialism, he is unlikely to report his colleagues’ violation of the Ethics Code to a supervisor or licensing board. Currently, no empiri- cal research has compared or evaluated American and Chinese psychologists with respect to the constructs of consequentialism and their impact on ethical decision making.

Based on these two contrasting variants of cultural and ethical beliefs, it was hypothesized that there would be substantive differences between Chinese psychologists and American psy- chologists in how they understand ethics and academic integrity within the broader context of

512 ZHENG ET AL.

psychologists’ academic roles and responsibilities. This study investigated the influence of ethical beliefs resulting from different cultures on psychologists’ ethical decision making.

Educational level may also impact ethical decision making of individuals. The finding that advanced educational level has been found to predict moral development of trainees in the area of public health implies that educational level might impact ethical decision mak- ing of trainees in the area of public health (Geddes, Salvatori, & Eva, 2009). However, no current research has focused on how educational level impacts ethical decision making in psychology.

According to study hypotheses, it was expected that there would be significant differences between American psychologists and Chinese psychologists in decisions and rationales for 20 ethical scenarios.

H1: American psychologists would be more rule-consequentialism-oriented in their decision- making, whereas Chinese psychologists would be more state-consequentialism-oriented globally and in each of the five subdomains.

H2: Participants at the advanced educational level (master’s level and Ph.D.) would show less state consequentialism orientation than undergraduates globally and in each of the five domains.

H3: (a) A Culture × Educational Level interaction was predicted with respect to rule consequentialism. Specifically, rule consequentialism would increase with educational lev- els among American psychologists but decrease as a function of educational level among Chinese psychologists. (b) Cultural differences in consequentialism orientation between two countries would be significant among participants at the advanced educational level (master’s level and Ph.D.) but not among undergraduates.

METHOD

Design and Participants

A 2 × 3 factorial design included two cultures (American, Chinese) and three educational lev- els (undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D.). One hundred thirty-four Chinese participants (85.1% women) and 47 American participants (40.4% women) who provided clinical/counseling ser- vices and those who were in training to provide services were recruited for this study. Participant ages ranged from 19 to 67 (M = 32, SD = 11.7). All the participants were at the undergraduate, the master’s, or the Ph.D. level in the area of clinical/counseling psychol- ogy in Central China and Wyoming. Data were collected through the websites from Chinese Psychological Association (CPA) and Wyoming Psychological Association (WPA). Chinese participants included 38.1% undergraduate, 45.5% master’s-level (37.7% enrolled in training programs), and 16.4% doctoral-level individuals (50% enrolled in training programs). American participants included 40.4% undergraduate, 25.5% master’s-level (25% enrolled in training programs), and 34.0% doctoral-level individuals (18.8% enrolled in training programs). All the participants in this study were entered into a drawing for an Amazon.com gift certificate for $50.

CULTURE AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING 513

Materials and Procedure

This study was designed to assess differences in ethical decision making between American and Chinese psychologists and trainees. However, because there is no comparable document of ethical principles for Chinese psychologists, the researchers used the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (hereinafter referred to as the Ethics Code) to create 20 scenarios (in Chinese and English versions) for exam- ining the effects of ethical beliefs dominant in American and Chinese culture on psychologists’ ethical decision making from five prominent domains: resolving ethical issues, confidentiality, research and publication, human relations, and therapy (Campbell et al., 2010). These 20 sce- narios were used to inquire about decision making for ethical issues that could happen to clinical/counseling psychologists in both countries (see the appendix). A 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (definitely not), 1 (probably not), 2 (unsure), 3 (probably), and 4 (definitely) was used to evaluate consequentialism orientation. For example, Scenario 9 states, “One of your friends knows that you are a graduate student or a psychologist in clinical psychology. She wants you to provide psychotherapy for her uncle. How likely is it that you would accept your friend’s request?” If a participant indicates that it is likely that a psychologist will accept this friend’s request, the participant shows a stronger tendency toward state consequentialism orien- tation; if the participant indicates that it is unlikely that a psychologist will accept the request, this participant shows a weaker tendency toward state consequentialism. According to the Ethics Code,

A psychologist refrains from entering into a multiple relationship if the multiple relationship could reasonably be expected to impair the psychologist’s objectivity, competence or effectiveness in per- forming his or her functions as a psychologist, or otherwise risks exploitation or harm to the person with whom the professional relationship exists. (APA, 2010, p. 6)

Therefore, a person indicating a weaker orientation of state consequentialism is likely to score lower on this rating scale, whereas a person indicating a stronger orientation of state consequentialism is likely to score higher. Five of the 20 items were phrased and scored in reverse: 1, 2, 10, 14, 15, and 16 (see the appendix). The questionnaire in English was translated into Chinese by two bilingual researchers through a translation and back-translation procedure.

The Chinese and American institutions’ Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) both approved the present study. The English version of the questionnaire including these 20 scenarios was posted on the WPA listserv. At the same time, the Chinese version of the questionnaire was posted on the website of the CPA. Participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they would agree with the provided solutions for those scenarios using the aforementioned 5-point Likert scale. This investigation relied on anonymous completion of online measures. Before completing the online survey measures, participants were asked to indicate their consent with an IRB-approved consent form and informed of their right to refuse or withdraw their participation at any time. Because the survey was administered online, the participants in this study had the option to complete the survey at their convenience and at a location of their choice.

Data Analysis

Two (culture) × 3 (educational level) factorial analyses of variance (ANOVA) were con- ducted using SPSS Statistics 19 software to examine differences in consequentialism orientation

514 ZHENG ET AL.

in ethical decision making in Chinese and American participants, as well as differences in consequentialism orientation in ethical decision making among psychologists and trainees with different educational level in each culture. The effects of culture and educational levels on consequentialism orientation were examined overall (i.e., global domain score) and in each spe- cific domain (i.e., resolving ethical issues, privacy and confidentiality, research and publication, human relations, and therapy and fees).

RESULTS

The aforementioned two-way ANOVA was conducted to examine the effects of culture and edu- cational level on consequentialism orientation across all scenarios. The dependent variable is the score on 20 scenarios with higher scores indicating stronger state consequentialism orientation. The means and standard deviations for consequentialism orientation as a function of culture and educational level are presented in Table 1.

The results for the two-way ANOVA indicated a significant main effect of culture across 20 scenarios (Figure 1), F (1, 175) = 20.75, p < .001, d = 1.53. Specifically, Chinese participants (M = 33.16, SD = 6.96) were more state-consequentialism-oriented than American participants (M = 27.85, SD = 6.54). However, there was no significant main effect of educational levels across 20 scenarios. In addition, the results of the two-way ANOVA analysis indicated that there was a significant interaction of culture and educational levels on consequentialism orientation across 20 scenarios, F(1, 175) = 3.094, p < .05, partial η2 = .034. The results of post hoc anal- yses showed that Chinese participants were more state-consequentialism-oriented overall (i.e., across domains) than American participants at the master’s level, t(71) = 4.55, p < .001, d = 1.34, and at the Ph.D. level, t(36) = 2.38, p < .05, d = .79, but not at the undergraduate level.

In an effort to gain a better understanding of cultural differences in ethical decision making, we also examined differences between American and Chinese psychologists’ consequentialism orientation with respect to each of the five domains of ethical issues (Figure 2).

Domain 1: Resolving Ethical Issues

A significant main effect of culture on consequentialism orientation in decision making was found in Domain 1 (resolving ethical issues), F(1, 175) = 40.23, p < .001, d = .91. Specifically, Chinese participants (M = 8.65, SD = 2) were more state-consequentialism-oriented than American par- ticipants (M = 6.48, SD = 2.72). There was also a significant main effect of educational level in this domain, F(2, 175) = 3.43, p < .05. The results of pairwise comparisons indicated that under- graduates (M = 8.42, SD = 2.24) were more state-consequentialism-oriented than masters’-level graduate students (M = 8.01, SD = 2.25, d = .18, p < .05) and than Ph.D.s (M = 7.60, SD = 2.88, d = .31, p < .05). However, there were no differences of consequentialism found between master’s-level graduate students and Ph.D.s.

In addition, there was a significant interaction between the effect of culture and the effect of educational level on consequentialism orientation in Domain 1 (resolving ethical issues), F(1, 175) = 4.53, p < .05. The results of post hoc analyses using Tukey Honestly Significant Difference contrasts showed that Chinese participants were more state-consequentialism-oriented in this domain than American participants at the master’s level, t(71) = 4.08, p < .001, d = 1.27, and at the Ph.D. level, t(36) = 4.89, p < .001, d = 1.52, but not at the undergraduate

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FIGURE 1 Cultural effect on consequentialism orientation across 20 scenarios. ∗∗∗ p < .001.

FIGURE 2 Cultural effect on consequentialism orientation across domains of 20 scenarios. ∗∗∗ p < .001.

level. The results of a Post Hoc analyses also indicated that American undergraduates were more state-consequentialism-oriented in decision making than American Ph.D.s in this domain (p <

.05, d = 4.30) but no significant difference of consequentialism orientation was found between American master’s-level participants and Ph.D.s. No significant effect of educational level on consequentialism orientation in this domain was found among Chinese samples.

Domain 2: Privacy and Confidentiality

No significant main effect of culture on differences in consequentialism orientation in ethi- cal decision making was found in Domain 2 (privacy and confidentiality). Also, no significant main effect of educational level on consequentialism orientation in ethical decision making was found in this domain. However, a significant interaction between culture and educational level in consequentialism orientation was found in this domain, F(2, 175) = 3.22, p < .05, par- tial η2 = .04. The results of post hoc analyses indicated that Chinese participants were more state-consequentialism-oriented than American participants in this domain at the master’s level,

CULTURE AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING 517

t(71) = 2.47, d = .86, p < .05, but no significant effect of culture on consequentialism orien- tation among undergraduates and Ph.D.s. The results of post hoc analyses also indicated that Chinese master’s-level participants were more state-consequentialism-orientated than Chinese Ph.D.s in this domain (d = .60, p < .05) and that the American undergraduates were more state- consequentialism-oriented than American master’s-level participants in this domain (d = .99, p < .05).

Domain 3: Human Relations

No significant main effect for culture on differences in consequentialism orientation in ethical decision making was found in the domain of human relations. Also, no significant main effect for educational level on consequentialism orientation in ethical decision making was found in this domain. In addition, no significant interaction between the effect of culture and the effect of educational level in consequentialism orientation was found in this domain.

Domain 4: Research and Publication

A significant main effect of culture on difference in consequentialism orientation in ethical deci- sion making was found in Domain 4 (research and publication), F(1, 175) = 29.33, d = .90, p < .001. Chinese participants (M = 8.31, SD = 2.56) were more state-consequentialism-oriented than American participants (M = 6.21, SD = 2.06) in this domain. In addition, a significant main effect of educational level on consequentialism orientation in ethical decision making was found in this domain, F(2, 175) = 4.72, p < .05. Specifically, the participants at the master’s level (M = 8.38, SD = 2.62) showed stronger state consequentialism orientation than the under- graduates (M = 6.89, SD = 2.62, d =. 57, p < .05) and that the Ph.D.s (M = 8.21, SD = 2.14) showed stronger state consequentialism orientation than the undergraduates (d = .55, p <

.05). However, no significant difference of consequentialism orientation in this domain was found between the master’s-level participants and the Ph.D.s. No significant interaction between culture and educational level was found. </p

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