Compare and contrast Ethical codes.

As Chapter 4 mentions, career development practitioners adhere to many ethical codes depending on their specialties and credentials. Ethical considerations are essential to the work I will be doing as a future clinical therapist, and I thought it appropriate that Brown (2012) reviews the seven ethical principles in this chapter.  She opens with a comment stating she was not going to compare and contrast ethical codes. She said to do so, would take up an entire book! However, I thought it appropriate to discuss a few of the parallels that I noticed between the APA’s ethical standards and those of the American Counseling Association.

I would say that I have a fairly good understanding of what the American Psychological Association will expect of me as a future clinician, after have taken Dr. Haferkamp’s Ethics and Professional practice course this past summer. Though, the ACA’s Ethical Principles share many similarities with the APA’s Ethical Principles, I did notice a few key differences that I thought worthy of mentioning. First, Principle 1 of the American Counseling Association states “Above All, Do No Harm” which is almost identical to the APA’s version. However, the APA includes an additional line about also “Do good.” While it is implied in the first instance, the APA’s version refers to it as “Beneficence Non Maleficence.”  Both the APA and ACA do use this as their first, and chief principle. However, the APA also includes a piece about how “Psychologists should strive to be aware of their own physical and mental health on their ability to help those with whom they work.” The ACA includes this, in their second principle of “Be competent.”

            Another comparison that I noticed was that the APA incudes a principle about integrity and the standard to promote honesty and truthfulness in all areas of their work and professional lives. While Principle 5 of the ACA touches upon this with their standard of “Make Accurate Public Statements,” I feel the APA did well to include this, because it talks more about how psychologists (broadly) should not steal, cheat, or engage in fraud, subterfuge or intentional misrepresentation of fact. They encompassed all forms of being accurate in the public domain and not just in the advertising sense about credentials at the ACA did. Collectively, both the ACA and the APA did well in creating principles that are easily interpretable and understand, which is the most important. While they may be a little different, their efforts are in the same, which is advocating for clients and serving them the best way possible.

References:

American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American psychologist, 57(12), 1060-1073.

Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10th ed., p. 14). Boston: Pearson.