The decisions you make based on the data you gather from a personality assessment might have a significant impact on an individual’s future. As a psychologist, you have a strong influence on the lives of individuals. Therefore, maintaining the integrity of the personality assessments themselves provides enough reason to take seriously the ethical and legal standards governing the personality assessment process. The damage that can result from failing to adhere to ethical and legal standards of psychology reaches many levels. It can result in a waste of resources and dangerous decisions based on inaccurate assessment results. Those dangerous decisions can potentially cause emotional and physical harm to the individual undergoing assessment. Finally, it can pose a danger to those who interact with the individual you are assessing if you are unable to accurately predict the behavior of that individual.
For this Discussion, review this week’s Learning Resources including the Ethical Vignettes and the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct website. Select a vignette from among those provided. Then, consider the ethical and/or legal violations in the vignette you selected. Based on your state of residence, think about what state/federal law and ethical standard the psychologist violated. Note that you may need to consult the ethics codes that govern psychological practice in your locale if you reside outside of the United States. Finally, reflect on any discrepancies between the ethical and legal violations involved, if any, and how a psychologist might have avoided those violations.
With these thoughts in mind:
Post by Day 4 an explanation of the ethical and legal violations you detected in the vignette you selected Support your explanation with a specific citation(s) referencing the ethical and/or legal standards that were violated. Finally, explain any discrepancies between the ethical and legal violations involved. Be sure to identify the vignette you selected by referencing it in the title of your post.
Be sure to support your post with specific references to the Learning Resources.
Readings
- American Psychological Association. (2012). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct; Including 2010 Amendments.
Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx
- Goldfinger, K., & Pomerantz, A. M. (2014). Psychological assessment and report writing. (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Chapter 14, “Ethics of Assessment and Report Writing,” (pp. 190–205)
- Standards for education and training in psychological assessment position of the Society for Personality Assessment: An official statement of the Board of Trustees of the Society for Personality Assessment (2006). Journal of Personality Assessment, 87(3), 355–357.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. - Weiner, I.B., & Greene, R.L. (2008). Handbook of personality assessment (1st ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
Handbook of Personality Assessment by Weiner, I. B., & Greene, R. L. Copyright 2008 by JOHN WILEY & SONS – BOOKS. Reprinted by permission of JOHN WILEY & SONS – BOOKS via the Copyright Clearance Center.- Chapter 4, “Ethical Considerations in Personality Assessment,” (pp. 77–95)
- Document: Ethical Vignettes (PDF)
Note: You will use this document with this week’s Discussion.
Media
- Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Family case study [Interactive media]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Answer preview
Secondly, there is the violation of confidentiality in the personality assessment, which is mostly regulated by the law. Psychologists have a legal obligation to protect the client’s information from leaking to the third party unless permitted by the law or given permission by the owner of the information (American Psychological Association, 2012). However, in ethical vignette 4, the psychologist decided to allow Mario’s mother in the feedback session. Since the mother is not the owner of the personality assessment results, the physiologist’s decision violated the confidentiality of Mario’s results. The only way the mother could be allowed in the session is if the law permitted her or if Mario requested his mother to part of the session.
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