Midterm Flashcards
Ethics Defined
Ethics is the study of those assumptions held by individuals, institutions, organizations, and professions that they believe will assist them in distinguishing between right and wrong and, ultimately, in making sound moral judgments
Professions with Ethics
Medical - hippocratic oath Research - animal testing IRB - Institutional Review Board (protocols to protect human subjects in research) Lawyer - client privilege Psychologists - client confidentiality Journalists
Social Justice
- Fairness between the individual and society
- Measured by opportunities for personal activity and social privileges
- Equity for gender, racial and social equality, immigrants, prisoners, the environment, and the physically and mentally disabled
- Tremendous efforts in recent years
Female faculty member and male doctoral student - can they go out for dinner?
- Not until the research is done
- Are they on an equal level?
- Is the student’s best interest at heart?
Forensic psychology & $$
- Hefty fees…
- Opinions for sale…
- School psychologists?
Clinical psychologist conducting a research study at a college, doesn’t have a subject pool, gives students in abnormal psych class private psychotherapy in return for participation
- Incentives are offered in research, where does one draw the line for coercion
- Capacity to understand ramifications of being involved in research study
- Concerned about prisoners - at a disadvantage
Deception in research is
is acceptable if it is justified by the study’s scientific value and alternative procedures are unavailable
- Must be approved by IRB
- Individuals debriefed at the end
Why do we need ethical codes?
- Checks and balances on personal judgments
- Integrity for the profession
- Professional standards
- Public Welfare and Trust
- Promote sound relationships with other professions
- Enforcement Value - Monitor
What are ethical codes?
- APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct
- Started after WWII
- 1947 - first APA Committee was established
- 1992 - 180 distinct ethical standards that could be enforced by the APA and licensing boards that adopted them
- Current Ethics Code was last revised in 2010
General Standards
- Resolving Ethical Issues
- Competence
- Human Relations
- Privacy and Confidentiality
- Advertising and Other Public Statements
- Record Keeping and Fees
- Education and training (Continuing Education)
- Research and Education
Current Trends:
- Growth of HMOs
- Internet and research
- Cultural diversity
- Increase of psychology in the law
- More autonomy in your medical record
- Increase in federal regulations on research and health care
HMO
Health Maintenance Organization
- A medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee
Psychologists and Military Interrogations
APA - 2006 - prohibited psychologists from torture but could serve as a consultant for information gathering related to national security.
APA - 2010 - psychologists are prohibited from “engaging in activities that would justify or defend violating human rights.”
Indemnified
Secure against legal lability
Trolley Dilemma
This is a classical example of consequentialism, which tells us that our ethical judgments should be determined by the consequences of our actions
Therapist Competence (Typical Ethical Dilemmas)
Therapists need to provide services for which they are qualified
Client Welfare (Typical Ethical Dilemmas)
Client needs come before counselor needs and counselor must act in client’s best interest
Informed Consent (Typical Ethical Dilemmas)
Counselors must inform clients regarding nature of counseling and answer questions so that clients can make an informed decision
Confidentiality (Typical Ethical Dilemmas)
Clients must be able to feel safe within the therapeutic relationship for counseling to be most effective
Dual Relationships (Typical Ethical Dilemmas)
More than one relationship with a client (e.g. the counselor is a friend and the counselor) should be avoided when possible
Most common complaint
- Sex with clients
- After 2 years under the most unusual circumstances…
- 2002 - 70% of psychologists who lost license was because of sexual misconduct
- Sexual relationships with clients are strongly prohibited and in some states constitute a criminal offense
Confidentiality
- Must discuss it up front
- None in certain forensic arenas
- If a partner has HIV
- Can breach confidentiality if there is child abuse or harm to self or others…
Goals of Ethics
- Assist psychologists in effectively using the Ethics Code’s principals and standards to conduct their work in an ethically responsible way and protect the fundamental rights and welfare of those they work with.
- Enhance decision making skills
Reporting Ethical Violations
- Psychologists should attempt to resolve any ethical issue informally at first.
- Must report if the ethical violation resulted in substantial harm and if informal resolution is not appropriate.
- NYS Justice Center
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) - 1996
- There was a lack of standardization
- Three components
- Privacy Standards - disclosure of Private Health Information (PHI)
- Transactional Standards - electronic exchange
- Security Standards - how to protect PHI
- Three components
- Are researchers impacted by HIPAA? Yes
- When can you breach HIPAA? Subpoenaed, emergency situation (someone’s in an ER)
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)
- Was intended to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage and reduce the costs of healthcare.
- The law requires insurers to accept all applicants, cover a specific list of conditions and charge the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions
US Supreme Court (Jaffee v. Redmond, 1996)
Precedent case: sets the standard for things moving forward
- “Effective psychotherapy…depends upon an atmosphere of confidence and trust in which the patient is willing to make a frank and complete disclosure of facts, emotions, memories, and fears. Because of the sensitive nature of the problems for which individuals consult psychotherapist, disclosure of confidential communications made during counseling sessions may cause embarrassment or disgrace. For this reason, the mere possibility of disclosure may impede development…”
Tarasoff v. Board of Regents of the University of California
- Prosenjit Poddar (from Bengal, India)
- University of California, Berkeley
- 1968 - he attended folk dancing classes at the International House and he met Tatiana Tarasoff. They dated briefly
- He interpreted their relationship to be serious
- She said she was involved with other men
- He began to stalk her
- October 27, 1969 - Poddar carried out the plan he had confided to his psychologist, stabbing and killing Tarasoff. Tarasoff’s parents then sued Moore and various other employees of the University.
- The California Supreme Court found that:
- a mental health professional has a duty not only to a patient, but also to individuals who are specifically being threatened by a patient. This decision has since been adopted by most states in the US
- Justice Mathew O. Tobriner wrote “The public policy favoring protection of the confidential character of patient-psychotherapist communications must yield to the extent to which disclosure is essential to avert danger to others. The protective privilege ends where the public peril begins.”
When you can break confidentiality
- When the client is suicidal
- Needs hospitalization
- Court ordered evaluation
- Sues counselor
- Mental disorder as legal defense
- Underage child (under 16) being abused (and elderly)
Tuskegee Syphilis Study
Gave black men syphilis, but wouldn’t treat them
Virtual reality video game (US Military)
Allows users to experience perspective of active school shooter
Counterfeit Money
- What if my client gave me counterfeit money and the Secret Service contacted me?
- Do I divulge their name? Cire ethical concerns, get appropriate paperwork from judge
Civil Law
- A means to resolve conflicts between individuals. It includes personal injury claims (torts), the law of contracts and property, and subjects such as administrative law and the regulation of public utlities
- Example of torts: Tort cases therefore comprise such varied topics as auto accidents, false imprisonment, defamation, product liability, copyright infringement, and environmental pollution
Criminal Law
Violation of penal code, following/enforcing laws of the land
A crime
A violation of penal law
Tort
Is a violation of civil law (one million tort cases are filed in state courts every year)
- If harmed - you can ask for compensation
- The injured party (plaintiff)
- The responsible party (the defendant)
- The harm (damages)
- The complaint
Lawsuit
- Can be for physical or psychological damage
- Emotional distress
- Emotional damages
- Emotional harm
- Pain and suffering
- Tort - liability and damage determinations
Complaint
- A civil case begins when a plaintiff files a complaint - a notification to the defendant that he or she is being sued and for what reason
- states why the court has jurisdiction
- provides statement of the facts
- states a cause of action (legal theory about why the plaintiff is entitled to recovery)
- specifies a remedy
Service
The formal notification of the defendant - referred to as service and often involves a summons: a notice informing the person that a lawsuit has been filed and that he/she should appear in court at a certain time
Discovery
Discovery involves the formal and informal exchange of information between the two sides in a lawsuit
- Every party is entitled to the disclosure of all relevant information, regardless of its source
- Designed to equip both sides fairly
Deposition
- The sworn testimony of a witness taken out of court
- Subpoena
- Subpoena duces tecum (documents)
Negotiations
- Approximately 95% of all civil cases filed in federal district are settled before trial - voluntary settlements are the norm for case disposition
- Negotiation is where the parties in a civil suit are able to reach a settlement
- Settlements benefit the litigants and save the system money
Small Claims
Small claims cases constitute the largest category of civil cases
- Involve debt collection, nonpayment for goods, landlord-tenant disputes
Settling Tort Cases
- Jury trials are exceptionally rare
- Jury verdicts do set the parameters for negotiations and settlements - negotiation happens in the shadow of the law
- Trials represent substantial costs which all parties work to avoid
- The typical defendant is a large insurance company
Standards of proof
- Preponderance of the evidence (personal injury matters)
- Clear and Convincing (usually civil)
- Beyond a reasonable doubt
5th Amendment
Right to say nothing, don’t have to incriminate self
6th Amendment
Right to a speedy trial by jury
8th Amendment
Cruel and Unusual punishment (people who are incarcerated)
Three branches of government
Legislative, judicial, executive
OJ Simpson
- The parents of Ron Goldman brought suit against Simpson for wrongful death
- The jury in the civil trial awarded the victims’ families $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages
- “Let’s say I committed this crime…Even if I did this, it would have to have been because I loved her very much, right?”
Role of Psychologists in Court
- Provide expert analysis and testimony
- E.g. sexual harassment (was it a hostile work environment?)
- Assess baseline state of plaintiff before the harm occurred
- The nature and extent of distress
- The cause of the psychological impairment
- What intervention may be helpful in their recovery
Ethic’s Code
- The Introduction and applicability section and the preamble of the 2010 Ethic’s code
- The rest is 151 enforceable standards that describe required, prohibited, and permitted behaviors