CASE DIGESTS
Ethics in the Psychological Profession
CASE
1. You are a psychologist treating a 20-year old
college student for SX's of Depression. The student is
covered by her parents' health insurance and have
given you permission to speak only with the
insurance company. The student's mother calls you
to inquire about her child's progress in Tx. What
should you do?
2. You receive a subpoena requiring you to testify
about a current client at a trial. You contact the client
who says he does not want you to testify. You
should:
3. If you believe that your adult client is gravely
disabled, you:
4. While attending a staff meeting at a mental health
facility where you work, you learn that one of your
colleagues, a psychologist, is behaving in an unethical
manner toward one of her patients. Despite being
advised to do so by several members of the staff, she
states that she will not change her behavior. What
should you do in this situation?
5. You have been working with a couple in marital
therapy for 4 months, with slow but notable
progress. After a session one day, the wife pulls you
aside and asks to make some individual
appointments with you. You should:
COURSE OF ACTION
Neither confirm nor deny that you are seeing the
student for treatment. As long as the student has not
given you specific consent to speak with her mother,
you should neither confirm nor deny that you are
seeing the student for therapy. Even though the
student is covered by her parents' insurance, you do
not have legal permission to speak with the parents.
Appear at the trial as requested but claim the
privilege on behalf of the client. A subpoena is valid
even when the client does not give permission for
the release of confidential information. However, in
this situation, you should contact the client's
attorney or your own attorney to discuss the matter
or contact the attorney who issued the subpoena to
request to be released from it. Unless you receive
the requested release, you must appear as requested
but should claim the privilege on the client's behalf.
Take the necessary steps to have the inclient
involuntarily hospitalized if his grave disability is due
to a mental disorder or chronic alcoholism or drug
use.
Approach the colleague individually and urge her to
changer her behavior; if she refuses, report her to
the appropriate Ethics committee. Informal
resolution first.
Refer the wife to another therapist to avoid role
conflicts and biased considerations. There is a
potential for role conflict (couple therapist versus
individual therapist) when a client in conjoint therapy
asks you to see her individually.
6. A client suspects that she may have been sexually Advise the patient that hypnosis may produce false
abused as a child, although she has no conscious recollections of abuse and is, therefore,
recollection of the abuse. She asks her psychologist inappropriate.
to use hypnosis to help her retrieve anu repressed
memories she may have of any abuse. The
psychologist shoud:

7. An attorney contacts a psychologist requesting Not release the records. This is not a court-ordered
that his client be given a psychological evaluation evaluation; therefore, the examinee remains the
prior to appearing in court. Following the evaluation, holder of the privilege. His records should not be
the client asks that his records not be released to the released to the court without his consent.
court, although his attorney believes that release the
records would be in his client's best interest. The
psychologist should:

8. You are working with a couple in marital therapy Refer the couple to another therapist. This situation
and conducting the initial interview. You realize that involves multiple relationships.
although the husband doesn't remember you, the
two of you once dated. You should:

9. A manufacturing company hires a psychologist to
screen job applicants using a standardized cognitive
ability tests. The company then asks the psychologist
to train their human resource staff to administer and
score the tests. The psychologist should:
Refuse to do so. The human resources staff lacks the
appropriate qualifications. Remember, "psychologists
do not promote the use of psychological assessment
techniques by unqualified persons."

10. A college psychology instructor gives a battery of Unethically because he revealed the information to a
psychological test to some of his students who third party. There is no imminent danger; therefore,
volunteered to be participants. Based on these tests, informing a third party is unethical.
he finds that one of the participants is at risk for
emotional disturbance. He talks to this student and
suggests counseling. At the same time, he informs
the director of the college counseling office who is a
friend of his. According to the PAP Code of Ethics, the
professor acted:

11. A psychologist is undertaking a research program Not use these children in her study. Participants have
in an elementary school on the effect of a new the fundamental right to decline to participate in
counseling program on enhancing children's self- research, even if they are children. Coercing the
esteem. The psychologist has received permission student is a violation in the PAP Code of Ethics.
from the school's principal, the teachers, and from
the parents of each student. However, when she
explained the program to the children, some of them
objected to being part of the study. The psychologist
should:
12. You have a client who does not want their
records to be released under any circumstance. The
attorney has subpoened you. You best course of
action is to:
13. A 16-year old girl tells her therapist that she
wants to kill herself and that she's been thinking of
using her mother's prescription pain pills to
overdose. The therapist then tells her that he will
have to tell her parents about her suicide risk. The
girl becomes enraged and says that she would not
have disclosed the information if she knew that the
therapist would tell her parents. The therapist
should:
14. Miranda M., age 32, makes an appointment with
you at the recommendation of her physician who has
diagnosed her recurrent headaches as the result of
stress. The woman tells you that a friend of hers was
trained in self-hypnosis for tension headaches and
says that she also wants training in self-hypnosis. You
took a weekend workshop on hypnosis in graduate
school but have not used it in your clinical practice.
As an ethical psychologist, you should:
15. An "informed consent" from a client:
16. You receive a call from Mrs. Wang who is very
upset because her 14-year-old daughter witnessed
the assault of her best friend three days ago and is
very distraught. The girl hasn't slept, eated, and
cannot stop crying. You have limited experience
working wth adolescents and in providing crisis
intervention services. However, there is no one else
Take the records, but don't turn them over. You
should respond to the subpoena by asserting the
psychotherapist-client privilege on the client's behalf.
If you cannot be released from the subpoena, you
should appear at the legal proceding with the
documents requested; however, you should not
actually release any information in the records,
unless the judge orders you to do so. A subpoena
duces tecum requires a person to appear at a
designated time and place with a copy of the
records. It does not necessarily require the person to
release those records.
Tell the parents and apologize to the girl for having
to break confidentiality, while explaining that her
safety is the overriding concern of the therapist. PAP
Code of Ethics permits the breach of confidentiality
to protect the client from harm. In this case, there is
a suicide risk.
Admit your lack of expertise in the use of self-
hypnosis and refer the woman to another therapist.
This situation involves boundaries of competence.
May be either verbal or in writing but must be
documented.
See Mrs. Wang's daughter in therapy only until the
crisis has ended or until you locate alternative
services. This is an emergency situation and other
mental health services are not available.
in the community who is more experienced than you
are. As an ethical psychologist, you will:
17. If a psychologist acts as both a fact witness for
the plaintiff and an expert witness for the court in a
criminal trial, she has acted:
18. Kameko K., a psychology intern, administers
psychological tests to the clients of a community
mental health clinic, but her supervisor always scores
the tests and interprets their results. When preparing
the psychological report for these clients, the
supervisor does not indicate that the intern
administered the tests. This is:
19. When evaluating a defendant's competence to
stand trial, the focus of the evaluation is on the
defendant's:
20. You receive a letter from Mrs. Bisque attoney
asking you to testify that Mrs. Bisque, who is in the
process of the divorce settlement, should have sole
custody of her children. You are aware that Mr.
Bisque was recently admitted to the psychiatric
hospital in another city. You should:
21. A client that Dr. William Wong has been seeing in
therapy for six months is currently the defendant in a
court case. The client's attorney contacts Dr. Wong
requesting that he provide her with information
about the client's diagnosis and treatment progress
since this information will be helpful in preparing the
client's defense. Dr. Wong should:
22. A psychologist realizes that one of her therapy
client is a co-owner of the company that just hired
her as a consultant. To be consistent with ethical
requirements, the psychologist should:
23. Dr. Wanda Weim, a licensed psychologist,
received a request to testify in a custody proceeding
on behalf of a man that she has been seeing in
Ethically as long as she clarifies her roles with all
parties. Multiple roles may be acceptable as long as
certain conditions are met: the psychologist clarifies
the nature of the multiple relationship with all
involved parties and acts in a way that does not
compromise his/her judgment and objectivity.
Unethical because the intern should be listed as the
examiner in the report. PAP Code of Ethics prohibits
psychologists from making misleading statements.
Professionals should provide accurate information in
their reports.
Ability to comprehend the charges against him/her.
Refuse to make specific recommendation about
custody unless you can evaluate the entire family.
This is a standard practice in custody situations.
Discuss the release with the client before taking any
additional action.
Remedy the situation in a way that the client's best
interests are taken into account. This situation
involves multiple relationships.
Refuse to testify. Since it is a conjoint marital
therapy, both parties should give the psychologist
the consent to testify.
conjoint marital therapy until six months ago. The
man wants Dr. Weim to provide the court with
information about his parenting skills and his
relationship with his wife and children. Dr. Weim
contacts the man's wife, who refuses to give the
psychologist permission to testify. Dr. Weim should:

24. Dr. Sam Stone has been hired by a consulting firm Is incorrect because he has the responsibility to
to assist with an ongoing research project being ensure that the company is provided with complete
conducted at a large company. Stone is to work and accurate data.
directly under the project director, Dr. Thompson, a
licensed organizational psychologist. Thompson asks
Stone to review the preliminary report she has
prepared for the project. In doing so, Stone discovers
that some of the reported data is misleading and
may be inacurrate. Stone expresses his concerns to
Thompson and is told that "it will be taken care of."
Subsequently, Stone learns that the report was
submitted to the company without any changes.
Stone reviews the ethical guidelines and decides that
pursuing the matter isn't necessary. Dr. Stone's
conclusion:

25. A psychologist who already has an established
therapeutic relationship with a child is asked to act as
an expert witness in a divorce proceeding involving
custody of the child. The psychologist's best course
of action would be to:
Decline the request to testify. The psychologist has a
privileged communication with the child. If she does
not decline, she is entering into a multiple
relationship (therapist versus expert witness).

26. Ethical standards for varying professions differ Cooperate with other professionals when developing
with regard to their emphasis and perspective. As a professional and ethical standards for psychological
psychologist owrking in a multidisciplinary setting, services.
you should:

27. Vic Vasquez, director of a private counseling Unacceptable because it is potentially misleading.
center, prepares and distributes a brochure
describing the center services. The brochure is
available to potential clients and other interested
people, and its text includes a list of the centers staff
members and their credentials. Specifically, it
indicates that five of the six members have doctoral
degrees from accredited universities and that the
member who does not have a degree in a "Ph.D.
candidate". The designation of the non-degreed staff
member is:

28. A psychologist hired by the court to evaluate the Provide the court with the information he feels is in
2 young children of couple who are seeking a the best interest of the children.
divorce. The psychologist job will be to evaluate both
children and report its findings to the court with any
recommendations regarding custody he can make on
the basis of his findings. Through her attorney, the
mother learns that the children have both revealed
information to the psychologist that presents her in
an unfavorable light. The mother contact the
psychologist and says that since her children are both
minors, she is the holder of the privilege and is,
therefore, instructing the psychologist not to report
the unfavorable information to the court. The
psychologist should:

29. La-Keysha Leonard, a licensed psychologist, has Refuse to evaluate the inmate. There will multiple
been seeing a prison inmate in a group therapy for relationships here (group therapist versus individual
several months and is asked by the parole board to therapist).
evaluate the inmate to assist with their decision
regarding his parole. As an ethical psychologist,
Leonard should:

30. When conducting research with human Participants should be debriefed as soon as possible
participants, a psychologist should be aware that: after their participation in the study, especially if the
study has involved deception.

31. You are subpoenaed to appear at a deposition to
testify about a former client of yours. During the
deposition, the attorney for the opposing party asks
you to provide confidential client information. You
should:
Assert the privilege unless the client has signed a
waiver. Confidential information should be revealed
in a legal proceeding only when the client has signed
a waiver or when the court has issued an order
indicating that privilege is waived.

32. You have been hired to assist with a research Write a letter to the psychologist, indicating the
project on process variables in group psychotherapy. relevant ethical standards and offering to discuss the
The psychologist who is the principal investigator matter with him. Participants can withdraw from a
tells you to discourage participants from leaving the research study at any time.
group prior to the end of the study because if too
many participants drop out, the study's potential
usefulness will be seriously compromised. As an
ethical psychologist, you should:

33. After 3 sessions with a therapy client, Dr. Consult with another psychologist to determine
Lykowski realizes that he's feeling somewhat hostile whether or not to continue seeing the client in
toward the client because she reminds him of his
wife who he's currently divorcing. Lykowski's best
course of action would be to:
34. Following the retirement of his business partner,
Dr. Sheldon Smythe is the only psychologist in a small
town, and the next closest mental health
professional is 100 miles away. Several of Dr.
Smythe's new clients have problems for which he has
limited training and experience. Dr. Smythe should:
35. A psychologist in private practice is going through
a difficult divorce and, as a result, has started
drinking and is often depressed. He should:
36. Dr. Nancy Noonan plans to conduct a study that
will involve testing and interviewing psychiatric
patients. Before beginning the study, she must
obtain:
37. Dr. Brian Bertram, a licensed psychologist, is
hired by the owner of the company to evaluate
employees who are not doing well on the job to
determine if they would benefit from counseling or
additional training. In this situation, Bertram should:
38. A 26-year-old client you have been seeing for two
months unexpectedly admits to you that he had
sexual relationships with the 15-year-old daughter of
his neighbor six months ago. He said that he knows
what he did was wrong and he'll never do it again.
You should:
therapy. Consultation with another professional is
the best course of action whenever a therapist is
concerned that a personal problem might interfere
with his/her ability to provide a client with adequate
therapy.
See the clients and obtain supervision or consultation
by telephone.
Seek professional consultation and consider
temporarily suspending his practice.
Informed consent from the patient's legal guardian
and assent from the patients.
Inform each employee prior to the evaluation of the
potential limits on confidentiality. When a
psychologist agreed to provide services to a person
or entity at the request of a third party, a
psychologist attempts to clarify at the outset of the
services the nature of the relationship with all
individuals or organizations involved. This
clarification includes: the fact that there may be
limits to confidentiality. In the situation described in
this question, the company does have a right to
relevant information, but this does not free the
psychologist from the obligation to inform
employees about the limits of confidentiality and the
company about what kind of employee information
will be revealed.
In cases of known and suspected child abuse, a
psychologist is legally and ethically required to make
a report to the appropriate authorities.
39. A psychology professor at a large university asked He should acknowledge the student in a manner
a graduate student to assist on a research project in consistent with her contribution to the project.
a field of interest to the student. The student will be
required to spend about 25 hours a week on the
project and will be paid on an hourly basis. With
regard to the publication credit, the professor should
do which of the following when preparing a journal
article about the study?

40. A psychologist is hired by a court to evaluate the
defendant during the course of criminal proceeding.
The psychologist can subsequently include
information about the defendant in a book that she
is writing on the "criminal mind"
Even if the information is in the public record, the
psychologist who conducted the evaluation for the
court should obtain the defendant’s permission to
use evaluation data for another purpose.

41. To be consistent with ethical requirements, David Tell his clients that he is a psychology intern.
DeFoe, a psychology intern, must do which of the
following when a supervisor has legal responsibility
for his work?

a. tell clients that he is a psychology intern

b. tell his clients that his work is being supervised

c. provide clients with information about his

education and experience

d. must indicate his status on his business card.

42. After a year in private practice, you hire a new Ethical as long as the psychologist is being
licensed psychologist whom you will provide with an compensated in an equitable way. The Code of Ethics
office and secretarial services. You will also refer does not prohibit referral fees.
clients to the psychologist and pay him 50% of the
fees collected from those clients. This arrangement
is:

43. A woman comes in to family therapy with her
three daughters ages 10, 13, 19, all of whom live at
home with the woman and their father. During the
third therapy session, the 19-year-old tells you that
her father began sexually molesting her when she
was 13. When you ask the younger girls if their father
has ever abused they, they are reluctant to say
anything about their father, and the mother
adamantly denies any knowledge of abuse. In this
File a report with the appropriate authorities
yourself. Whenever you acquire a reasonable
suspicion in your professional capacity that a minor is
being abused, you have a legal obligation to report
the abuse. Although psychologists are not usually
required to make a report when the individual is over
the age of 18, in the situation described in the
question, you would have reasonable suspicion that
the younger sisters are also victims of abuse.
Therefore, you would be legally required to file a
situation, you should:
44. Faaris F. terminated therapy with Dr. Pamela
Prince several months ago but calls to request an
appointment because he is now very lonely and
oppressed and feels like "he wants to die." In the
past two months, Dr. Prince has been reducing her
caseload because she is planning to retire. The best
course of action in this situation is:
45. Dr. Bettina Browne, a licensed psychologist,
undertakes a child custody evaluation at the request
of the child’s mother. The father agrees to be
evaluated also, & Dr. Browne obtains signed
informed consent from both parents before
beginning her assessment. Dr. Browne adminsters
the MMPI & Rorschach tests to both parents. The
mother obtains significantly elevated scores on the
MMPI’s K & L scales, suggesting that she tends to lie
and be excessively defensive, and these tendencies
are confirmed by her Rorschach responses. No
significant abnormality is suggested by the father’s
MMPI and Rorschach results. On the basis of these
test results, Dr. Browne recommends that the
mother not be awarded custody of the child. Dr.
Browne has acted:
report with the appropriate authorities.
See Faaris in therapy until the crisis has passed and
then provide him with appropriate referrals (since
the client seems to be experiencing a crisis (he feels
"like he wants to die"), this course of action takes his
welfare into account and is most consistent with the
"spirit" of the ethical guidelines.
Has acted unethically because of her use of the
MMPI and Rorschach tests as methods of evaluating
the mother's parental suitability. (A psychologist is
ethically required to use tests only for the purposes
for which they have been validated. Based on the
information given, it appears that Dr. Browne has
acted unethically by basing her custody
recommendation on MMPI and Rorschach test
results since these tests have not been validated for
this purpose, Dr. Browne's recommendation should
have been based on more than the results of only
two tests).