Principle A: Beneficence and Non-maleficence Psychologists should always do good when conducting their work. They can achieve this by treating humans and animals in a humane way and maintaining their welfare. It is also important to increase knowledge and improve the lives of individuals and society (Fisher p. 25). It is just as important to avoid harm. This includes privacy, maintaining competence, not exploiting participants, and ending research or therapy when it becomes clear that an individual is going to be harmed (Fisher p. 25). Causing harm to patients and clients should always be avoided. The ends do not justify the means when it comes to harming people, whether it be psychically or emotionally, especially …show more content…
If deception is permitted the psychologist needs to inform the child of the truth and reason for deception as soon as possible. There may be a loss of trust that will affect future studies and the psychologist needs to do his or her best to re-establish trust with the child (Ethical Principles). The psychologist needs to inform the parent or legal guardian of the deception and its purpose prior to use. Deceiving the parent or legal guardian is not acceptable. Lying to parents or a legal guardian inhibits their ability to decide to allow or stop the study. Parents or legal guardians always have the final say in these decisions and must be respected. If parents are deceived this can lead to legal and professional sanctions for the researcher or …show more content…
Before conducting a study you must get informed consent from all persons participating in the study. Children are unable to give consent, so you must get consent from their parents or legal guardian. Not getting consent from the proper people is not only unethical, but it is also illegal. Children can be easily manipulated and taken advantage of by others, so parents or legal guardians must be informed before the study begins and during every step in the process. While conducting research it is important to be culturally competent and respectful of differences (Fisher p.27-28). You will not get proper data if the participants feel like they are being discriminated against. This also makes the psychologist and the entire profession look bad and causes harm to the participant. If the psychologist believes that it is in the best interest of the child to receive a treatment that the parent or legal guardian refuses to consent to, this can lead to an ethical dilemma. The psychologist can stress the issue and try to inform the parent or legal guardian but if the consent is not obtained the treatment cannot happen. If the psychologist believes that not receiving the treatment is detrimental to the child the psychologist can take legal action. This only works if the determent is considered abuse or neglect. This becomes an issue of child endangerment and is left up to the