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6.5 - Ethics

from Part VI - Professional Practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2021

By
Simon Duff  and
James McGuire
Edited by
Jennifer M. Brown  and
Miranda A. H. Horvath
Jennifer M. Brown
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Miranda A. H. Horvath
Affiliation:
University of Suffolk
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Summary

Ethical thinking is an indispensable component of sound professional practice across all areas of applied psychology. Within it, practitioners seek to take account of both the principles formulated in codes of conduct and the rights of all the involved participants. In this chapter we first describe the background to and the fundamental concepts of normative ethics before examining the agreed practical ethical principles that determine standards of work and the processes of ethically aware decision making. We identify the major sources of philosophical thought that have influenced the development of professional codes of practice. Examining the implications of this in a variety of contexts in forensic psychology, we focus on the most frequently encountered moral dilemmas and challenges that arise. They are drawn from the areas of working with clients, professional supervision, and research; and involve issues such as the protection of confidentiality, avoidance of role conflicts, resolution of the sometimesincongruent priorities of individual and public domains, and management of boundaries in professional relationships.

Keywords

Professional EthicsEthical PrinciplesEthical DilemmasCodes of ConductConfidentiality
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Forensic Psychology , pp. 814 - 834
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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