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On integrity
Discuss ethics of psychology
Discuss ethics of psychology
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Ethics are a huge part of today’s psychology and they should be. Without ethics human research could prove to be very dangerous and damaging to the mind. Psychologists are required to follow 5 general principles of ethics and could lose their license in psychology if they stray from them. This code can lead to very interesting and safe studies conducted by professional psychologists. The 5 principles are beneficence and non-maleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, and respect for people’s rights and dignity (JEPS Bulletin).
The first set of ethics is beneficence and non-maleficence. The term non-maleficence refers to the avoidance of needless harm to your subject and beneficence refers to the actions you take to avoid
Integrity is like honesty, if you promise that you will do something you have to keep your promise and do it. Integrity does not only mean that you must keep your promises, it also means you can’t hide anything. The term “informed consent” is used when discussing this principle. Informed consent refers to a psychologist telling the subject exactly what is about to happen without hiding any details, even small ones that you think may not matter. You must always be very clear when you tell a client what is going to occur and what you sincerely believe the outcome will be. Quality service is expected out of psychologists and they are trained and payed to give it. By conducting subpar studies or giving weak analyses, the psychologist is not following the principle of integrity. A psychologist is also expected to turn down a job if it appears to be harmful or not beneficial to people or a person (Ethics: An Introduction). The fourth principle is justice. In this setting, justice does not mean that it is applied in a court of law but in the fact that psychologist should be aware of who they’re providing help or information to. For instance, if a known convict comes to you for help you reserve the right to turn him down and should, assuming he wasn’t posing a threat to you. A psychologist should also be sure that their work is complete and concise before publishing it and also that it is available to everyone who may want it (Ethics: An
However, the third principle has a couple of safe loopholes. As stated earlier, informed consent is when a psychologist tells a client or subject exactly what they are about to do. Though this is the ethical thing to do in most cases, the opposite must be done in others. In the case of testing a placebo versus a real drug, you would not tell the subject what they are taking. If the subjects were aware that what they were taking was just a sugar pill, they would not feel any different, but if they thought they were taking pain medication, they may begin to feel better because their brain tells them to. In this case, though you aren’t using informed consent. You still must debrief the subject so they know what happened (Rathus
...nsent and the psychologist has an ethical duty to provide the best care to the client. The psychologist cannot be dishonest, make false and inaccurate statements; therefore, not putting the proper assessment data in the wife’s file, would be unethical, but also breaking the law. A psychologist is responsible for abiding by the law when there is conflict with the code of ethics and resolution cannot be resolved (APA, 2002, 1.03)
American Psychological Association. (2014). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx?item=3
Francis Bacon helped to pioneer the new science steering people away from Aristotelian teachings. He helped to bring the scientific method to a place of learning from observation and experimentation. He felt that science should be judged by the usefulness of the results (Greenwood, 2009). Bacon projected that many great things might come out of this empirical approach, but what has ensued in the centuries that followed, Bacon and others might not have predicted.
Mandatory ethics is the level of functioning where the counselor is abiding by the basic “do’s and don’ts” of professional counseling. These are definitive codes that will protect a counselor from legal action and professional censure. All mental health professionals will be held accountable by the minimum standards set by state licensure boards and courts of law. Issues addressed by the Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association (APA) include, but are not limited to, competence, human relations, confidentiality and fees. (American Psychological Association, 2002)
However, there are some cases that professionals have to rely on the Law. The Law is different from moral principles and Code of Ethics and its focus is on the legal perspective to protect the professional. The Law is defined by Remley and Herlihy (2010) as “general or specific regarding both what is required and what is allowed of individuals who from a governmental entity” (p.4). One major example is the Tarasoff and the Duty to Protect which is a law that was created after the case that happened with a university student, Tatiana Tarasoff and her boyfriend. Tarasoff’s parents sue the psychotherapists alleging that the professionals should have warned the student. Because of this case, the law raised a major concern that the confidentiality that professionals should follow according to the ACA and AMHCA Code of Ethics has to be broken when there is an issue that can affect a third party in the situation. Like the AMHCA refers to confidentiality as “a right granted to all clients of mental health counseling services. From the onset of the counseling relationship, mental health counselors inform clients of these rights inclu...
Ethical behavior is necessary for a society to function in an orderly manner. It can be argued that ethics is the glue that holds a society together. Philosophers, religious organizations, and other groups have defined in various ways ideal sets of moral principles and values. The following are different approaches, from ancient and modern traditions and philosophers, depicting their meaning and understanding of ethics and how it can be applied in ethical decision-making.
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...
The Milgram experiment is probably one of the most well known experiments in Psychology. The reason being is because its participants were not told what was really occurring in the experiment. After the experiment was over, the participants were mentally and emotionally affected. Later, a cognitive psychologist, George Miller described Milgram’s experiments, together with Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment, as “being ideal for public consumption of psychological research” (Blass, 2002). And indeed, Milgram’s studies, as Zimbardo’s, are clearly meant to be spread to a broad audience, the moral and preventative objectives permeating the experiments from their very outset (Stavrakis, 2007).. In this paper, I will explore how experiments such as Milgram and Zimbardo’s, as well as the Tuskeegee Syphilis Experiment, changed the way experiments are conducted today because of the formation of the Institutional Review Board (IRB).
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
However, informed consent has many flawed elements in the concept. In order to support this belief, the following issues must be addressed include the following: disclosure of pertinent medical facts and alternative course of treatment, including refusal, ensuring absence of coercion and manipulation, and ensuring patient intellectual capacity to understand the medical information.
Multiple relationships create a conflict of interest situation, which often leads to a distorted judgment and can motivate a psychologist to act in a way that promotes their own personal interests. We, as humans, have a capacity to deceive ourself, especially when given a reason to rationalize. But above all, the client’s well-being must be the main focus of the therapy, not the psychologist’s.
Ethics in the counselling and psychotherapy protects the client and the therapist involved in the therapeutic relationship and the therapeutic process as a whole; with the concepts that act as a guide for the therapists in provision of good practice and care for the client. The framework is built on values of counselling and psychotherapy; principles of trustworthiness, autonomy, fidelity, justice, beneficence, non-maleficence and self-respect, and provides standards of good practice and care for the practitioner (BACP, 2010). Ethical framework contributes to the development of the therapeutic relationship and process by assisting therapist’s decisions, and guides their behaviour and proceedings within their legal rights and duties. The ethical frame is structured on the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship and the therapists should be aware of their categories and be responsible for their forms. Monitoring and being aware of what goes on in and out of the room physically, emotionally and psychologically is primarily the duty of the therapist.
There are few circumstances counselors have to oblige when dealing issues from clients. Counselors have to be trustworthy; this is a fundamental to understanding and solving issues. Counselors have to keep information gathered confidential and restrict any disclosure of information to anybody. Clients voluntarily seek help to counselors for therapy or any kind of help they need. Hence as a counselor it is important to respect their clients’ self-government and ensure precision in information given. Commitment of a counselor plays a big role in a therapy. It is not ethical for a counselor to neglect a client such that the client’s well being is not taken care of. It is also important for counselors to have a fair treatment with all their clients. No matter how each client will be, there must not be any form of judgment, which will cause any form of unfair
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
Although there are many types of traditional theories of ethics and ethical test questions, I would only be discussing what is required for this paper. That is, three traditional theories of ethics and the ethical test questions associated to those theories. However, before I begin, I would like to start off by giving the definition of the word ethics. Pride, Hughes and Kapoor (2015) defines ethics as "the study of right and wrong and the morality of the choices individuals make" (p.34). With this in mind, I would now go further into details within the context of this paper. Enjoy your reading.