Ethics

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You are the highest ranking (School) Psychologist in the department of education and you have become aware of an anomaly in an application that was lodged with that department for special funding for educational support for a child aged 7 years. It appears that the application was completed by relevant school personnel, but the application was supported by a report from a clinical psychologist who, it is believed, is also the child's mother. The report indicated that a battery of psychological and educational tests had been administered by the mother. The report included details of raw IQ scores. She did not indicate her relationship to her son. You are of the opinion that this represented unprofessional conduct on the part of the mother. What would you do? As the line manager of the school personnel? And particularly, as a professional colleague of the mother, another psychologist?

-- Charan Singh (csingh1234@hotmail.com), March 17, 2003

Answers

I assume you are familiar with the APA code of ethics and related documents posted at http://www.apa.org/ethics/ and referenced in the new code published in the December 2002 American Psychologist. I would begin by talking to the psychologist personally and verifying your suspicion. If you are right you could ask for retesting of the child by a non-related psychologist (for the school's decision- making purposes). If you're right there would be no doubt about a dual relationship and ethics violation, and you would be justified in filing a complaint with the ethics committee and perhaps also with the state licensing board. This does seem to be a case in which it would be appropriate to start by confronting in person rather than beginning with the formal complaint.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), March 17, 2003.

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