Ethics, Professional Standards, and Law
This domain tests professional obligations and their legal limits: confidentiality, consent, role boundaries and the expert's overriding duty to the court.
Frameworks and codes
The APA Ethics Code states five general principles (beneficence and nonmaleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, respect for rights and dignity) plus enforceable standards on informed consent, competence, multiple relationships and test security. The BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct (2018) sets four principles: respect, competence, responsibility and integrity.
Confidentiality and its limits
Confidentiality is not absolute. Limits include serious risk of harm to self or others (Tarasoff v Regents of the University of California, 1976, requiring reasonable steps to protect), child protection, statutory disclosure and court order. Privilege belongs to the client, not the psychologist, and is waived by the client or overridden by the court.
The expert's duties
The duty to the court overrides the retaining party (Criminal Procedure Rules Part 19 in England and Wales; the Ikarian Reefer principles in civil litigation). Experts give independent opinion, state the limits of their data, stay within competence and avoid advocacy.
Worked example
A therapist is subpoenaed for notes in a custody case. The defensible response is to clarify the role, seek client consent, assert privilege pending a court ruling, release only relevant material, and decline to offer a custody opinion as treating clinician rather than independent evaluator.
Traps
Promising absolute confidentiality; accepting a forensic referral for a current therapy client; attaching full test protocols and breaching test security; and opining outside competence.