Subjective perception of ethical codes by practicing psychologists

Abstract

Introduction. Despite being the most important aspect of psychological practice, psychological ethics remains an understudied empirical field. This is accompanied by repeated attempts to introduce a ‘law on psychology’ or a comprehensive ethical code. These attempts are motivated by the presumption that a codified set of rules can, in itself, resolve the ethical challenges within practical psychology. However, it remains unclear how such formal ethical norms are perceived by psychologists themselves. This article presents a study investigating psychologists’ subjective perceptions of ethical norms. Aims: this study examines the representations of ethical norms and rules among practicing psychologists. Materials and methods. The final sample comprised 82 participants, drawn from an initial pool of 89 (seven participants were excluded from data analysis). Recruitment was conducted on social media using snowball sampling, whereby the research was initially announced by the authors and subsequently promoted by the participants. The study design was inspired by the methodology of a personalized semantic differential. The data were analyzed with factor analysis.
Results. The study demonstrated that practicing psychologists classify ethical norms as serving either the good of the community or the good of the client. A general conclusion can be drawn that norms of external ethics are mediated by the specialist’s internal ethics. Conclusion. The internal representation of ethical rules can be divided into two poles: the good of the client and the good of society / the psychological community. The results demonstrate that psychologists’ behavior is not directly influenced by the "written rules" themselves, but by the psychologists’ personal attitude toward them. This suggests the presence of an internal attitude that mediates the perception of codes.