Unit 1.2: Ethics in Psychology rely 2
Write an initial substantive response of 80 words in length.
Begin your response with a restatement of the question/prompt, and include
in-text citation(s) and a reference for each scholarly source used according to
the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide located in the Student Success
Center. The restatement of the question/prompt, the references, and the
citations are not included in your response word count.
Unit 1.2: Ethics in Psychology
Go to the APA website, and look up “Ethical Priniciples
of Psychologists” and the Code of Conduct
(http://www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html).
Choose one of the principles and answer the following
questions:
Why do you think this principle is important?
What difficulties might psychologists encounter when
applying this principle?
Describe a real-life situation in which this principle might
be used.
Patrice Molin
Ethics in Psychology
COLLAPSE
The principle I chose is Principle E: Respect for People’s
Rights & Dignity. “Psychologists respect the dignity and worth of all
people, and the rights of individuals to privacy, confidentiality, and
self-determination. Psychologists are aware that special safeguards may be
necessary to protect the rights and welfare of persons or communities whose
vulnerabilities impair autonomous decision making. Psychologists are aware of
and respect cultural, individual and role differences, including those based on
age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin,
religion, sexual orientation, disability, language and socioeconomic status and
consider these factors when working with members of such groups. Psychologists
try to eliminate the effect on their work of biases based on those factors, and
they do not knowingly participate in or condone activities of others based upon
such prejudices.”
I think this is an important principle because as a
psychologist, it is important for clients to be able to fully trust us and open
up to us without them having to think that we will judge them as they may have
been judged outside of our doors. Clients need to feel safe and understand that
we may not go through their every day struggle, but we can relate one way or
the other and that we are simply here to help them. Psychologist are human like
everyone else. Every one is not going to agree on everything and may be bias
towards some things. For example, what if a psychologist was raised in a strict
Christian based family; they would probably be uneasy with having a gay client.
There would be no way for the psychologist to relate to that and would probably
be passing judgement on the inside and feel uncomfortable. Regardless of the
psychologist’s personal beliefs, he would still have to have respect for the
client’s lifestyle and do his job. There is a reason he chose to become a
psychologist, to help people with their problems and offer a helping hand and
of course lend a listening ear. I am sure the psychologist could request for
one of his fellow psychologist to take on their client if he felt that
uncomfortable, but it would definitely be a bad look on his part. Principle E
is very important and clients are probably glad this principle actually exist.