Ethics in Psychology and Law: An International Perspective

Abstract

Some psychologists working in the psychology and law (psycholegal) field feel that the profession does not provide them with adequate ethical guidance even though the field is arguably one of the oldest and best established applied fields of psychology. The uncertainty psychologists experience most likely stems from working with colleagues whose professional ethics differs from their own while providing services to demanding people and the many moral questions associated with the administration of law. I believe psychology’s ethics does, however, provide adequate moral guidance. It has a sound historical basis, has face validity and emphasizes those social moral principles that allow psychologists to best serve individuals and society. Psychologists may nevertheless be confronted with conflicting demands because there are other norm systems that also regulate their behavior as researchers and practitioners, and they, like all people, are influenced by their conscience. Ultimately, psychologists working in the psycholegal field will be best served if they have good knowledge of, and have internalized, the ethical principles of psychology.

Keywords:

• ethics
• forensic
• moral
• psychology
• research

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I presented an abbreviated version of this article as president of the Psychology and Law Division of the International Association of Applied Psychology at its conference in Paris from July 8 to 13, 2014. I thank Maria Allan, Graham Davidson, Thomas Grisso, and Jim Ogloff for their helpful comments on a draft of this article, and Wei Zhong Beron Tan who acted as my research assistant.

Notes

¹ I use the term psycholegal for pragmatic reasons but acknowledge that authors use various other terms to describe the activities of psychologist engaged in law; these include correctional psychology, forensic psychology, law and psychology, legal psychology and rechtspsychologie (Van Koppen & Hessing, 1988).

² I follow the example of most philosophers (see, e.g., Foot, 1990) and use the terms ethics and morality interchangeably.

³ I know that psychology is strictly speaking both a discipline and a profession, but for the sake of brevity I use the two terms as synonyms.

⁴ See the Canadian Psychological Association’s (2000) Code of Ethics for Psychologists for a clear articulation of the social responsibility of psychologists.

⁵ I acknowledge that there are a range of other approaches to find the right answer to ethical problems or to make aspirational decisions, such as virtuous (see, e.g., Meara, Schmidt, & Day, 1996) and narrative approaches (see, e.g., Hill, 2004; Martinez, 2009). I use this deontological approach, however, because of its current dominance in psychology.

⁶ I thank Dr. Stephen Behnke for his contribution in my development of this insight.