Ethics Education in the Curricula of Psychology Disciplines in Iranian Universities

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Quran and Hadith, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to examine the status of ethics education within the framework of curricula for psychology students in Iran. To this end, all active psychology curricula at the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology of the Islamic Republic of Iran were examined using quantitative content analysis. The findings indicate that a total of 14 course titles related to ethics education were identified across 13 psychology disciplines; including 9 courses on "Professional Ethics" and 6 courses on "Moral Psychology." In addition to the aforementioned 14 courses, the topic of ethics is referenced in the syllabus of 86 other courses. A total of 177 ethical components extracted from the syllabi of 100 psychology courses were categorized into four themes: moral dimensions of the human, the content of moral science, moral disciplines, and the relationship between ethics and other matters. These findings demonstrate that ethics education has been addressed in most psychology disciplines in the Iranian higher education system. As an exploratory and preliminary study, the present research has provided a general overview of the state of ethics education in psychology curricula in Iran and has offered suggestions for ethics education at the undergraduate level in psychology.

Keywords

References

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