Professional Ethics for the Psychology Student - Coursework Example

Professional Ethics for the Psychology Module Introduction Psychology is a very sensitive one which allows the direct study of human thoughts, motives and reactions. Being a topic so sensitive, it needs certain guidelines to be followed for the safekeeping of the client and service provider. The clients in most cases are vulnerable humans who are often trapped in very complicated sensitive issues. Each psychologist is obligated to know, understand and follow the ethical standards issued by the authorities. These rights of the client are supposed to be mentioned to him or her prior to the sitting so they understand when their rights are violated. In any scenario when it is felt that the code of conduct in any way is being violated the first and foremost thing to do is stop the activity and then get consultancy from others whether the code was violated and how to refrain from that. The code is necessary to keep each of the participants of research and the clients altogether safe from any harm and to protect their privacy in particular. Public welfare needs to be put above personal interest at all times. (Lindsay, 2009) The Ethical Code applies to all psychologists involved in educational, professional or scientific studies. This code is applicable on all psychologists even those beyond the clinical roles. While making decisions, a psychologist must take under account the law of the country and laws of the psychology board in addition to the Ethical Code to always stay in line with rules and regulations whilst providing the best care and service possible. The code provides instructions for most of the situations that psychologists face in their daily life; however those which are not mentioned should be solved reasonably by discussion with fellow psychologists and by understanding the laws of board and the country. (Fouad et al., 2009) However, if the rules are interpreted in a very rigid and professional manner, an ethical issue may raise again. This may further compromise the health of the client. The situations vary, and for each situation the psychologist must know how far the rule can be bent so to keep the client in safe hands for the clients easy and comfort. For example if the client mentions going to a party or a movie for that matter where the psychologist has made prior plans for, and the psychologist discourage the client from going there just so their paths may not cross outside the office is itself very absurd and rigid. Similarly, explicit details regarding non sexual behavior in the client consent form is useless and may in fact bring on fantasies for the client. (Knapp, Handelsman, Gottlieb & VandeCreek, 2013) The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest organization which represents psychologists in the United States of America. The latest amendment to the APA’s code of ethics came in 2010 making the basic human rights even more protected than before. Integrity as a Psychology Student A psychology student first and foremost must have integrity as a graduate student. The student must be honest and must have very strong moral values which he or she will not waiver off for any reason at all. The student must have completed the research work with complete honesty and no fabrication and due credit to all other scientists must be given for their work. Acts of plagiarism are not supported or applied throughout the tenure of graduation. A full honest behavior is observed during examinations and no unlawful means are pursued to pass the exams, no helping material is to be relied upon. While the students are asked to be careful with others work, they are solely responsible for the protection of their own work too. After completing owns work, it is important to keep it away from others, providing help but not solutions must be the basic criteria. The dissertation must be turned in witching time and must follow ethics of writing. Personal Values in Relation to Professional Ethics Personal values more than often relate to professional ethics but at times the two paths diverge that is where the psychologist faces trouble and knows not which path to choose. At times like this, the psychologist must understand that getting help and consultancy is the best option so the end product is for the uplifting of the public benefit and not solely for personal gains. A personal problem may conflict with professional ethics and in those cases, the personal problem needs to be rectified and kept at bay. A very common example may be of substance abuse, if a psychologist starts the intake of a substance it surely will cloud the decision making process. This affects the optimum efficiency of the psychologist which in turn affects the clients greatly. If the psychologist now is clean, but comes across a patient who is struggling to fit rid of the substance abuse, may use personal experiences to assist the client to break free from the problem. A weakness in this case may become strength for the psychologist. Another example is of a client who wishes to stop seeking help, in such a case even though the personal value would make the psychologist to want to keep helping, the professional conduct asks the psychologist to take a back seat and no interfere when help is not sought for. A psychologist may face a number of negative situations in life such as divorce or death of a loved one, when seeing a client going through similar situations, the value of the consultation being provided becomes very high. At times like these, to help cope up with the personal life, consultation must be sought. Certain challenges are very hard to overcome by the psychologist and that is when the code asks for the psychologist to withdraw from work for some time and cope up with these personal challenges to help the clients again. (Behnke, 2008) Multicultural and Diversity Issues With the globalization on the rise America has seen a large influx of people from all around the globe. Earlier in the years psychologists only came across clients of their own ethnic groups, however now with globalization each psychologist has at least once served a client from another ethnicity. Earlier the only differences laid in the social class, education and gender while now the diversity has hugely increased with differences being observed in language, religion, culture, belief, and even gender preferences. Multiculturalism is being considered as the fourth force which is bringing forth an evolution in psychology. For a psychologist providing services for cross cultural clients, appropriate tests may be available since western tests and tools may render useless. At other occasions they may be unreliable or may even pose as a risk to the client. Knowledge about the culture is necessary to understand the behavior and the human nature of that particular client so better health care is provided and a better understanding of the situation is provided to the service provider. Special care is to be taken when dealing with cross-cultural cases, western assumptions and knowledge, all is rendered useless. If there is an error in diagnosis or treatment, consequences may become very ugly and serious errors may occur. Personal preferences and views must kept apart by all psychologist while dealing with clients, refusal to any client due to a certain ethnicity is against the ethical conduct and must be refrained. All clients must be treated equally and no personal involvements of any type are allowed. However if the psychologist believes that he or she is not capable to deal with a case, trial and error must not be followed but instead reference to a psychologist who may be able to help should be provided to the client. (Marsella, 2011) Confidentiality Client confidentiality is the most important part of psychology. The client’s details are supposed to be kept confidential so the client feels free and at ease in discussing the problems faced. People feel free and much more comfortable knowing that their secrets are safe and knowing that any information that they may give out will not leak from the room and they will not be judged for anything they may say. A psychologist is required to tell the privacy rules and regulations to the client before the start of the session. Some information attained by the psychologist is shared to government authority’s and insurance companies so a complete picture is provided to all departments. (Younggren & Harris, 2008) For underage clients, different states hold different policies, some states require an adult during the psychotherapy session others would allow the minor to seek help without parents approval or notice. In most cases the first visit has the parent, child and the therapist to sit together and formulate a privacy policy so none of the parties feel violate and each understands the limit of the participants. Children above the age of 18 can and usually are permitted to seek help without the interference or knowledge of parents. It is important at all times to safeguard the privacy and comfort of the client so an understanding and trust can be maintained. The client is not prohibited to share the details of the session with friends or family, they may share what they wish to in however depth they are comfortable. In a study it was concluded that people in France particularly support the breaking of confidentiality to prevent spousal violence. (Guedj, Muñoz Sastre, Mullet & Sorum, 2009) There are certain circumstances where the psychologist is advised to break the confidentiality. If the client is becoming a threat towards one’s own self or towards the society, the confidentiality must be broken to keep everyone safe. Ongoing domestic violence must be immediately disclosed too to safeguard the rights of all humans and complete protection to the sufferers must be ensured. If a client’s mental health is being questioned in legal proceedings, the psychologist will have to break the code of confidentiality. These situations require no written consent from the client before realizing required information to authorities. (Donner, VandeCreek, Gonsiorek & Fisher, 2008) Boundaries and Multiple Relationships Psychology A client and a psychologist strictly share a trust or fiduciary relationship. A multiple relationships is descried as a scenario where the psychologist personally knows the client or may have had previous encounters with the client. It may even be described if the client and the psychologist interacted or knew each other through social networking. The details released by the client many at times create an imbalance between these relationships raising various types of ethical misconducts. This may even be due to past reminisces with previous clients. The psychologist is advised to keep as detached to the client as possible, exchanging of gifts, going on dinners, physical touching all proceed to misbalance in the relationship. A client psychologist relationship needs to be strictly office based without any compromises. Not all boundary crossings may turn into multiple relationships, if the psychologist has a firm and strong moral point of view; there are certain positive boundary crossings. Such as engaging in a physical activity like a hike to help release the stress or cope up the loneliness of the client, exchanging non expensive gifts, giving cards, lending a book or even giving a non-sexual hug. However harmful boundary crossings include exploitative dual relationships such as engaging in sex. In such conditions the psychologist always gives biased opinions and answers to the client. (Ponterotto, 2010) It is important to know the culture of the client being dealt with; rigid boundaries are often frowned upon in most of Europe and America. However if a person from another ethnicity is seeking help and the boundaries are crossed, the client will feel violated and may not feel comfortable and in extreme cases may even withdraw entirely form seeking help. Caution is to be taken while dealing with minors and those with Borderline Personality Disorder who may confuse the affection for something else. Multiple relationships are usually discouraged so no biases arise during the time of judgment, treatment or diagnosis. It is however ambiguous whether or not a psychologist must cross the boundary or not. Also the consequences of strict boundary rules are not clearly mentioned. The cases in which the boundaries should at all times be crossed are also eliminated and are ambiguous for proper understanding. (Barnett, Lazarus, Vasquez, Moorehead-Slaughter & Johnson, 2007) Community Work Psychologists are considered as social workers who work without personal benefits to make the community better and uplift the community. They are known as licensed social workers who are bound by strict rules and regulations to keep them intact with the job otherwise the licenses are revoked without any further discussion. Psychologists need to be in total control of their emotions and their personal preferences while taking care of others. They need to set aside any biases and help the human kind seeking help relentlessly. Being a psychology student, I understand better now how to maintain an ethical conduct throughout my study period and how to maintain this integrity even after graduating and practicing psychology. I know now how to be responsible adult who does not compromise on community benefit for short term personal benefits. The coursework and the research inclusive of all assignments and quizzes will be done maintaining the ethical values. Avoidance in cheating and plagiarism will be done to my maximum knowledge. The difference between helping others, getting help and copying off someone else’s effort is quite evident and must at all times be denied. The work presented to the instructors must be what I fully understand and no piece of work must be presented which I myself do not understand. The citations need to be correct and should be authentic, fabrication of any and all material should be strictly denied. Each time a material submitted must be unique and must not be repeated in another course. Conclusion A psychologist needs to be very firm in opinions and his cognitive behavior must not be influenced by any external factory. A psychologist at all times needs to be open-minded, must be cool headed and not confuse his personal thoughts with the realistic practical procedures. A psychologist must not under any condition do any acts which ay compromises his intellectual and cognitive capabilities. The ethical code of conduct must be read and understaff thoroughly for proper understanding, all points must be clearly understood and none of the points must be compromised upon. The patients comfort and health are the first and foremost important points to be considered always. Future Horizons Woman’s status is different in all cultures and religions. Also a woman thinks differently as compared to a man and gender based differences and biases are very commonly found. Since most graduate programs of psychology have a maximum number of women enrolled, such differences and biases need to be removed to alleviate the human health care. The feminization of many characters and instances must be incorporated in all future studies. With the increase in technology’s role in a life of a person, new ethical issues are raising. How a psychologist must deal with a client’s friend request, for instance, is a huge menace. It may help the psychologist and creating a quick easy assessment but then again insight like that in a client’s life may confuse the psychologist or may even be a reason for an inappropriate multiple relationships. Tools and assessment tests need to tested and evaluated to understand whether they are still applicable on today’s technologically aware world. Almost all the population is living under stress; with less sleep, more work, economical pressure and many other factors, does this change an overall human nature? If it does, the previously used assumptions are considered to be completely useless. References Barnett, J., Lazarus, A., Vasquez, M., Moorehead-Slaughter, O., & Johnson, W. (2007). Boundary issues and multiple relationships: Fantasy and reality. Professional Psychology: Research And Practice, 38(4), 401-410. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.38.4.401 Behnke, S. (2008). The intersection of psychologists personal and professional lives. Monitor On Psychology, 39(10). Donner, M., VandeCreek, L., Gonsiorek, J., & Fisher, C. (2008). Balancing confidentiality: Protecting privacy and protecting the public. Professional Psychology: Research And Practice, 39(3), 369-376. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.39.3.369 Fouad, N., Grus, C., Hatcher, R., Kaslow, N., Hutchings, P., & Madson, M. et al. (2009). Competency benchmarks: A model for understanding and measuring competence in professional psychology across training levels. Training And Education In Professional Psychology, 3(4, Suppl), S5-S26. doi:10.1037/a0015832 Guedj, M., Muñoz Sastre, M., Mullet, E., & Sorum, P. (2009). Is it acceptable for a psychiatrist to break confidentiality to prevent spousal violence?. International Journal Of Law And Psychiatry, 32(2), 108-114. doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.01.003 Knapp, S., Handelsman, M., Gottlieb, M., & VandeCreek, L. (2013). The dark side of professional ethics. Professional Psychology: Research And Practice, 44(6), 371-377. doi:10.1037/a0035110 Lindsay, G. (2009). Professional Ethics and Psychology. Papeles Del Psicólogo, 30(3), 184-194. Marsella, A. (2011). Twelve Critical Issues for Mental Health Professionals Working with Ethno-Culturally Diverse Populations. Psychology International. Ponterotto, J. (2010). Qualitative research in multicultural psychology: Philosophical underpinnings, popular approaches, and ethical considerations. Cultural Diversity And Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16(4), 581-589. doi:10.1037/a0012051 Younggren, J., & Harris, E. (2008). Can you keep a secret? Confidentiality in psychotherapy. Journal Of Clinical Psychology, 64(5), 589-600. doi:10.1002/jclp.20480 Read More