Perception of Ethical Misconduct by Neuropsychology Professionals in Latin America

Abstract

To date, extremely limited research has focused on the ethical aspects of clinical neuropsychology practice in Latin America. The current study aimed to identify the frequency of perceived ethical misconduct in a sample of 465 self-identified neuropsychology professionals from Latin America in order to better guide policies for training and begin to establish standards for practitioners in the region. Frequencies of neuropsychologists who knew another professional engaging in ethical misconduct ranged from 1.1% to 60.4% in the areas of research, clinical care, training, and professional relationships. The most frequently reported perceived misconduct was in the domain of professional training and expertise, with nearly two thirds of participants knowing other professionals who do not possess adequate training to be working as neuropsychologists. The least frequently reported perceived misconduct was in the domain of professional relationships. Nearly one third of participants indicated that they had never received formal training in professional ethics.

Profession of neuropsychology in Latin America

“…Bilingual researchers translated the items, back-translated into Spanish, and any discrepancies were resolved mutually. For the present study the section in ethics was excluded from the analysis, since those results can be found in another article (Panyavin, Goldberg-Looney, Rivera, Perrin, & Arango-Lasprilla, 2015).…”