Ethical Considerations - Essay Example

422008 Lifewk1 Assignment There are many issues that one must consider when using humans in studies for lifespan development. One of the first issues one must be concerned with is privacy. Both the APA Ethical Guidelines and the medical guidelines speak to this issue. Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, if we are doing research of some health nature, certain information must be protected for the individual. This rule basically states that a participant has the right to inspect and copy their records that are held by "hospitals, clinics, health plans or other covered entities" (Medical privacy website). IF we were conducting a lifespan study through a clinic or other covered entity we should take this rule into consideration and inform the participants about their rights under the rule. According to the American Psychological Association (2002), there are also ethical considerations that must be followed. One of the first issues to be concerned with is the "do no harm" aspect of the work. Psychologists "seek to safeguard the welfare and rights" (APA, 2002, Principle A, p. 1) of their clients. The psychologist must also make sure that they are practicing within the boundaries of their competency areas (Standard 2, p. 2) and if working with participants who are a different ethnicity or gender, they must have the proper training in these areas. Legally, they must report any infromation to law enforcement where they find a participant to be harmful to themselves or others. They must also make sure that they have the proper licensing and that this licensing is up to date. Researchers should also have in writing the "informed consent" form which states all of the aspects of the study including the nature of the study, that it entails naturalistic observation, that there may be some deception within it and that the information received will be recorded and shared. All participants must sign this agreement to make sure that they understand what is happening. It would be difficult to totally eliminate bias in the researcher, but I would make sure that I had training in the areas necessary to work with the participants. I would make an attempt to use gender neutral wording in the instructions and in conducting the researcher. I would use research methods that had been used with minorities as well as women to the best of my ability. Assignment 2 I think that the two most important aspects of ethical considerations are to do no harm and the HIPAA information. The reason these are important is because they are stated to protect the clients. To do no harm is the motto of any healthcare professional. The APA guidelines on this issue state that psychologists should not only do no harm to clients, but they should also make sure they do no harm to others in the field (APA, Principle A, p. 1). This to me insures that the counselor makes sure that they are always working above board and in an ethical manner. We are dealing with people daily which means we have the potential to help or harm them. They come to us with challenges and we must make sure that our behavior does not make their challenges worse. We should also take care of ourselves to make sure we are feeling well and unstressed in order to help our clients. I also think that HIPAA is very important and the government seems to think so because it has created "some fundamental legal challenges that apply to research in human development" (Medical privacy website). Prior to HIPAA, it may have been difficult for people to be protected under the law in terms of having their records shared. Along with this informant, it is important to maintain confidentiality of participants in studies because there can be repercussions if it is not kept. I think it can be difficult to understand the various dynamics that go into counseling and research when working with clients of different cultures. We can become sensitive to the issues through training but it would be a good idea to immerse oneself into cultural environments so we could get a better sense of the culture. I think it is very important for counselors to adhere to some type of ethical standards because we are in a position of power that could create problems for the client if we do not maintain ethics. There are many cases where counselors and other professionals have over stepped their boundaries and caused more damage to clients. Assignment 3 There are many theories that describe how children learn and develop. Each theory stands on its own merits but they also have differences. There are several categories for them which include cognitive theories, psychoanalytic theories, and social cultural theories. Freud was one of the first theorists to talk about stages that children go through. His theory was based on sexual impulses and he thought children went through stages that helped them evolve themselves as sexual beings. As an example, Freud believed that the individual moved through an oral stage where they were fixated with their mouth as the center of pleasure. This would explain why babies put everything into their mouths. He then states that this progresses to the anus and then to their genitals (Santrock, 2009) eventually and they become a fully functioning sexual being at that point. Erikson felt that there definitely were stages that children moved through, but that they did not have to do with a pleasure principle. Instead, they had more to do with the completion of a task in each area. As an example, Erikson felt that babies would stay in the stage of trust vs. mistrust until they found a way to do one or the other. If the environment was supportive, the child would develop trust because their basic physical needs were being met. If their needs were not met, they would develop mistrust. In either case, they would be learning the task and moving onto the next stage. Both of these theories promoted the idea that stages were important to the individuals development. Vygotsky on the other hand, ignored stages and went directly to cognitive reasoning as what drives development. He saw that children were actually guided by the outside world which was similar to what Erikson thought. In relating the many theories of human development each has its place in the development of the individual. I do not believe that there is a "best" answer to these because they all have a part in describing one or more aspects of how humans evolve. When pressed to just chose one, I feel that Lev Vygotskys Sociocultural Cognitive Theory gives one of the best descriptions of development. Vygotsky combines the nature and nurture argument by observing that children learn through observation of and interaction with their environment. Specifically, he believed that "the development of memory, attention and reasoning involves learning to use the inventions of society…" (Santrock, 2005, p. 22). In so doing, children have to observe their environment so they can learn how to fit within it. Vygotsky further believed that information was not already available to the individual but the environment provided the information needed. He believed that this information was gathered through collaborative learning experiences with other people (Santrock, 2005). As time went on, Vygotsky developed the Zone of Proximal Development (ZDP) as his explanation of the difference between the time when a child first begins a task to the time that they are able to complete it independently. In the ZPD, a child would do as much of a task as they could independently. They would then reach a point where someone would have to assist them in order to complete the task further. In his view, this allowed the child to further use the skills they were already maturing for the task (Santrock, 2005). Another aspect of Vygotskys theory is the idea of scaffolding. This idea goes along with the ZPD because it changes the level of supervision that the child needs as they move throughout the task. As an example, at the start of a new task, a child may need a lot of help until they reach a point where the task becomes easier. At that point, the tacher or other instructor will adjust the amount of instruction. This reduction in the instruction will continue until the child is completing the task independently. Dialogue is important to scaffolding because Vygotsky believed that hcidlren understood concepts in an "unsystematic, disorganized and spontaneous" (Santrock, p. 219-220), and that the adult helper could help the child organize these concepts into "logical and rational concepts" (Santrock, p. 220). Further aspects of his theory suggest that language and thought develop independently and then they merge. Therefore, mental functions are social in nature. This means that a child must learn how to communicate in their environments with other people before they recognize that they have their own thoughts (Santrock, 2005). His theory has proven to have merit, especially in using the various components of it as a teaching tool. References American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved March 8, 2010 from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx Medical Privacy Website. (2010). Federal law HIPAA. Retrieved March 8, 2010 from http://epic.org/privacy/medical Santrock, W. (2005). A topical approach to lifespan development. 2nd Edition. NY: McGraw Hill. Read More