Legal and Ethical Issues

Question 1

Role of law in psychology

Answer 1

governs clinician’s actions to protect vulnerable persons

Question 2

Risks of law in psychology

Answer 2

un/under-qualified clinicians; treating outside areas of expertise; treatments without empirical support

Question 3

Ethics

Answer 3

accepted values that guide decisions

Question 4

4 principles of the CPA code of ethics

Answer 4

respect for the dignity of persons; responsible caring; integrity in relationships; responsibility to society

Question 5

Respect for the dignity of persons

Answer 5

confidentiality and informed consent

Question 6

Responsible caring

Answer 6

clinical competence; treatment must maximize benefit and minimize harm

Question 7

Integrity in relationships

Answer 7

unbiased by affiliations and guided solely by clinical judgement

Question 8

Responsibility to society

Answer 8

recognize how actions affect society

Question 9

3 main legal and ethical issues

Answer 9

confidentiality, involuntary confinement, deinstitutionalization

Question 10

Relevant items from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Answer 10

guarantee of rights and freedoms; no arbitrary detainment or imprisonment; equality before the law

Question 11

Privilege

Answer 11

right to refuse to disclose information to legal system in all circumstances (e.g. lawyer-client)

Question 12

2 kinds of confidentiality

Answer 12

privilege and privacy

Question 13

Privacy

Answer 13

right to choose information being shared in most circumstances (e.g. clinician-client)

Question 14

Confidential communication between clinician-client

Answer 14

communication is private and client chooses whether and to whom information can be disclosed

Question 15

Exceptions to clinician-client confidentiality

Answer 15

imminent risk to self or others; suspected harm to a child or dependent adult; driving while intoxicated; court subpoena

Question 16

CPA code

Answer 16

clinician must breach confidentiality when a 3rd party (identifiable victim or class of victims) is believed to be at risk

Question 17

Ethical issues in confidentiality

Answer 17

clinician efforts to reduce liability (e.g. asking fewer important questions, vague language); confusion with who the client is (e.g. organization or patient, parent or child)

Question 18

2 kinds of involuntary confinement

Answer 18

criminal commitment and civil commitment

Question 19

Criminal commitment

Answer 19

confining person who commits crime due to mental illness to a psychiatric institution

Question 20

Insanity defense or NCRMD

Answer 20

a legal (not psychological) term; not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder

Question 21

M’Naghten rule

Answer 21

ability to know an act is legally and morally wrong (“wild beast”), intellectual ability to know right from wrong, ability to apply knowledge rationally (“policeman at the elbow”) is not counted as NCRMD

Question 22

Irresistible impulse rule

Answer 22

knowing right from wrong but still having the irresistible impulse to act

Question 23

Neurolaw

Answer 23

evidence of sufficient disordered neural function (e.g. activation in areas consistent with urges) can alter sentence

Question 24

Role of neural systems in urges

Answer 24

checks and balances impulsive (amygdala) and self-reflective (PFC) behavior

Question 25

Neural activity of impulsive murderers

Answer 25

increase in subcortical and decrease in PFC

Question 26

Neural activity of predatory murderers

Answer 26

increase in subcortical and normal PFC

Question 27

Conditions for civil commitment

Answer 27

no laws broken but mental illness still makes it necessary for one to be confined to a psychiatric institution

Question 28

Results of mental illness leading to civil commitment

Answer 28

dangerous to self/others and/or incapable of providing for their basic physical needs and/or unable to make responsible decisions about hospitalization and in need of treatment or care in a hospital

Question 29

3 types of civil commitment

Answer 29

informal (no court order), formal (court order), community (conditional treatment order)

Question 30

Dangerousness model

Answer 30

can commit people only if there is a risk for physical harm because denying personal freedom is bad

Question 31

Treatment model

Answer 31

can commit people if there is serious physical harm or deterioration due to the need to protect; recognizes dangerousness is hard to predict

Question 32

Strongest predictors of recidivism in VRAG

Answer 32

psychopathy scores, elementary school maladjustment score

Question 33

Deinstitutionalization post-1960

Answer 33

release of patients to streets with no alternative care that led to homelessness, substance addiction, and jail

Question 34

4 controversies of deinstitutionalization

Answer 34

whether people have the rights to treatment, less restrictive environment, refuse treatment, live in a community and not a hospital