preview

Psychology Ethical Issues

Decent Essays

Professional and scientific psychology appears to have rediscovered spirituality and religion during recent years. As professionals increasingly embrace multicultural competency in counseling and therapy, religion and spirituality arguably stand out as cultural and personal factors that are a salient part of framing one’s experiences, beliefs, values, behavior, and illness patterns (Rose, Westefeld & Ansley 2001). Despite the growing understanding of the pervasiveness and importance of spirituality and religion, most psychologists have little training in dealing with religious and spiritual issues (Shafranske & Malony, 1990).
In recent years, spirituality, religion, psychology, and science integration has been legitimized and has received significant …show more content…

Psychologists are required to act with integrity in being honest, just, and fair with all the clients they work with. Integrity calls the psychologists to be fully honest and open about their skills and limitations. An example of an integrity issue would be; if a client comes to see and disclose to a licenced clinical psychologist that conducts both pastoral counselling as well as professional therapy. She says that she harmed her child by hitting the youngster. The therapist thus must break the confidentiality and call the child protective services however, the client angrily retorts that everything she says should be kept in confidence since she is confessing her sin or abuse to a priest under the sacrament of reconciliation. The therapist could have avoided the ethical dilemma by being sure that his clients fully understood his roles as priest and therapist and which role maintains during each encounter with the client. Next ethical issue is the competence. Psychologists should get the adequate training and supervision to provide the appropriate service on spirituality and religion on their psychological work. Psychologists and other mental health professionals need to be keenly aware of their areas of competence and not overstep their limits and skills. The final ethical issue that is highlighted is the concern. The psychologists should concern for the welfare of the people they work with in professional psychology, especially with those religious beliefs create harm to self or to others. Concern for the welfare of others always trumps other ethical issues (Plante,

Get Access