Finding out about ethics: What sources of information do Australian psychologists find useful?

Abstract

In 1999 a national survey of 2100 members of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) was undertaken to investigate Australian psychologists' ethical beliefs and behaviours. As part of this survey, participants were asked to rate the usefulness of various sources of ethics information. Approximately 600 respondents answered this section of the survey, indicating that Australian psychologists consider a range of sources of information about ethics useful and favour discussions with colleagues. Results are discussed in relation to findings from overseas surveys that have also addressed this issue, and several recommendations are made about future ethics education.

Notes

1 While this paper was under review the APS National Office psychologist presented a series of ethics seminars in 2004. To some extent such seminars may have served to promote awareness of APS ethics advisory mechanisms. Another relevant change has been the introduction of the APS Matters fortnightly e-mail alerting service. This service has periodically highlighted ethical issues.