PSYC550 - Professional Ethics and Standards

Students completing this course will:

1. Explore the American Psychological Association (APA) codes of professional ethics and other standards relative to research, practice and training in psychology.
2. Apply the APA ethics codes and federal and state laws ethical dilemmas.
3. Analyze concerns, including client rights, informed consent, confidentiality, practitioner and client values, dual relationships and professional liability, encountered in a variety of research, practice and educational settings.
4. Utilize sound professional decision making models in the critical analysis of ethical dilemmas.
5. Exhibit a conscientiousness for a variety of cultures and identify personal biases.

Forums

Weekly dialogue with classmates based on engagement with assigned course readings and/or related multi-media will take place in the online classroom on designated forums. While designed to promote lively discourse within a community of fellow learners, the dialogues are academic in nature and require a scholarly orientation.

Assignments

For each assignment, please ensure that your work is in APA format, Times New Roman, with size 12 font, double spaced with 1- inch margins, and includes a title page and reference page. Each assignment should integrate a minimum of five supportive scholarly citations and references to support content and conclusions. Please proofread for grammar and spelling. Specific instructions for each assignment can be found in the Assignments Tab.

Information Interview (Week 3)

In the Information Interview, students will prepare ethics-based interview questions for a practicing psychologist and construct hypothetical responses.

Midterm Essay (Week 4)

For this essay students are expected to compose a 6-8-page essay on cultural and professional competence in the helping professions. Students are required to address specific aspects of multiculturalism and differentiate between individualistic and collectivistic cultures,

Case Analysis (Week 5)

After reviewing a case vignette, students will write 5-6 page paper that includes the following:

1. Description of at least 3 ethical and/or legal issues

2. Identification of relevant ethical codes

3. Explanation of 3 courses of action to resolve the issue

4. Description of the decision-making process for each course of action

5. Assessment of options that best upholds the ethical standards of the profession

My Case Analysis (Week 7)

In this case analysis, students develop a hypothetical case for use as an educational tool for a couples and family therapy learning module. Students will identify three ethical challenges a counselor might face in working with the hypothetical clients. Students will also describe the APA guidelines corresponding with each and how you would safeguard against ethics violations.

Supplemental and Required Reading

This course also includes required and supplemental articles and websites. Consult the respective week in this syllabus for a complete list of additional reading.