The Importance of Making Unethical Decisions

Unethical decisions would be those that are classified as failings that comply with moral principles when planning and how to move forward with a situation. Each person is different, which means each person will plan differently; this means that many people when planning may make a decision that goes against their moral values. Often, a person makes an unethical decision without even knowing that they are doing so. When not being aware of the decisions you are making you are more easily susceptible to your ethics fading or becoming illusions, being blind to consequences, or even looking for rewards of your actions.

For example, a parent may be against violence but if another man were to harm their child in a fit of rage the parent’s anger may override their thoughts and the parent may use violence.

There are multiple ethical drawbacks that professionals in the psychology field have come across; these can be because of being misinformed while other situations are because of one’s morals are distant at that time.

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In the professional world, it is more important than ever to constantly avoid the dangers and their outcomes that would inevitably affect their career and status; this would not only affect the professional, but it would also affect their patients. The practicing field that I am interested in is Child Development, many are not equipped or competent enough to practice in this field. This field is extremely difficult to be equipped for because children and their minds are continuously growing and changing, because of this there are new disorders, technology advances, and techniques on how to treat the children, even so competency should always remain constant.

Competence is defined as the ability to do something successfully and efficiently.

As a professional in the psychology field it may be difficult to follow or keep up with new technology, techniques, and research because in the child development field it is changing constantly, but if you do not keep up with change you will become incompetent. There are two types of competence; intellectual competence and emotional competence. According to Koocher and Keith-Spiegel, intellectual competence is the acquisition of knowledge based on empirical research, can also refer to the general ability to assess, conceptualize, and plan appropriate treatment options.

Being intellectually competent means knowing your field and being able adapt to change within your field. If you are not intellectually competent, which is an unethical decision because you are not doing your best work as a doctor to help your patients, then you are preventing them from getting the proper treatment that they need. Emotional competence on the other hand is the therapists’ ability to emotionally contain and tolerate the clinical material that emerges (Koocher, 2008). Being emotionally competent when working with children is critical, society has a strong belief that children should not experience pain emotionally or physically because they are too innocent. Due to this strong belief in society, when counseling a child, it is troublesome to them when they are not emotionally competen. Professionals in the mental health field would be strongly susceptible to making unethical decisions when treating a child because they may not have read or seen any new research, techniques or technology on new and/or proper treatments. Unethical decisions could also, be made by the professional because they themselves would let their own emotions get in the way of treating a child.

Bersoff (1973) and Erickson-Cornish (2014) both speak about the ethical concerns of incompetence in the education field and the lack of supervision. Unfortunately, being a mental health professional in the school system you do not always have the highest qualifications and may not keep up with all the new information and technology because you simply do not need it. Bersoff reports on the concern of the lack of supervision on the mental health professionals within the school system. If a school counselor is not properly supervised, trained or up to date on new technology and research then this can lead to poor guidance.

One way to avoid incompetence is for school officials to make sure that the mental health professionals are highly qualified in their work and that the school is making sure that there are not unwanted incidents being performed, leading to ethical misconduct. Much like Bersoff, Erickson-Cornish reports on the lack of supervision and underqualified mental health professionals. This study suggested that professional psychology would benefit by educating, supervising, and training psychology professionals to become ethically competent over the course of their careers (Erickson-Cornish, 2014). Making sure that professionals are properly educated, trained and kept accountable for their actions forces them to be competent. This can be reached by setting specific licensure programs, college programs and continued training after you have gotten your license.

In conclusion, unethical decision making, and incompetence are linked together. There is a crucial indication in today’s world, especially child development psychology. This field you must deal with children’s emotions, or lack thereof, as it refers to their level of education. Sanctioning strict standards from state to state could also be effective in weakening the astonishing bulk of present concerns. In doing so, local schools and school districts would have to enforce these parameters for competency guidelines to make this change as effective as possible.

References

1. Koocher, G.P. & Keith-Spiegel, P. (2008).Ethics in Psychology and the Mental Health Professions: Standards and Cases (3rde d.). New York: Oxford University Press. Reviewed by Eric K. Willmarth, PhD, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, San Francisco, CA. and Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. (2009). American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 52(1), 74-75. doi:10.1080/00029157.2009.10401695
2. Bersoff, D. N. (1973). The ethical practice of school psychology: A rebuttal and suggested model. Professional Psychology, 4(3), 305-312. doi:10.1037/h0035745
3. Erickson Cornish, J.A. (2014). Ethical issues in education and training. Training and Education In Professional Psychology, 8 (4), 197-200. DOI - 10.1037/tep0000076