Ethics in Psychological

Testing
11 November 2015
 Certification and Licensure
• Certification – a professional
credential based on meeting specific
training objectives and passing a
certification exam – and licensure.

• Psychometricians
• Psychologists
 Ethical Standards
• Ethics
– Refers to issues or practices that
influence the decision–making process
in terms of “doing the right thing”
• American Psychological Association
– have a set of professional practice
guidelines or codes known as ethical
standards.
 Ethical Standards
• Ethical dilemmas
– Problems for which there are no clear or agreed-on-
moral solutions

• Consult with a colleague and others for

additional assistance
• Document steps you took and state reasoning
behind these decisions.
• Aspire to the general principles in the code of
conduct
• Refer when objectivity is jeopardized
 American Psychological Association

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGISTS AND CODE OF

CONDUCT (2017)
 Five General Principles
• General Principles, as opposed to
Ethical Standards, are aspiration al in
nature. Their intent is to guide and
inspire psychologists toward the very
highest ethical ideals of the
profession.
 Five General Principles
• Principle A-Beneficence and
Nonmaleficence
• Principle B – Fidelity and
Responsibility
• Principle C – Integrity
• Principle D – Justice
• Principle E – Respect for People’s
Rights and Dignity
 Beneficence
• Doing good for others and for society
• Promoting wellbeing of clients.
 Nonmaleficence
• Avoiding harm, which includes
refraining from actions that risk
hurting clients.
 Fidelity
• Means that professionals make
realistic commitments and keep
these promises.
 Integrity
• Psychologists seek to promote
accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness
in the science, teaching, and
practice.
 Justice
• Fairness
• Everyone is entitled to equal access
to mental health services.
 Justice
• Fairness
• Everyone is entitled to equal access
to mental health services.
 Respect for People’s Right and
Dignity/ Autonomy
• Promotion of self-determination
• Freedom of clients to be self-
governing within their social and
cultural framework
 Psychological Association of the Philippines
COMMITTEE ON ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS (2022)

CODE OF ETHICS FOR PHILIPPINE PSYCHOLOGISTS AND

PSYCHOMETRICIANS
 Declaration of Principles
• Psychology practitioners in the Philippines
adhere to the following Universal
Declaration of Ethical Principles for
Psychologists that was adopted
unanimously by the General Assembly of
the International Union of Psychological
Science in Berlin on July 22, 2008 and by
the Board of Directors of the International
Association of Applied Psychology in Berlin
on July 26, 2008.
PRINCIPLE I: Respect for the Dignity
of Persons and Peoples
• Responsibilities include contributing
to the knowledge about human
behavior and to persons’s
understanding of themselves and
others.
PRINCIPLE I: Respect for the Dignity
of Persons and Peoples
a) respect for the unique worth and inherent
dignity of all human beings;
b) respect for the diversity among persons and
peoples (including those from indigenous
communities);
c) respect for the customs and beliefs of
cultures, to be limited only when a custom
or a belief seriously contravenes the
principle of respect for the dignity of persons
or peoples or causes serious harm to their
well-being;
PRINCIPLE I: Respect for the Dignity
of Persons and Peoples
g) fairness and justice in the treatment
of persons and peoples; and
h) respect for the environment, which
ultimately ensures a safe haven for a
dignified human existence.
 PRINCIPLE II: Competent Caring for
the Well-Being of Persons and Peoples

• Involves working for the benefit of

people and doing NO harm.
• Includes maximizing benefits ,
minimizing potential harm, and
offsetting or correcting harm.
 PRINCIPLE II: Competent Caring for
the Well-Being of Persons and Peoples
a) active concern for the well-being of
individuals, families, groups, and communities
in the delivery of psychological services,
whether face-to-face or via online platforms;
b) taking care to do no harm to individuals,
families, groups, and communities;
c) maximizing benefits and minimizing potential
harm to individuals, families, groups, and
communities;
d) correcting or offsetting harmful effects that
have occurred as a result of their activities;
e) developing and maintaining competence;
f) self-knowledge regarding how their own
values, attitudes, experiences, and social
contexts influence their actions,
interpretations, choices, and
recommendations; and
g) respect for the ability of individuals,
families, groups, and communities to make
decisions for themselves and to care for
themselves and each other.
 PRINCIPLE III:Integrity
• Based on honesty, and on truthful,
open and accurate information
• Includes recognizing, monitoring, and
managing potential biases, multiple
relationships, and other conflicts of
interest that could result in harm and
exploitation of persons or peoples.
 PRINCIPLE III:Integrity
a) honest, truthful and prudent, open and
accurate communications;
b) avoiding incomplete disclosure of
information unless complete disclosure is
culturally inappropriate, or violates
confidentiality, or carries the potential to
do serious harm to individuals, families,
groups, or communities;
c) maximizing impartiality and minimizing
biases;
d) not exploiting persons or peoples for
personal, professional, or financial
gain; and
e) avoiding conflicts of interest and
declaring them when they cannot be
avoided or are inappropriate to avoid.
 PRINCIPLE IV: Professional and
Scientific Responsibilities to Society

Responsibilities include contributing to

the knowledge about human behavior
and to person’s understanding of
themselves and others.
 PRINCIPLE IV: Professional and
Scientific Responsibilities to Society

a) the discipline’s responsibility to increase

scientific and professional knowledge in ways
that allow the promotion of the well-being of
society and all its members;
b) the discipline’s responsibility to use
psychological knowledge for beneficial purposes
and to protect such knowledge from being
misused, used incompetently, or made useless;
c) the discipline’s responsibility to conduct its
affairs in ways that are ethical and consistent
with the promotion of the well-being of society
and all its members;
d) the discipline’s responsibility to promote the
highest ethical ideals in the scientific,
professional, and educational activities of its
members;
e) the discipline’s responsibility to adequately
train and supervise its members in their ethical
responsibilities and required competencies;
and
f) the discipline’s responsibility to develop its
ethical awareness and sensitivity, and to be as
self correcting as possible.
 General Ethical Standards and
Procedures
• I. how we resolve ethical issues in
our professional lives and
communities;
• II. how we adhere to the highest
standards of professional
competence;
• III. how we respect for the rights and
dignity of our supervisees (i.e.,
clients, peers, and students)
 General Ethical Standards and
Procedures
• IV. how we maintain confidentiality in
the important aspects of our
professional and scholarly functions;
• V. how we ensure truthfulness and
accuracy in all our public statement;
and
• VI. how we observe professionalism
in our records and fees.
 Common Ethical Issues
• Confidentiality
• Informed Consent
• Choice and Use of Psychological Tests
• Release of Results
 Bases for Assessment
1. The expert opinions we provide
through our recommendations,
reports, and diagnostic or evaluative
statements are based on substantial
information and appropriate
assessment techniques.
 Bases for Assessment
2. We provide expert opinions
regarding the psychological
characteristics of a person only after
employing adequate assessment
procedures and examinations to
support our conclusions and
recommendations.
 Bases for Assessment
3. In instances where we are asked to
provide opinions about an individual
without examining on the basis of a
review of existing test results and
reports, we discuss the limitations of
our opinions and the basis of our
conclusions and recommendations.
 Informed Consent
1. We gather informed consent prior to the
assessment of our clients except for the
following instances:
a. When it is mandated by the law
b. When it is implied such as in routine
educational, institutional and
organizational activity
c. When the purpose of assessment is to
determine the individual decisional
capacity.
 Informed Consent
2. We educate our clients about the
nature of our services, financial
arrangements, potential risks, and
limits of confidentiality. In instances
where our clients are not competent to
provide, we discuss these matters with
immediate family members or legal
guardians.
Inclusivity for the Vulnerable
• People with Physical or Mental
Challenges
• People with Learning Disabilities
• People from Multicultural
Backgrounds
Test takers with Physical or Mental
Challenges
• Sensory impairments
– Deafness or blindness
• Motor impairments
– Paralysis and missing limbs
• Cognitive impairments
– Intellectual disability, learning
disabilities and traumatic brain injuries
• For diagnostic and intervention
purposes, test users should not rely
on test scores alone
 Test takers with Learning
Disabilities
• A difficulty in any aspect of learning
• Are disorders that affect the ability to
understand or use spoken or written
language, do mathematical
calculations, coordinate movements,
or direct attention.
• Reading disability (dyslexia)
• Dyscalculia
• Dysgraphia
• Information-processing disorders
• Language-related learning disabilities
• Instructors
• Self-declare
 Test takers from Multicultural
Backgrounds
• Who belong to various minority groups
based on race, cultural or ethnic
origin, sexual orientation, family unit,
primary language, and so on.
• When test takers differ from the
original test takers that the test
developer used to develop the test,
scores can differ significantly from the
majority of test takers