Abstract
Summary When psychologists are given a question by a client they have to decide if they have the necessary knowledge - and if the client's question meets legal, ethical, and professional standards. We constructed a checklist containing eight rules for the relevant decisions and investigated how well students of psychology applied those rules. Sixty-one students from two courses in psychological assessment performed two tests containing correct and incorrect client's questions. They took the first test at the beginning of the course and the second after treating the topic of client's questions; the pretest in one course was used as the posttest in the other course and vice versa. Between pretest and posttest, one session was spent discussing the solutions and reformulating incorrect questions. The students' overall performance significantly increased from 61% correct solutions in the pretest to 70% in the posttest. The increase in performance was significant for recognizing that it is illegal or unethical to work on a client's question or that a client's question is correct.
References
References
(1986). Berufsordnung für Psychologinnen und Psychologen ‘Code of conduct for psychologists’.. Bonn: Deutscher Psychologen Verlag.
(1994). Richtlinien für die Erstellung psychologischer Gutachten ‘Guidelines for psychological reports’.. Bonn: Deutscher Psychologen Verlag.
Koene, C.J. (1997). Tests and professional ethics and values in European Psychologists.. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 13, 219– 228McMinn, M.R. (1999). Ethics case-study simulation: A generic tool for psychology teachers.. In M.E. Ware & C.L. Brewer (Eds.), Handbook for teaching statistics and research methods (2nd ed., pp. 132-133). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Sawyer, J. (1966). Measurement and prediction, clinical and statistical.. Psychological Bulletin, 66, 178– 200Wegener, H.W. Steller, M. (1986). Psychologische Diagnostik vor Gericht.. Methodische und ethische Probleme forensisch-psychologischer Diagnostik ‘Psychological assessment in the courtroom: Methodological and ethical problems in forensic psychological evaluation’. Zeitschrift für Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie, 7, 103– 126Westhoff, K. Kluck , M.-L. (1998). Psychologische Gutachten schreiben und beurteilen ‘Writing and evaluating psychological expert judgments’ (3rd ed.).. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Zuschlag, B. (1992). Das Gutachten des Sachverständigen. Rechtsgrundlagen, Fragestellungen, Gliederung, Rationalisierung ‘Expert testimony. Legal foundations, problems, structuring, rationalization’.. Göttingen: Verlag für Angewandte Psychologie.
