Into the client's mind: Investigating the effectiveness of informed consent and active learning materials on ethical knowledge of the clients

The present study aims to examine the effectiveness of delivering informed consent using an active learning strategy featuring ethical dilemma cases presented both verbally and in writing to enhance potential clients' knowledge of ethical codes, violations, and the mutual rights and responsibilities in psychological counseling. A quasi-experimental design was adopted with posttest-only nonequivalent design, utilizing purposive sampling to assign 60 adult participants, all without prior ethics training or counseling experience, into control and experimental groups. While the control group received informed consent solely in written form, the experimental group participated in one-on-one interactive sessions involving case discussions, visual aids, and guided reflection. To measure ethical understanding, Ethical Situational Judgment Test in Psychological Counseling (ESJT-PC) was specifically developed for the study, targeting four core areas of counseling ethics: Informed Consent (IC), Confidentiality (C), Multiple Relationships (MR), and Competence (CP). The results revealed statistically significant differences favoring the experimental group across all dimensions. For IC, C, MR, and CP, the experimental group demonstrated higher scores than the control group (p < .05). Most notably, total ethical knowledge scores were significantly higher in the experimental group (Mdn = 42.02) than the control group (Mdn = 18.98), U = 104.50, z = -5.146, p < .001. These findings support the use of active learning approaches in delivering informed consent, highlighting their effectiveness in improving ethical knowledge and awareness among potential clients. The study contributes to ethical practices in counseling by promoting informed consent as an educational tool, enhancing client understanding and autonomy.