Ethics in psychological assessment.

Abstract

Dr. White was contacted by the general counsel of a manufacturing company to do a blind review of the test results of a woman who is making a disability claim against the company. He was provided with the results of her Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) by the attorney, who pointed out that the "fake bad" scale was elevated and that the profile had a high score on the F scale and low score on the K scale. Such scores indicate signs of possible exaggeration, or faking, especially in the context of litigation. The attorney lacked information about how and why the test was administered, but she asked Dr. White to write a brief report stating that the woman is very likely exaggerating her disability. The attorney also indicated that Dr. White's court testimony would not be necessaryonly the report is needed.Dr. White was experienced in forensic work. He was well aware of the attorney's obvious attempts to persuade him to state that the woman was exaggerating her disability. However, he was concerned that making such statements in the absence of additional information about the woman and the circumstances of testing would be overreaching and knowingly doing something with the test results that would be deceptive to the court. He informed the attorney of his reservations and withdrew from the case.

Ethical foundations of psychology.

“…Although several books (e.g., Diener & Crandall, 1978 ;Kimmel, 1988Kimmel, , 1996Reynolds, 1979Reynolds, , 1982Sieber, 1992 ) set forth accounts of a ethics of psychological research, these accounts pay insuffi cient attention to philosophical foundations and discussion of how ethical theory is related to issues of, say, deception. Similar remarks apply to works on the ethics of psychotherapy (e.g., Corey, Schneider Corey & Callanan, 2003 ;Cottone & Tarvydas, 2007 ;Koocher & Keith-Spiegel, 2008 ; for exceptions, see Ford, 2006 ;Knapp & VandeCreek, 2006 ) and discussions of the Ethics Code ( Canter, Bennett, Jones, & Nagy, 1994 ;Nagy, 2000 ).…”

Three cases of narcissistic personality disorder through the lens of the DSM-5 alternative model for personality disorders.

“…Before concluding, we want to remind practitioners that the AMPD should not be used “off the shelf” with no preparation. As with all assessment methods and treatments, the ethics of practice require establishing competence in the procedures employed (Magnavita, Levy, Critchfield, & Lebow, 2010; Nagy, 2011). Thus interested practitioners should consult the available training resources, clinical literature, and empirical literature reviewed here.…”

Informed consent revisited: An updated written question format.

“…As we look back on the past 15 years of developments in the field of psychotherapy, which issues have increased sufficiently in prominence or importance to merit inclusion in a revision of Handelsman and Galvin's (1988) list of questions? Or, to put this question in the context of the ethical concept of universalizability (Handelsman, 2001; Nagy, 2000): If we (or our loved ones) were clients, what topics would we want to be included in the process of informed consent to modern psychotherapy? Certainly, as discussed above, managed care qualifies as such an issue.…”