Ethics within psychology

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What role do ethics play in the field of psychology? Do you believe that there is a difference between an individual's personal ethics and their professional ethics?

Ethics plays a huge role in the profession of psychological sciences and all its varied aspects: therapy, counseling and psychological interventions/evaluation and diagnostics which mental health practitioners, psychologists and psychiatrists do on a regular basis, the importance of developing a personal sense of ethical professional values is imperative. Personal values of integrity, honesty and truthfulness and professional ethics which should become personal, as well include beneficence, minimum harm and personal autonomy of the patients and the clients. Personal values and ground rules can be an over arching structure of parameters which a professional will implement and practice by, to have a stable and predictable practice, where both the colleagues and the clients as well as their care givers can feel confidence in the credibility of the psychologist.

The decision making processes now a days have become quite eclectic and for a while new professionals first work in a clinical team setting, where they gain training and learn in a collaborative and team work environment to gain insight into what might work best in their professional field or the specific type of psychological treatment which they are trained to deliver to their patients.

Various professional organizations, such as American Psychological Society (APS) and American Psychological Association (APA) as well as American Psychiatric Association (APA) and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) here in the US, have developed professional ethics documents to govern the practice of psychological clinical and educational settings, where psychologists follow these guidelines and benchmarks to offer their intervention ...