Toward a Conceptual Framework of Professional Skepticism in Auditing

Abstract

There have been an increasing number of arguments on a national and an international level, both academically and practically, on “professional skepticism in auditing.” The internal and external environments surrounding independent auditors have resulted in an eroding of professional skepticism and have threatened to weaken society’s trust in auditors. Professional standards have long emphasized an appropriate degree of skepticism in the entirety of the evidence process, which is composed of planning audit programs, performing audit procedures, and evaluating the audit evidence. Auditors are expected to understand that the essence of skepticism is “raising a question” and “exhibiting a questioning mind,” yet this is not enough to prevent audit failures resulting from insufficient skepticism. Professional skepticism in auditing is a hybrid concept constituting the epistemic and psychological aspects of cognition. The former is related to a way of knowing and fundamentally deals with what approach (positive or negative) the auditor should adopt prior to designing the evidence process. The latter is related to the auditor’s disposition to raise a question in a particular audit setting and fundamentally deals with measuring the depth and breath of the auditor’s questioning mind.

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