Chapter 19 - Law and Ethics

Question 1

True or False: Clinical scientists and practitioners conduct their work in isolation?

Answer 1

False, they operate within a complex social system, they affect and are affected by other institutions of society

Question 2

True or false: the government regulates the use of psychotropic drugs?

Answer 2

True

Question 3

What two social institutions have a particularly strong impact on the mental health profession?

Answer 3

The legislative and judicial systems (The Legal field)

Question 4

What is the responsibility of the Legal field?

Answer 4

Protect both the public good and the rights of individuals (patients)

Question 5

Role of mental heath professional within the criminal justice system?

Answer 5

Called upon to help the courts assess the mental stability of people accused of crimes

Question 6

What is psychology in law?

Answer 6

Clinical practitioners and researchers who operate within the legal system

Question 7

What is law in psychology?

Answer 7

The legislative and judicial systems regulate certain aspects of mental health care

Question 8

What is forensic psychology/psychiatry?

Answer 8

Concerned with the intersection between psychological practice and research and the judicial system

Question 9

What happens when the courts find someone to be suffering from severe mental instability?

Answer 9

They may find them to not be responsible for their actions or may not be able to defend themselves in court, and so should not be punished in the USUAL way

Question 10

Who makes the final judgement to mental instability?

Answer 10

The courts, whose opinions are guided by mental health professionals

Question 11

What is criminal commitment?

Answer 11

Person accused of a crime is judged mentally unstable and sent to a treatment facility

Question 12

What are the several forms of criminal commitment?

Answer 12

Not guilty by reason of insanity, M’Naghten Test, Irresistible impulse test, Durham test.

Question 13

What does Not guilt by reason of insanity mean?

Answer 13

A verdict stating that defendant is not guilty of a crime because they were insane at the time of the crime

Question 14

True or false: All those with mental disorders qualify for a legal definition of insanity?

Answer 14

False, defendants may have mental disorders but not necessarily qualify for a legal definition of insanity

Question 15

What is the M’Naghten test/rule?

Answer 15

A legal test that holds people to be insane at the time they committed a crime if, because of a mental disorder, they did not know the nature of the act or did not know right from wrong

Question 16

What is the irresistible impulse test?

Answer 16

A legal test that holds people to be insane at the time they committed a crime if they were unable to control their actions

Question 17

What is the Durham test?

Answer 17

A legal test that holds people to be insane at the time they committed a crime if their act was a result of a mental disorder

Question 18

What is outpatient commitment?

Answer 18

Community treatment, monitoring, and re hospitalize if necessary

Question 19

What does guilty by mentally ill mean?

Answer 19

Found guilty of committing a crime but are also suffering from a mental illness that needs treatment duringimprisonment. The illness was not fully related to or responsible for the crime

Question 20

What is civil commitment?

Answer 20

A legal process by which a person can be forced into mental health treatment

Question 21

What are outpatient civil commitment laws?

Answer 21

allow patients to be forced into community treatment programs, rather than mental institutions

Question 22

What is parens patriae?

Answer 22

The state can take action to protect patients from self-harm, including through involuntarily hospitalization

Question 23

When is proof clear and convincing, according to the courts?

Answer 23

When it provides 75% certainty that the criteria of commitment have been met, the clinician must offer this

Question 24

What is emergency commitment?

Answer 24

Clinicians have the right to certify that a individual need temporary commitment and medication (usually require two physicians)

Question 25

What is the average length of a emergency commitment?

Answer 25

3 days

Question 26

What is the right to treatment?

Answer 26

The legal right of patients to receive adequate treatment

Question 27

What is the right to refuse treatment?

Answer 27

The legal right of patients to refuse certain forms of treatment

Question 28

What treatment, does state rulings constituently grant patients the right to refuse?

Answer 28

Psychosurgery, also electroconvulsive therapy often times can be refused BUT at times will still be forced on a involuntary patient or will require the consent of a close relative or other third party

Question 29

What other treatment is sometimes given the right to be refused?

Answer 29

Psychotropic medications because of the side effects

Question 30

When can a right-to-refuse be overturned (psychotropic medication)

Answer 30

If a patients refusal is considered incompetent, dangerous, or irrational by a psychiatrist, medical committee, or court

Question 31

What other rights do patients have?

Answer 31

A right to aftercare and to an appropriate community residence

Question 32

True or false, psychologists can prescribe medication?

Answer 32

True, who receive special pharmacology training also, psychologists can now admit client to a state’s hospitals

Question 33

Psychological research of legal topics include?

Answer 33

eyewitness testimony and patterns of criminality

Question 34

What does psychological research indicate about eyewitness testimony?

Answer 34

Can be highly unreliable, subtle biases, crimes are unexpected and fleeting therefore hard to remember. Also concerns for safety can impair memory

Question 35

What positive findings has research found about psychological profiling? What is its drawback?

Answer 35

Found that perpetrators pf particular kinds of crimes frequently share a number of traits and background features, but this does not mean the traits are always present and therefore can be misleading or wrong

Question 36

What is a code of ethics?

Answer 36

A body of principles and rules for the ethical behaviour, designed to guide decisions and actions by members of a profession