Standards 7 & 8 Flashcards
Education and Training Programs
take “reasonable steps” to ensure that descriptions of their education and training programs are accurate
* a continuing education course on hypnotherapy should not be described as “interactive” or “experiential” if it consists only of a two-hour lecture.
ensure that course syllabi provide accurate information “regarding the subject matter to be covered, bases for evaluating progress, and the nature of course experiences.
* psychologists may change course requirements when they believe doing so will be beneficial for students; but, in this situation, they must make students aware of the change “in a manner that enables them to fulfill course requirements.
A graduate student’s dissertation research extends an aspect of his advisor’s ongoing longitudinal research on treatments for PTSD. When the student submits an article describing the results of his study to a journal, he lists his advisor as second author. With regard to ethical requirements, this is:
A. unacceptable since the advisor should have been listed as the first author because the student’s dissertation research extended an aspect of the advisor’s ongoing research.
B. unacceptable since only the student should be listed as an author on an article that describes his dissertation research.
C. acceptable since the student’s research was based on his advisor’s ongoing research.
D. acceptable as long as the listing of the advisor as second author reflects her actual contribution to the student’s research.
D. acceptable as long as the listing of the advisor as second author reflects her actual contribution to the student’s research.
This answer is most consistent with the requirements of Standard 8.12, which requires (a) publication credit to be based on each person’s contribution rather than on his/her status and (b) students to be listed as principal author on multiple-authored articles that are substantially based on their doctoral dissertations.
Dr. Barry Bull advertised his two-hour workshop for licensed psychologists as a “hands-on experience administering and scoring neuropsychological tests.” However, during the workshop, he only shows videos that demonstrate how to administer and score the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and three other frequently used neuropsychological tests. In terms of ethical requirements, Dr. Bull has acted:
A. unethically because he violated test security.
B. unethically because his advertisement did not accurately describe his workshop.
C. ethically as long as he had determined the videos were the most effective way to train participants in the use of the tests.
D. ethically as long as he refunded the course fee to dissatisfied participants.
B. unethically because his advertisement did not accurately describe his workshop.
Dr. Bull’s advertisement for his workshop violated Standard 7.02 of the APA Ethics Code because it inaccurately described his workshop as providing a “hands-on experience.” Showing videos on test administration and scoring to licensed psychologists is not a violation of test security and giving refunds to dissatisfied participants would not compensate for providing inaccurate information about the workshop’s content.
At the request of the editor of a professional journal, a psychologist is reviewing a research paper that has been submitted to the journal for publication. The psychologist is impressed with the research and wants to apply some of the unique ideas presented in the paper to the research he is currently conducting. In this situation, the psychologist (reviewer):
A. can use the ideas in his own research since the article has not been published.
B. can use the ideas in his own research only if he gives credit to the paper’s authors when his own research is published.
C. cannot use the ideas in his own research unless he obtains permission from the paper’s authors to do so.
D. cannot use the ideas in his own research unless he obtains permission from the journal’s editor to do so.
C. cannot use the ideas in his own research unless he obtains permission from the paper’s authors to do so.
Standard 8.15 of the APA Ethics Code requires reviewers to respect the proprietary rights of the authors of the documents they review. This means that reviewers must not make personal or professional use of proprietary and unique ideas, techniques, and information presented in the document without getting permission from the authors. Note that reviewers are often not given the names of document authors and, therefore, cannot contact them directly. In this situation, reviewers should ask the journal editor to contact the authors about their willingness to interact with them.
Course & Program Requirements
psychologists must not require students to disclose personal information in course- or program-related activities unless:
* (1) the program or training facility has clearly identified this requirement in its admissions and program materials or
* (2) the information is necessary to evaluate or obtain assistance for students whose personal problems could reasonably be judged to be preventing them from performing their training- or professionally related activities in a competent manner or posing a threat to the students or others
when individual or group therapy is a requirement for an undergraduate or graduate course or program, students must be given the option of choosing a therapist who is unaffiliated with the course or program
guidelines for programs that require personal psychotherapy:
* (a) The requirement for mandatory personal psychotherapy is justified by the program’s training objectives.
* (b) The requirement, its potential risks and benefits, and planned safeguards are described in program application materials.
* (c) Students are given some choice in their selection of therapists.
* (d) There will be no multiple relationships between students and therapists. (e) Students are given financially feasible choices for therapy so that it is affordable.
Assessment of Student and Supervisee Performance
* requires evaluations to be based on the actual performance of students and supervisees with regard to “relevant and established program requirements.” In other words, evaluations must not be based on personality characteristics or other factors that are not clearly linked to a student’s or supervisee’s actual performance.
dismissal of supervisees is not explicitly covered in the Ethics Code but is addressed elsewhere.
* “supervisees have due process rights … and dismissal from a training program should be the last resort after other interventions have failed to produce any change in supervisees who exhibit deficiencies”
* provide regular constructive feedback
when a supervisee exhibits problem behavior, the supervisor should provide the supervisee with appropriate remediation, which may include one or more of the following:
* increasing the amount of supervision
* changing the format and/or focus of supervision
* recommending personal therapy
* reducing the supervisee’s workload
* requiring completion of academic coursework
* recommending a leave of absence or second internship in another setting
When these interventions do not satisfactorily rectify the problem, more formal action is taken and might involve:
* placing the supervisee on probation
* giving the supervisee a limited endorsement that indicates the settings in which he/she can function adequately
* terminating the supervisee from the training program
these actions must be adequately documented and done in ways that are consistent with the supervisee’s right to due process procedures
Sexual Relationships with Students & Supervisees
prohibits psychologists from becoming sexually involved with students or supervisees “who are in their department, agency, or training center or over whom … [they] have or are likely to have evaluative authority.”
Informed Consent for Research
when research involves evaluating the effects of experimental treatments - prospective participants must be told about:
* the experimental nature of the treatments
* available alternative treatments, the way participants will be assigned to experimental and control groups
* if appropriate, any treatments or services that will not be provided to participants assigned to the control group
may dispense with informed consent when doing so is permitted by law or federal or institutional regulations or when the research is not likely to cause distress or harm to subjects and involves:
* (a) studying routine educational practices in educational settings
* (b) studying factors related to job or organizational effectiveness in organizational settings when participants’ confidentiality will be maintained and there’s no risk to their employment
* (c) using anonymous questionnaires, naturalistic observations, or archival research when participants’ confidentiality will be maintained and there’s no risk for legal liability or other harm.
participants should be given the following information during the informed consent process:
* (1) the purpose of the research, expected duration, and procedures
* (2) their right to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research once participation has begun
* (3) the foreseeable consequences of declining or withdrawing
* (4) reasonably foreseeable factors that may be expected to influence their willingness to participate such as potential risks, discomfort, or adverse effects
* (5) any prospective research benefits
* (6) limits of confidentiality
* (7) incentives for participation
* (8) whom to contact for questions about the research and research participants’ rights
may be unnecessary to obtain informed consent prior to recording subjects’ voices or images when the study:
* (a) involves naturalistic observations in public places where there’s no expectation of privacy and observations are not likely to cause personal identification or harm
* (b) involves deception and consent to use the recording will be obtained during debriefing
general requirement for obtaining assent from children and adolescents or others who are legally incapable of giving informed consent applies to their participation in research
U.S. federal regulations permit waiver of a child’s assent to participate in research that involves a therapeutic intervention when:
* (a) the child does not have the capacity to consent
* (b) the research offers benefits to the health of the child that cannot be obtained from interventions available outside the research study.
the consent of a child’s legal guardians ordinarily overrides the dissent of the child when the research offers direct health benefits to the child. However, the child’s dissent ordinarily overrides the consent of legal guardians when the research does not offer direct health benefits to the child
Inducements for Research Participation
situations in which participation is a course requirement or opportunity for extra credit and states that, in this situation, students must be “given the choice of equitable alternative activities.”
“make reasonable efforts to avoid offering excessive or inappropriate financial or other inducements for research participation when such inducements are likely to coerce participation.”
It allows psychologists to offer professional services in exchange for research participation as long as prospective participants are informed about the nature of the services and potential risks, limitations, and obligations.
Deception in Research
use of deception in research precludes the ability to obtain a truly informed consent from prospective participants.
deception must be used only when certain conditions are met:
* It must be “justified by the study’s significant prospective scientific, educational, or applied value”
AND
* alternative nondeceptive procedures must be unavailable.
participants must:
* (a) not be deceived about procedures that are likely to cause “physical pain or severe emotional distress”
* (b) be allowed to withdraw their data from the study at any time
* (c) be informed about the deception “as early as is feasible, preferably at the conclusion of their participation, but no later than at the conclusion of the data collection.
Use of Animals in Research
“psychologists trained in research methods and experienced in the care of laboratory animals supervise all procedures involving animals and are responsible for ensuring appropriate consideration of their comfort, health, and humane treatment”
ensuring that people “under their supervision who are using animals have received instruction in research methods and in the care, maintenance, and handling of the species being used, to the extent appropriate to their role.”
use procedures that cause animals to experience “pain, stress, or privation only when an alternative procedure is unavailable … [and doing so is justified by the study’s] prospective scientific, educational, or applied value.”
When an animal’s life must be terminated, psychologists must do so rapidly and in a way that minimizes pain and is consistent with accepted procedures.
Reporting and Publishing Research Results
requires psychologists to take credit “only for work they have actually performed or to which they have substantially contributed.”
* It states that “principal authorship and other publication credit [must] accurately reflect the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their relative status” and
* that minor contributions (e.g., data collection or entry) “are acknowledged appropriately, such as in footnotes or in an introductory statement.”
except in “exceptional circumstances,” students must be listed as the principal author on multiple-authored articles that are substantially based on their doctoral dissertations.
Duplicate Publication of Data
“this does not preclude republishing data when they are accompanied by proper acknowledgement.”
* psychologists are not prohibited “from publishing the same data in different journals … as long as proper citations of the original publication source are provided and psychologists have confirmed that such publication does not violate the original publisher’s copyright
**Note that concurrent (simultaneous) submission of the same article for publication to multiple journals is not addressed in the Ethics Code. **
* as noted by Belcher (2019), it is unacceptable for the author(s) of a journal article to simultaneously submit the same journal article to more than one journal.
* Instead, the author(s) should submit the article to one journal at a time and wait for it to be rejected by one journal before submitting it to another journal.
* submission guidelines for APA journals include the following statement: “APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications.”
Sharing Research Data for Verification
share data from that research with competent professionals who want to reanalyze the data to verify the study’s findings as long as the confidentiality of participants is protected
* implies that psychologists must retain their research data but does not specify the minimum duration of time for doing so.
Requirements for retaining research data are provided elsewhere, but the requirements vary:
* The 6th edition of APA’s (2010) Publication Manual states that authors of articles published in an APA journal must maintain raw data for at least five years after publication of the article, and current submission guidelines for APA journals state that “APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication.”
* the 7th edition of the Publication Manual (2020) does not specify a number of years. Instead, it states that “authors are expected to retain the data associated with a published article in accordance with institutional requirements; funder requirements; participant agreements; and, when publishing in an APA journal, the APA Ethics Code
* research that involves collecting identifiable health information is subject to HIPAA regulations, which state that records must be retained for at least 6 years after a participant has signed an authorization.
[Note that the reference in the 7th edition of the Publication Manual to requirements in the APA Ethics Code is unclear because a minimum length of time for retaining research data is not specified in any of the Ethics Code’s Standards.
Reviewers
requires reviewers to treat the content of the documents they review as confidential information and not share the document or any information about it without appropriate permission
* when reviewers want to have a colleague or graduate student review a manuscript that has been submitted for publication to a journal, they must first obtain permission to do so from the journal editor
requires reviewers to respect the intellectual property rights of the document’s author(s), which means that reviewers:
* (a) must not make personal or professional use of proprietary and unique ideas, techniques, and information presented in the documents without permission from the author(s)
* (b) must not cite or refer to the unpublished manuscript in their own publications.
* also avoid reviewing documents when there is a conflict of interest (e.g., when a manuscript describes research that supports or contradicts their own research or when the psychologist and manuscript author work at the same institution).
* reviewers must return or destroy the documents they have reviewed after their reviews have been submitted to the journal editor, grants program officer, or meeting chair.
