Benchmark - Dual Relationships Case Study

1539536 - SAGE Publications, Inc. (US) ©

relate to the client’s mental health problems and address both the racism and mental health conditions during treatment.

Ethical Competence Too often, psychologists approach ethics as an afterthought to assessment or treatment plans, research designs, course preparation, or groundwork for forensic or consulting activities. Ethical planning based on familiarity with ethical standards, professional guidelines, state and federal laws, and organizational and institutional policies should be seen as integral rather than tangential to psychologists’ work.

Ethical Planning Ethical commitment and well-informed ethical planning will reduce but not eliminate ethical challenges that emerge during the course of psychologists’ work. Ideally, ethical competence should be “preventive.” A working understanding of ethical theories, Ethics Code principles and standards, scientific and professional guidelines, laws, and organizational policies should help psychologists anticipate situations that require ethical planning before a problem occurs.

Need to Know: “Why Good Students Go Bad” Burkholder & Burkholder (2014) identified four ethical pitfalls that often lead students to commit ethical violations:

Beliefs that the Ethics Code is optional or only applies to “bad” people Personal characteristics, such as mental health and substance abuse disorders, that distract from a focus on learning how to integrate ethics into professional activities Poor advisement or supervision or misguidance, leading to deficient preparation and training Overenthusiasm, pressure to achieve high grades, or rushing to complete training requirements that leads to a blurring of appropriate boundaries, taking inadequate steps to protect confidentiality, or taking other ethical shortcuts in science or practice

Need to Know: Ethical Com