Ethical, Legal, and Professional Foundations, Part 2
Question 1: Discuss the school psychologist’s responsibility to contributing to the school’s knowledge base as outlined by the National Association of School Psychologists’ code of ethics.
Answer 1: The school psychologist has a responsibility to contribute to the improvement of the curriculum and student services offered at the school. As such, the psychologist should make efforts to participant in, conduct, and publish psychological research. In doing so, the psychologists must follow the guidelines of the National Association of School Psychologist and their specific school for conducting research with human participants. This will include obtaining permission from a review board to conduct the research as well as obtaining permission from participants (or their parents) to report and present research findings.
There are lots of good resources about Professional Foundations that you can find available.
Question 2: Discuss the difference between ethical codes and ethical conduct.
Answer 2: Ethical codes are put in place by committees in order to provide professional guidelines for conducting business. These codes are often imperfect and do not always cover all situations. Specifically, ethical codes may not reflect the current state of the industry, they are often emotionally reactive in nature, and there may be underlying ethical principles in any given situation. On the other hand, ethical conduct involves the practice of understanding and adhering to ethical codes within the scope of the situation and is based on professional expertise. As a school psychologist, it is important in have a firm understanding of established ethical codes as well as sound principles in order to make educated decisions in situations when ethical codes may be vague.
Question 3: Define conflict of interest and discuss this ethical concept in terms of the National Association of School Psychologists’ code of ethics.
Answer 3: Conflict of interest occurs when a professional is involved in multiple relationships that may intermingle and violate ethical standards. According to the National Association of School Psychologists’ code of ethics, school psychologists must take care in their personal lives not to compromise or intermingle with their professional relationships. In other words, the psychologist must avoid multiple types of relationships with the same individuals. For example, if a psychologist is treating a family, it would be a conflict of interest to invite that family to dinner on the weekend and begin developing a personal relationship. Additionally, the psychologist may not exploit a professional relationship and should be careful that personal judgments are not influenced by professional relationships.
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