Apa Ethical Principles

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Every profession has its code of ethics that guides the conduct of the professionals. In the U.S., psychologists use the APA ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. The paper summarizes the essential features of this law and provides insight of under emphasized provisions in the code. The paper then recommends revisions for these areas. The paper also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a professional code of ethics. It also analyzes the provisions that a psychologist may have a difficulty in applying as they cause moral conflicts. The paper concludes by assessing methods that the professional can use to solve these conflicts with his employers, professional colleagues, and clients. Summary of the APA Code of Ethics The code of ethics is into two parts. The first part contains five principles that serve as aspirational goals to guide psychologists. The first principle is on beneficence and nonmaleficence. Psychologists are required to work to benefit their clients and to safeguard the rights of the people they interact with professionally (American Psychological Association, 2002). The second principle is on fidelity and responsibility. Psychologists are required to exercise responsibility towards the society and in the process, they should manage any conflicts of interest…show more content…
There are, therefore, no unimportant standards that the code has overemphasized. However, it has underemphasized on the provision of group and family therapy. The section merely states that psychologists are to describe the responsibilities and limit of confidentiality to all parties to the therapy (APA, 2002, p.14). The code needs to be more specific on the scope of privacy to promote the standardization of the profession in the area of group and family therapy. The code should also provide exhaustive information on this standard as it is too

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