Ethical considerations in research on coached malingering.

Discusses ethical considerations for research on coached malingering on psychological tests. A fundamental tension exists between the desire of clinicians to know the extent to which commonly used tests such as the MMPI-2 are vulnerable to coached faking and the danger that such information will be used to improve the success of coached malingerers. Although it is important to make clinicians aware of a test's susceptibility to faking, care should be taken not to reveal details of successful coaching strategies. Several options for evaluating the balance between the ethical requirement to protect the integrity of psychological tests and the need for clinicians to know the vulnerability of the test to coached malingering are reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical and professional considerations in psychological assessment.

Explored professional activities and ethical practices of psychologists who administer psychodiagnostic assessment and testing devices. A return rate of 72% on a survey of 100 members of the Society for Personality Assessment indicated considerable interest in the subject matter. A majority of the Ss' ethical practices were apparently in keeping with established ethical principles; however, a diversity of professional styles was evident. Most Ss gave feedback to the clients, with a large percentage willing to give feedback on projective as well as objective tests. Although most Ss kept old cases safely under lock, few appeared to have followed American Psychological Association guidelines to detach names from raw data on obsolete materials. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical considerations of the home office.

The home office has a long tradition in psychoanalysis, based somewhat on the mistaken belief that Freud actually practiced out of his living quarters. The reality is that he practiced out of a completely separate apartment across the hall. This article examines the analyst's motivations for having a home office, as well as the potential impact of having one on the analyst's patients and own family. The home office is considered as fertile ground for acting out by both analyst and patient, and the corresponding ethical issues are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical considerations in the application of self-control techniques.

Ethical questions are raised in regard to a case report by P. Levendusky and L. Pankratz (see PA, Vol 54:Issue 4). While it is asserted that the general issue of control in psychotherapy is specious in the present context, several potentially fruitful lines of inquiry are proposed. It is suggested that the following be considered: the legality of withholding information relevant to a client's decision to remain in treatment, the subtle nature of contract negotiation in therapy, the roles of theory and assessment in the design of clinical intervention, and the need to pursue alternatives to deception in applied settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Client records: Ethical and legal considerations.

Examines the legal and ethical problems associated with keeping files on clients. The major focus is on the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists (Canadian Psychological Association, 1988) and the implication of the Code for record keeping by psychologists. Content and types of records kept, including the use of computer assessments and files, are discussed, along with issues of ownership and use of files. Specific suggestions for record keeping, ensuring privacy of computer files, and maintaining record access and retention are made. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical considerations for the peace activist psychotherapist.

Discusses clinical and ethical issues raised by the stance of A. Nelson (see record 1986-11569-001) in his consideration of awareness and "response ability" in the nuclear age. Dangers of overzealousness, the temptation to apply the awareness paradigm too broadly, the potential harmful effect of heightened awareness, and the threat to professional neutrality are outlined. Four points are offered regarding the beliefs and ethical responsibilities of citizens who are psychologists. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Placebo pain medication. Ethical and practical considerations

The placebo effect on pain is a complex phenomenon. The unconsented use of placebo pain medication, however, raises concerns given the risks both to patient trust and to the medical profession's reputation in condoning deception, the inherent distastefulness of deception, the misuse of placebos that occurs, and the fact that the information obtained is often of negligible value. The main justification given for using placebos is based on the assumption that they are effective and beneficial to patients. We argue that placebo pain medication should be prescribed to patients only with their informed consent in scientifically rigorous single-patient studies. The results of such trials would constitute a particularly useful way of resolving uncertainty in the treatment of patients whose pain is poorly controlled.     

Methodological considerations in Rorschach research.

Research with the Rorschach Inkblot Method should be conducted according to the same general principles of research design that guide other investigative efforts in psychological science. However, the nature of the Rorschach as a relatively unstructured measure of personality functioning calls for special attention to certain aspects of selecting research participants, choosing variables, and collecting and analyzing data. The present article delineates how such methodological considerations can enhance prospects for obtaining statistically significant and substantively meaningful results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical and legal considerations in marital and family therapy.

Notes insufficiencies in the American Psychological Association's ethical standards for marriage and family therapy. Guidelines regarding therapist responsibility, confidentiality, and informed consent sometimes become ambiguous with individual clients, but they are even more complicated when multiple family members are seen together in therapy. Questions about confidentiality, refusal of treatment, and value of conflicts between the family members and the therapist may arise. Consideration of these questions in terms of their ethical implications is complex and controversial. Yet answers to these questions must also take into account clinical and legal considerations, which sometimes run a collision course with what is desirable from a strictly ethical standpoint. Examples and preliminary recommendations with respect to these issues are examined; further clarification of professional conduct in marital and family therapy is urged. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assisted suicide in dementia. Ethical considerations between paternalism and autonomy

This article discusses the problem of euthanasia presenting the case of an 82-year-old man with progressive dementia. Difficulties encountered during daily clinical work are described and analysed, in order to clarify decisions on ethical, legal and professional medical grounds. General decisions concerning life-sustaining measures may be qualitatively improved if the situation of the individual is constantly assessed and considered within the treatment process.     

Ethical and professional considerations in divorce and child custody cases.

The provision of psychological (e.g., psychotherapy, coparenting, mediation, collaborative divorce, child custody evaluation) services for families of divorce are growing specialties for many clinical and forensic psychologists. However, practice in domestic relations psychology, such as divorce and custody assessment and testimony, is a high-risk venture for incurring ethics complaints and law suits. The lead article and the three commentaries that follow enumerate the various roles practitioners might play, clarify how each role requires specific skill sets that may be outside one’s particular competence and necessitate additional training, describe how countertransferential issues arise, urge meticulous record keeping, discuss some of the subtleties of confidentiality and the releasing of information, describe how transparency in clarifying expectations leads to a lowering of contentiousness, and provide tips for divorce and forensic practice. The special challenges associated with psychologists being tempted to move beyond their role on a case and those of particularly high-risk situations (e.g., complaints of child abuse or domestic violence) are also discussed. Suggestions are offered to help psychologists better serve the public while taking steps to better inoculate themselves from complaints. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methodological considerations in clinical neuropsychological research.

Discusses methodological problems and issues in clinical neuropsychological research for 4 types of neuropsychological studies: (a) differential diagnosis, (b) basic brain–behavior relationships, (c) effects of noxious agents or factors on brain–behavior relationships, and (d) rehabilitation of neuropsychological deficits. Five independent variables that may or may not affect such studies are discussed: age, education, sex, socioeconomic status, and experimenter or examiner characteristics. Recommendations for handling these methodological problems are made, and the characteristics of good case study reports are presented. (52 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accepting forensic case referrals: Ethical and professional considerations.

As psychologists serve the legal system with increasing frequency, it is important to consider a number of critical issues at a case's inception, including the following: Who calls the psychologist? Who is the referral source? Who is the attorney? Who are the various parties involved in the case? What are the facts of the case? Does the psychologist have the expertise to clarify and develop technical issues of the case? Will the psychologist be expected to play an expert role or a consultant role? Who pays the psychologist? How are fees determined? What records should be kept? Answering these questions will help the psychologist avoid ethical, legal, and professional dilemmas and will allow the psychologist to perform an important service in helping the court to understand technical issues in reaching just decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical issues in research on student protest.

An overview of research on student protest reveals that some researchers view dissenting students as "sick," while others view society and its institutions as culpable. The ethics of research are examined, and it is concluded that the same phenomena are interpreted differently by researchers depending on their own attitudes. Modern and traditional views of researchers account for the different conclusions obtained. It is suggested that caution be taken when interpreting these contradictory findings in treating the individual dissenting student. It is proposed that contrary results may be reconciled by examining the underlying preconceptions of researchers toward students and society. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical responsibilities to depressed research participants.

There has been little discussion of investigators' ethical responsibilities to research participants in serious preexisting distress. Two studies were undertaken to address this issue. In the first, questionnaires regarding ethical practices and attitudes were sent to authors of 93 studies involving depression, which were published in seven peer-review psychology journals. Results from 63 completed questionnaires suggested that 67% of researchers debriefed subjects in the designated studies, 59% provided information regarding treatment resources to selected subjects. Diverse ethical practices and attitudes were represented, varying in part as a function of personal attributes of the researchers and methodological characteristics of their investigations. In Study 2, perceptions of 221 undergraduate research participants were examined. The majority favored some sort of ethical safeguard for the depressed participant. In both samples, actions suggested for the researcher encountering distressed subjects ranged from doing nothing to initiating contact with both the subject and a significant other. Recommendations are made to assist researchers in considering ethical safeguards for subjects in preexisting distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical balances in juvenile justice research and practice.

Outlines 4 common ethical problems (i.e., problem definition, overidentification, informed consent, and confidentiality) as they occur in juvenile justice. A rough heuristic is proposed as a method for analyzing ethical issues in applied juvenile justice research and practice. It is suggested that a professional is faced with deciding where he/she stands on the issues of treatment vs retribution and of needs vs rights when operating in the juvenile justice system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy research: Some methodological considerations.

Calls for a systematic inquiry into the construct of empathy and suggests that improved definitional and methodological consideration in research will lead to more persuasive findings about the alleged relations between empathy and client outcomes. A category system is proposed for analyzing methodological deficiencies. The system is applied to 4 different measures of empathy and 3 studies having different findings but purportedly similar designs. Renewed attention to the construct of empathy is advocated. (93 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)