Code Of Ethics

Code Of Ethics

Code of Ethics
A code of ethics is something that most organizations have, especially any branch on the healthcare industry.   The American Psychological Association (APA) has a code of ethics which only applies to psychologists and the preamble and general principles are aspirational goals to guide psychologist towards the highest ideals of psychology (APA, 2010).   This is the principles and ethical standards that are expected from anyone that is working towards becoming a psychologist or currently a graduate that is seeing patients and giving psychological advice. A psychologist is to be fair, ethical, non judgmental, and clearly be able to respect the rights of all human beings.
The APA code of ethics consists of an introduction, a preamble, five general principles, and specific ethical standards (APA, 2010). The five general principles are the are used to guide and inspire the psychologist to move towards the highest ethical ideas in the profession in which to work by; there are ten different ethical standards which are broken down within each topic. These ethical standards are what promote the values that should be instilled and encourage ethical behavior. These topics that are broken down give a more detailed view of issues that may arise and how to ethically deal with them. They are not always easily enforceable and also are sometimes subject to interpretation.   The five general principles are beneficence and nonmaleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, and respect for people’s rights and dignity (APA, 2010).
The goals of the code of ethics are very clear in that they give guidelines as to how the psychologist should take action against any type of issue that may arise. They are geared to keep the psychologist out of situations that may arise during the time frame in which you are treating the patient as well as times when you are evaluating whether you should take a patient under your care. There are clear details on where to keep...