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Ethics in Psychology
© 2013 Argosy University
Case Study
James is a community counseling student who is inte
rning with the College Counseling Center at the
local university. James is a 25 year-old Caucasian
male, who attended a private high school in a small
rural town. In terms of being a counselor, James ad
mits that one of his challenges is that he has not
experienced much diversity in his relationships. He
states that this is not a significant issue becaus
e he
plans on opening a private practice in his hometown
as soon as he graduates. Since he “knows the town”
he doesn’t feel that this is a big deal. Also, in t
erms of finding clients, James states that
he is sure he will
be able to get referrals because his father works f
or the town newspaper and will run an ad as soon as
he
moves home.
James admits he has no clinical experience but is p
leased, upon arriving at his internship site, to se
e that
his ex-girlfriend is going to be his assigned clini
cal supervisor. Since they have not seen each other
in
years, James figures that meeting once a week will
give them a good opportunity to catch up on “old
times”. James also figures that
she could continue to supervise him in private prac
tice until he receives his
license. James is relieved because he knows she won
’t mind, since he will be graduating in nine months
,
if he puts her credential, Licensed Professional Co
unselor, after his name since she is supervising hi
m.
After discussing private practice, James asks his e
x-girlfriend if he can begin to see clients right a
way
because he is anxious to get experience and begin w
orking on his practice. Since she figured he would
be
a pretty good counselor, she agreed and paired him
up with Lisa, a 21 year-old Latina female.
During the first session, James was running late an
d was unable to fully cover all of the intake
documents with Lisa. He put them aside and said, “W
e don’t really need to
review these. It is just
paperwork required by the Center. Please sign here.
” As the counseling session continued, James
thought he might have recognized symptoms associate
d with depression including decreased motivation,
loss of appetite and overall dissatisfaction. He th
ought about bringing these up with his supervisor b
ut
forgot once he left the session.
James continued to meet with Lisa. The first few se
ssions focused mainly on her recent break-up with h
er
boyfriend and the resulting academic difficulties.
She was very concerned that her career dream of
becoming a lawyer may be in jeopardy.
In the third session, Lisa casually mentioned that
she began to experience depressive symptoms as a
child when her mother’s partner began to physically
abuse her at the age of 5½ years. Lisa told her
mother about the abuse, but she did not intervene.
Shortly after the physical abuse began, the man
began to also sexually abuse her. Once again, Lisa
reported this to her mother and also to a teacher a
t
her school, but nothing was ever done. Lisa reporte
d that when she was 7, she placed an unknown
prescription medication of her mother’s into this m
an’s alcoholic drink. Later that same day, the man
experienced a stroke and was rushed to the hospital
where he later died. Lisa also reported learning t
hat
her mother’s partner’s stroke and subsequent death
were related to the combination of prescription
medication and alcohol. The client has never told a
nyone other than James that she had placed
medication in this man’s drink.

 

 

• Describe the nature and all dimensions of the three ethical issues.
• Identify the ethical code numbers and definitions of each issue presented using both the APA and ACA codes.
• Discuss alternative courses of action that could be taken by the counselor to rectify each dilemma.
• Describe the implications of each alternative action; lay out the limitations and advantages of each alternative considered.
• Choose one course of action and provide a justification for this selection.
• Describe the ethical decision-making model (from your course materials) you used throughout the process to arrive at a final decision (i.e., Forrester-Miller and Davis). Make sure you outline each step.

 

 

 

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