Introduction
Ethnic origins, cultural backgrounds, and a diverse array of languages are South Africa’s proudest features. This is a country where conditions differ across provinces, cultures, and societies. There are however, numerous difficulties and challenges that pose problems for psychological assessments in South Africa. Due to the nature of cultures, languages, poverty, low literacy rates, and values, practitioners need to be more attentive to differences amongst test-takers. Ethical issues exist in all industries both globally and locally. Ethics can be seen as criteria for assessing the suitability of certain actions, choices, and stances. Ethical standards are used to make certain judgements on ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ conduct. Ethics are usually considered moral guidelines which practitioners need to respect and adhere to. Ethics are a way of life and are important in the South African context as described in the Ethical Code of Professional Conduct set out by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). There are various ethical issues that are specific to South Africa. This paper shall examine issues of privacy and confidentiality, informed consent, protection of participants, providing meaningful feedback, using appropriate norms, and finally, where to test, when to test, and appropriate tests to use.
The issue of privacy and confidentiality
The right to privacy and confidentiality is of vital importance in any setting where a psychological assessment is conducted. The right to privacy is not only a lawful consideration but also an issue of ethics. According to Bizannes (2007) privacy includes three concepts, namely, person(s) who have access to view information about you, when they can see this informati...
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...hnic origins. There are numerous ethical issues that still need to be addressed and reconsidered in the area of psychological assessment. The Health Professions Council of South Africa sets out many ethical standards in its Ethical Code of Professional Conduct. These standards mainly discuss the issues of privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent. Although these guidelines are very extensive and thorough, more guidance is however needed in other areas of feedback, norms, and protection of participants. The biggest challenge that South Africans face in terms of psychological assessment are language barriers and cultural backgrounds. In essence, ethics are used to determine certain criteria for assessing appropriate and acceptable behaviour. Ethical standards are especially important within the South African context due to its multicultural and diverse nature.
Slosar, J. P. (2004). Ethical decisions in health care. Health Progress. pp. 38-43. Retrieved from http://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/article/january-february-2004/ethical-decisions-in-health-care
American Psychological Association. (2014). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx?item=3
10. Discuss the ethical and legal implications of assessment, including the right to privacy, right to know, informed consent, intellectual property rights, user qualifications, protection of test materials, and confidentiality.
The field of clinical mental health is one of great reward, but also one of grave responsibility. It is the duty of the counselor to provide the client with a safe environment and an open mind, in order to foster a healthy therapeutic relationship. The majority of mental health counselors would never intentionally harm their clients; however; good intentions are not enough to ensure that wrong will not occur. The ethical expectations and boundaries are regulated by both laws and professional codes. When discussing ethics, one must realize there are two categories, mandatory and aspirational. (Corey, Corey & Callanan, 2007)
Formulating boundaries, while not always easy to do, is often necessary in order to protect the practitioner from allegations of malpractice, negligence, or any other type of ethical violations for that matter, including breaches in confidentiality. Unfortunately, since ethics are not clearly defined in terms of simply black-or-white or right-or-wrong, it becomes that much more difficult to determine where one line of the professional boundaries starts and another begins. The result of these inconsistencies tends to be somewhat
Privacy postulates the reservation of a private space for the individual, described as the right to be let alone. The concept is founded on the autonomy of the individual. The ability of an individual to make choices lies at the core of the human personality. The Supreme Court protected the right to privacy of prostitute. The autonomy of the individual is associated over matters which can be kept private. These are concerns over which there is a legitimate expectation of privacy. Privacy has both a normative and descriptive function. At a normative level privacy sub-serves those eternal values upon which the guarantees of life, liberty and freedom are founded. At a descriptive level, privacy postulates a bundle of entitlements and interests
Every patient that is admitted to hospital, or seen by a health professional has a right to his or her own privacy, and it is through ensuring professional boundaries are upheld that this basic right can be achieved. According to Levett-Jones and Bourgeois (2011, pp. 237) confidentiality is an obligation made by a professional to respect the information given by a patient to healthcare professional. In this modern age, privacy can be hard as society relies on technology as a form of communication, allowing for information to be more readily available. However, by posting on Facebook about a patient or informing a friend, the trust created in a therapeutic relationship is breach and is called a boundary crossing. Thompson (2010, pp.26) understands that “At times, boundary crossing may be unintentional, but emphasizes th...
Ethics is the judgement and the moral actions used in interactions with cultures and society and its focus is on the client well-being. Ethics is defined by Remley and Herlihy (2010) in the counseling field as “professional behavioral and interactions” (p.4). Counselors do rely and are guide by Codes of Ethics. The role and relevance of the ethical principals, the ACA and AMHCA Code of Ethics are the base of the counseling profession. Without them this career would not have a guide on how the professionals should act and react professionally in all the different situations that are faced in this field.
Ethical issues in a counseling practice lay the foundation of a therapist in practice. Ethics are at the center of how the counseling process functions and operates in a successful manner for the clients who seek help in such a setting. In order for the counseling profession to be ethical and hold professional recognition, there are many facets that need to be examined and outlined to make sure all counselors and practitioners are functioning at the highest level and withholding their duties required by the counseling profession. The first introduction so to speak of the area of ethics also happens to be one of the first steps in counseling, which is the informed consent. The informed consent provides the basis of what happens or will be happening in a counseling setting and serves to inform the client to their rights, responsibilities, and what to expect. Most importantly, the informed consent is in place for the client’s benefit. It also is important to understand that culture and environment play a role in the treatment of a client and how theories can positively or negatively impact this treatment. Therapists need to understand how to work within the context of a theory while being able to understand the individual in their own environment. Although theories are put into place to serve as a framework, there are also alternative ways to approach counseling, one example being evidence-based practice. Such an approach is very specific, which presents a series of solutions for counseling as a whole, but also brings forth many problems. Every approach or theory introduces ethical concerns that need to be taken into consideration by the entire counseling community and how each can positively and negatively affect clients and the pr...
Today, because privacy is a emerging right, a discussion of privacy is usually consists of a list of examples where the right has been recognized. Privacy can be talked about in the nature of the right and the source of the right. There are four rights in the USA, unreasonable intrusion such as physical invasion, appropriation of a persons name or likenesss, publication of private facts such as income tax data or sexual relations, and publication that places a person in a false light, and the only one that is widely accepted in the US is the second one. A person might also recover under intentional infliction of emotional distress, assa...
In psychology, ethics are important because they set boundaries and control the way psychology is used by a set of laws. Ethic codes mainly protect clients from misuse of psychology. Ethics are important because they refrain the psychologist from lying to a patient. They also give protection to the public, clients, and psychologist. Overall, ethics are used to protect the psychologist and client from harm, as well as give control to the behavior in order to ensure safe and effective treatment. http://www.efpa.be/ethics.htm
“Legal, Ethical and Professional Issues” (Chapter 15) is an interesting chapter in the textbook “Abnormal Psychology.” Just like the name of the chapter, it helps understand legal, ethical, and professional issues related to the practice of psychology. This is very important because by offering service a psychologist is responsible for the people that are under his or her care, that even goes for people participating for research. Psychologist have authority to practice in their area of expertise, using methods that are not harmful to their recipients and “ that preferably have a strong scientific basis” and never doing treatments that are unorthodox and will put their patients health and safety in any more jeopardy. This also gives patients
In the case study of Gwen, there is one major problem presented. That problem is whether it is ethical for a supervisor to counsel his supervisee. I think that Gwen is going through the grieving process after learning about her mother’s condition and is in a vulnerable spot. She feels like she cannot continue her work with hospice patients because of personal feelings. Ken thinks that Gwen is a great therapist and does not want to see her give up. He also feels like he would be the most effective person to give Gwen counseling, because of their trusting relationship. I think that this would be a bad idea and could cross professional boundaries. The Ethical Guidelines for Counseling Supervisors strongly suggest against a supervisor entering in a psychotherapeutic relationship with supervisees. It is important to limit the possibilities of a dual relationship. Dual relationships can easily become unethical and present problems or possible harm to the client, which in this case is the supervisee. They can also create dependency or have unfavorable symbolic meanings. I also do not think it was a good idea that the counseling happened in the supervision sessions. This time should be spent on improving knowledge and helping clients. Spending most of the supervisor sessions working on personal problems could potentially harm the progress and well-being of the supervisee’s clients. My reaction to Ken blending the roles of supervisor and counselor is that it was not a good, professional, decision. He has entered a dual relationship with Gwen that could potentially cause harm to her or create a conflict of interest. Since Ken is Gwen’s supervisor, he has more power over the relationship than Gwen does. This power can easily be abused by Ken...
Particularly in medical and nursing settings, privacy is recognized as a basic human right. Should be noted, it’s essentially complex and vague to define while being reviewed. It’s defined in the context of four aspects [solitude, intimacy, anonymity and reserve] but overall recognized in two forms; autonomy and confidentiality. Little attention paid to privacy patients in many medical centers. It’s essential to observe privacy, to establish an effective medical team-patients relationship; patient serenity. Today, with technology available, observing privacy and confidentiality should be more acute. Patient satisfaction levels have been identified as major indicators of quality of care and are influenced by a range of factors (Nayeri & Aghajani, 2010).
Koocher, G.P., & Keith-Spiegel, P. (2008). Ethics in psychology and the mental health professions. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.