Codes of ethics are historical products of the professionalization process; the form and content of codes of ethics develop within the specific historical context of the professionalization process of the occupational group for which they are written. During the 1950s and 1960s, the CPA's decisions regarding adoption of a code of ethics were centred on two major professionalization needs; namely, to secure a market niche for 'psychologists' as this was defined by CPA and to sustain this image as the basis for continuing funding for related psychological research. Different historical factors resulted in the decision by CPA, in the 1970s, to produce a made-in-Canada code of ethics. These were a) the need of CPA to produce a document of professional self-regulation that recognized problems faced by psychological practitioners employed within various organizational structures, and (b) organizational problems of the CPA related to disciplinary unity and achievement of a national leadership role. The results of this critical historical analysis confirm the importance of codes of professional ethics as strategies of professionalization as hypothesized byjohanne Louw in 1990.
A CRITICAL APPROACH TO WRITING A HISTORY OF CODES OF ETHICSProfessional groups typically view their codes of ethics primarily as regulatory devices to protect the public from incompetent and unethical practices by certified members of the profession. However, some authors in philosophy, psychology, sociology and history (e.g., Bucher and
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