Psychologists' Ways of Dealing With Ethical Issues There are different ways that psychologists deal with ethical issues. One way is through use of ethical guidelines. These are concrete, quasi-legal documents that help to guide conduct within psychology by establishing principles for standard practice and competence. Another way is through the use of an ethical committee. This is a group of people within a research institution that must approve a study before it begins. An additional way is through socialisation. This is when psychologists get together and learn to take on each others ethical attitudes. A final way is punishment. A psychologist who disobeys the ethical code will have to appear before a special committee which judges the seriousness of the offence. The psychologist will then be dealt with accordingly. Deception is one of the many ethical issue that have been raised by social influence research. The BPS say that ‘intentional deception of participants over the purpose and general nature of the investigation should be avoided whenever possible. Participants should never be deliberately misled without extremely strong scientific or medical justification.’. Some forms of deception involve lying to participants about the nature of a study, such as Milgram’s study on obedience to authority. Participants were told that they were taking part in a study of how punishment affects learning, when in fact the study was on whether ordinary people will obey a legitimate authority even when required to injure another person. Other forms of deception involve the unfolding of important information that may effect participants willingness to take part in the study. An example of this is Zimbardo et al.’s prison stimulation experiment. Participants were not told all the ins and outs of the study, so they were not completely sure of what they were getting themselves in to. With full knowledge of all aspects of the study, many participants may have been less willing to partake. One way of compensating for deception is debriefing.
Author Allison Kornet in her article (1997) “The Truth about Lying: Has Lying Gotten a Bad Rap” states that deception or lying has become a part of everyone’s life. A person lies or deceives as often as he brushes his teeth or combs his hair. Many psychologists have neglected or ignored the concept of deception or lying and its effects on everyone’s life. Kornet explains that in the previous two to three decades, the psychologists started noticing or analyzing the effects of a person’s deception on others or why a person lies so many times in his day-to-day life. The person might learn lying from childhood
Milgram argues that since the true nature of the study was about obedience, orders were necessary in order to be successful or to gather usable data. As stated previously, there were no mandatory laws in place as far as deception goes. However, in the 1960s there was a law in place, written by the British Psychological Society that stated that “states that researchers should make it plain to participants that they are free to withdraw at any time” (McLeod, para. 9, Ethical Issues). Still, Milgram disregarded this with his argument and used the following prompts to discourage the subjects from withdrawing from the
In “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, the author uses her knowledge to talk about the different ways of lies and how those lies affect the liar, as well as the people who had been told lies. According to the author’s essay, there are 10 types of lies that people encounter every single day: the White Lie, Facades, Ignoring the Plain Facts, Deflecting, Omission, Stereotypes and Cliches, Groupthink, Out-and-Out Lies, Dismissal, and Delusion. Throughout the essay, it is connoted that people are lying in various ways even though they are not intended to. I had been taught that lying is a bad habit. According to Ericsson, there are many types of lie and I did three of them in my life: the White Lie, Omission, and Out-and-Out Lies; however, I can defend my lies for good purposes.
Having a positive approach helps psychologists clarify what they value, contemplate how they must behave, and decide what institutes suitable professional demeanor. The significance of positive ethics supports psychologists and allows them to reach their utmost ethical principles instead of violating the rules. The American Psychological Association are the top procedures to monitor to help stay within the ethical guidelines which has recently had revisions in the year two thousand two. There are a number of ethical codes to consider as a forensic psychologist cannot have the unawareness of particular psychological information, absence of specific preparation in forensic, presumptuous the lawyer will offer the expert with the essential legal ethical and professional evidence, assuming diverse jurisdictions are comparable in laws, how the laws are applied and failure to recognize the sole matters related with privacy and privileged communications for the work in the forensic
American Psychological Association. (2014). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx?item=3
The Ethical Standards set forth enforceable rules for conduct as psychologists who are members of the American Psychological Association. Most of the Ethical Standards are written broadly, in order to apply to psychologists in varied roles, although the application of an Ethical Standard may vary depending on the context. The Ethical Standards are not exhaustive. The fact that a given conduct is not specifically addressed by an Ethical Standard does not mean that it is necessarily either ethical or unethical. This Ethics Code applies only to psychologists' activities that are part of their scientific, educational, or professional roles as
... false confessions: current research, practice, and policy recommendations. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2010. Print.
The Asch and Milgram’s experiment were not unethical in their methods of not informing the participant of the details surrounding the experiment and the unwarranted stress; their experiment portrayed the circumstances of real life situation surrounding the issues of obedience to authority and social influence. In life, we are not given the courtesy of knowledge when we are being manipulated or influenced to act or think a certain way, let us be honest here because if we did know people were watching and judging us most of us would do exactly as society sees moral, while that may sound good in ensuring that we always do the right thing that would not be true to the ways of our reality. Therefore, by not telling the participants the detail of the experiment and inflicting unwarranted stress Asch and Milgram’s were
Many people may think that a being a paralegal is just like being a lawyer, but that is not the case. In fact, there are different types of paralegals just like there are different types of lawyers. These are some of the different types of paralegals that are out there: intellectual property (“IP”) paralegals, family law paralegals, and bankruptcy paralegals (“What Are The Different Types Of Paralegals?” n.d.). According to, “What Do Paralegals Do? (n.d.),” the duties of a paralegal are, “Conduct client interviews and maintain general contact with the client, locate and interview witnesses, conduct investigations, statistical and documentary research, conduct legal research, draft legal documents, correspondence and pleadings, summarize depositions, interrogatories and testimony, attend executions of wills, real
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.
Some of the deficiencies in the way cultural relativism addresses moral problems, according to Holmes; are that they remain impractical, they are subject to change depending on where you live, and that people tolerate the different cultures. As a professional business person, I agree with Holmes analysis. Allowing others perceptions or beliefs to get away with our own personal beliefs would be contradicting ourselves. It is important to stand up for our beliefs, and help educate others on ethical issues. Over time we can make a difference in the world by modeling moral beliefs and ethics.
In philosophy, there are many different views regarding what is thought to constitute ethical behavior. Among them are the cultural relativist, utilitarian, and Kantian. Given a situation where someone must choose to either kill one person out of thirty so that the others could live or let all thirty people die in order to maintain their moral duty, the distinctive philosophical views would lead to varying responses. They contribute opposing ideas on what the right decision is. Generally, these three ethical theories have the power to influence what happens next.
Code of ethics act as a promise to protect and support the safety of individuals in society, supports as a leading light it help the supporters of an occupation, resolve ethical problems and act as a protector the community. A code of ethics discloses and conserves the current viewpoint professionals on in what way to make ethical decisions. It stresses importance on obligation to moral values and vital beliefs. Application of a code of ethics helps us to guarantee that members of the profession will be accountable for their actions. It helps us to learn about the responsibility we have for ourselves, our colleagues and to the social structure of the profession. It is essential that the present and future psychologist should be aware of the formal ethical codes of practices in psychology. The American Psychological Association (APA) developed this formal Ethics Code which demonstrates the approaches to the psychologist about logical, educational, and clinical behaviors to be followed while working as a licensed person. By applying the ethical code a psychologist can identify ethical issues, interrelate with others professionally. This can inhibit and solve ethical dilemmas, and he /she will be able achieve their professional protagonists and responsibilities.
Deception is sometimes used by researchers when they conduct psychological experiments. Deception occurs when the participant is misled about the purpose, design, of the experiment, or when the researcher uses deliberate misleading to persuade the subject into believing a certain view (McLeod). Many people believe deception is ethically wrong, and psychologists should not use it to obtain important information. I believe psychologists should be able to use deception if the participant is not psychologically harmed. It is believed that deception is the only way we can obtain true information (Connolly). The knowledge we are able to obtain about psychological tendencies outweighs the temporary effects of deception.
American Psychiatric Association. (2010). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychological Association (APA), Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx