Standards of professional conduct and ethical principles
Standards of professional conduct and ethical principles
The Board enforces professional conduct through statute, Board rules, and the APA Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct. The exam tests whether you can apply ethical principles to concrete facts, not just recite them.
Core rules
- The five general principles are beneficence and nonmaleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, and respect for people's rights and dignity. They guide but do not replace enforceable standards.
- Enforceable standards address competence, informed consent, confidentiality, multiple relationships, assessment, therapy, supervision, research, advertising, and record keeping.
- A violation can lead to Board discipline even if no lawsuit is filed. Criminal acquittal or civil settlement does not bar Board action.
- Psychologists must practice within their competence, seek consultation or refer when needed, and avoid conflicts of interest that impair objectivity.
Worked example
A psychologist who treats anxiety is asked by a long-term client to evaluate the client's child for custody. The psychologist has no custody-evaluation training and knows the family well. Accepting would create a competence problem and a multiple-relationship problem: the therapeutic relationship compromises neutrality, and the evaluator role differs from treatment. The ethical response is to decline, explain the role conflict, and refer to a qualified custody evaluator.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating the ethics code as merely aspirational.
- Assuming legality equals ethical acceptability.
- Believing a personal value or religious belief justifies imposing it on a client.
- Ignoring cultural context when judging boundaries or gifts.
- Forgetting that supervision, teaching, and research also carry ethics duties.