Ethical Consideration for Counsellor Practice as Perceived by Student Counsellors in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

The paper examined the perception of student counsellors studying Guidance and Counselling in various Nigerian Universities on ethical codes which should guide and protect the counselling profession. Four research questions were raised to guide the study and two corresponding hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the descriptive survey design, with a sample of 1,500 students, drawn from selected Nigerian universities using the multistage sampling technique. The instrument used to gather data for the study was a 50 item questionnaire constructed by the researcher. The psychometric properties were determined and found adequate for use. The test-re-test method was applied to determine reliability which yielded r = 0.88. Senior lecturers in the Department of Guidance and Counselling ascertained content and construct adequacy of the instrument. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions and t-test to test the hypotheses. The study found out that respondents perceived counselling codes highly irrespective of their gender and religious beliefs although male respondents showed stronger agreement. It was therefore recommended that the Counselling Association of Nigeria should develop counselling ethical codes for professional counselling practice in Nigeria without considering any bias for gender and religion.