Code of Ethics
Most codes have four universal fundamental principles:
1. Respect for People’s Dignity and Rights
Respect the client‟s personal integrity (privacy, confidentiality)
Be non-judgmental of the intrinsic value of the client irrespective of age, behavior, culture,
gender, race or religion
Respect the knowledge skills and experience of your colleagues and other professionals
2. Responsible Practice
The critical focus of this principle is to limit your practice to your field of expertise and
competence
Undergo relevant training and adhere to best practice
Keep abreast of new developments in your field
3. Integrity in Relationships
4. Responsibility
Examples of responsible social actions are to:
o disperse information that can advance the profession
o protect the public trust in the profession by “blowing the whistle” on non-professional conduct
o assisting in some instances where worthy causes cannot afford professional services
o protect society from dangerous practices
AN ETHICS OF VALUES
One premise of an ethics of values is that any moral judgement of actions is
based on hierarchically structured values.
○ At a primary level on the hierarchy, there are basic ethical values rooted in
the inviolability of human dignity. These include: the concept of freedom –
personal freedom, freedom of worship, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech,
scientific freedom, freedom of artistic expression; the concept of equality– equal
rights and opportunities; and the concept of justice.
○○ At a secondary level, there are moral values that exist so that members of a
community may live a
fulfilling life. Examples of individual values are: self determination, self-
responsibility, love, friendship,
and the enjoyment of good health.
Examples of social values are: solidarity, fairness and a sense of collective
responsibility.
○○ At the next level, there are commercial values. These include a belief in a
free market, freedom of contract, earning capacity, the concept of commercial
added value, property, commercial goods and money.
• Organizations that have integrity based ethics programs have established
core principles that ask everyone to adhere to the principles and govern
themselves accordingly.
• In this instance, employees understand how important the principles are to
the mission and the organization’s continued success.
• Integrity based ethics programs produce employees that are more prone to
being committed to their organizations, more aware in an ethical sense and
more willing to report problems ethical in nature.
• Ethical programs based on integrity allow firms to monitor: employee
misconduct, employee comfort levels with reporting misconduct if employees
believe they are being treated fairly, and if employees feel pressure to
overlook certain matters.
• From the results of this monitoring system, organizations can identify
integrity based ethical related countermeasures that will produce positive
results
COMPLIANCE BASED ETHICS
Compliance based ethics are ethical principles and codes born from government
regulations.
An organization must meet certain standards to be considered to have complied with the
minimum ethics and compliance program, these include:
• Prevention and detection of criminal conduct with rules and policies
• These rules need to be communicated
• An oversight board of the ethics and compliance program
• A corporate compliance officer
• Monitoring and auditing of the ethics compliance program
• A whistleblower forum for employees to report without fear of reprisal
• Incentives and discipline to enforce the program
• Once a problem had been identified, countermeasures are to be implemented to prevent
a similar occurrence
• A compliance based organization is one that establishes rules and
conduct with penalties for disobedience.
• Fear appears to be the driving motivator in the adherence of
compliance-based ethics.
• The very notion that a firm would adopt an ethics program because it
is the right thing to do rather than to be compliant with government
regulations and avoid hefty fines is shortsighted.
• In compliance-based programs, employees are motivated to act out
of fear of consequence as opposed to being motivated because of
some moral or ethical compass.
• Ethical programs footed in compliance regulations are moral codes
that are adopted by an organization not wanting to face business
failure or government fines.
Informed
consent
• Informed consent, usually in the form of a document signed by the subject, relays
all pertinent and relevant research information, such as risks and benefits, to the
potential subject, allowing him or her to make an informed decision regarding
participation.
• Subsequently, the participant is given the opportunity to withdraw from the
research or experiment at any time and for any (or no) reason.
• This process is a basic legal and ethical standard by which all research must
abide.
• In order that consent be ‘informed’, consent forms may need to be accompanied
by an information sheet for participants setting out information about the
proposed study (in lay terms) along with details about the investigators and how
they can be contacted.
Privacy and Confidentiality
• One of the conditions on which informed consent rests is that participants’ privacy
will be respected. Privacy refers to “persons and to their interest in controlling the
access of others to themselves,” and no participant should ever be forced to
reveal information to the researcher that the participant does not wish to reveal.
• Confidentiality is equally important and refers to information about the person
that has been revealed to the researcher. Safeguarding this information is a key
part of the relationship of trust and respect that exists between the researcher
and the participant.
• Depending on the type of study, personal identifiers such as names, birthdates,
places of residence etc. may or may not have to be collected. In situations where
these data are collected, researchers may take several steps to ensure the
confidentiality of their participants’ information, including:
• Use participant codes to label data instead of using names, and keeping a
separate list of code-to-name match-ups.
• In interview studies, use the participant’s First name only (or even using an
alias) when recording or publishing data.
Confidentiality
Confidential information is usually understood to be private
information that a person shares with another on the
understanding that it will not be disclosed to third parties.
• Keeping patient confidentiality is considered important because
of its role in building patient trust and protecting patient privacy
and autonomy.
• It is also considered important because the consequences of
respecting patient confidentiality are generally seen as positive.
Confidentiality is a core element of all human relationships and, so, is
basic to building trust between patients and health professionals.
In effect, the health professional promises the patient that they will
keep a bond of trust – the patient trusts the health professional to
keep confidence and the health professional trusts the patient to tell
the truth
Secondly, the assurance of confidentiality enables patients to be
open about personal issues, concerns and questions and enhances
their capacity to make decisions about their health care.
Debrief
• After the research is over the participant should be able to discuss the
procedure and the findings with the psychologist. They must be given a general
idea of what the researcher was investigating and why, and their part in the
research should be explained.
• Participants must be asked if they have any questions and those questions
should be answered honestly and as fully as possible.
• Debriefing should take place as soon as possible and be as full as possible;
experimenters should take reasonable steps to ensure that participants
understand debriefing.
• The aim of the debriefing is not just to provide information, but to help the
participant leave the experimental situation in a similar frame of mind as when
he/she entered it