Southern Utah University

Course Syllabus

Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2025

Ethics, Law, and Professional Practices (Face-to-Face)

PSY 6100-01

Course: PSY 6100-01
Credits: 3
Term: Fall Semester 2025
Department: PSY
CRN: 32984

Course Description

Clinical psychology is an exciting, multifaceted, and rewarding field; however, the nature of our work introduces ethical challenges. Ethics, Law, and Professional Practices, prepares doctoral students with introductory knowledge of foundational ethical principles and legal statutes. Unlike content that can be learned and retained in a static manner, psychologists must develop fluency with ethical standards so that they can be applied into daily practice. This course lays the foundation for that process to continue throughout doctoral training. In this course, students will learn to identify and apply relevant APA ethical codes and legal standards. Students will utilize critical thinking skills to analyze realistic hypothetical situations that pose ethical conflicts. Issues related to cultural competency and diversity will be discussed. Students will also be introduced to a model of ethical reasoning and encouraged to apply this model throughout their professional development. This course helps prepare students for clinical training experiences such as practicum. This course contributes to Profession Wide Competencies of Ethical and Legal Standards, Individual and Cultural Diversity, Professional Values and Attitudes, Communication and Interpersonal Skills, and Consultation and Interprofessional Skills. This course also contributes to Discipline Specific Knowledge of Cognitive Aspects of Behavior, Social Aspects of behavior, and Advanced Integrative Knowledge in Scientific Psychology. (Fall) [Graded (Standard Letter)] Registration Restriction(s): PsyD students only

Required Texts

Pope, K. S. & Vasquez, M. J. T., Chavez-Dueńas, N.Y., Adames, H.Y. (2021). Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Practical Guide, 6th ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct: American Psychological Association (Available online)

The Allegory of the Cave: Plato (Available online)

Selected readings from the Utah Administrative Code (Available online)


Learning Outcomes


During this course you will gain competence in the following areas:
  1. Understand the APA Ethical Codes relevant to the professional practice of psychology.
  2. Synthesize the literature reviewed in the course and demonstrate understanding of concepts related to professional ethics.
  3. Identify relevant ethical standards and legal statutes that apply to specific ethical scenarios.
  4. Demonstrate critical thinking related to resolving ethical dilemmas including being able to reason from multiple perspectives.
  5. Engage in professional communication with peers to discuss ethical decision-making processes.
  6. Develop self-awareness of your personal ethical beliefs and identify your individual strengths and weaknesses related to ethical practice in professional psychology.
  7. Identify how diversity factors intersect with ethical practices in psychology.

Course Requirements

Course Participation: 65 points

Purpose: This assignment helps students practice self-awareness, individual and cultural diversity factors that influence their critical thinking skills, as well as discovering areas of perspective bias. In order to be an ethical psychologist one needs to engage in deep introspection in which they come to understand their own morality and how it intersects with the ethical standards of the field. 

Process: Each student will keep a journal about their own personal insights, morals, and the intersection with ethics. Students will write an entry before each class. Entries must be hand written. Because this will be highly personal, and not ethical to require students to share this deeply personal information with the instructor, these will be graded on a participatory basis. To grade these, the students will simply show the instructor the journal at the beginning of class to demonstrate that they have written an entry before class begins. Each journal entry is worth 5 points.    

Ethics Vignette Presentation: 20 points

Purpose: This assignment will help increase your professional skills. This activity will require students to apply objective knowledge using critical thinking skills as they relate to professional practice. They will also help students engage in introspection and help prepare them for engaging in ethical decision making in their careers.   

Process: Each student will present an ethical dilemma for the class to discuss. Each student is required to find an ethical violation that a mental health professional engaged in. These are available on the state’s website. After presenting the ethical violation the student will need to lead a discussion that covers the following:
What general principles were violated?
Which specific standards were violated?
How does this intersect with your personal views of morality?
How could a person find themselves in this situation? 
How can a person avoid the situation in the first place?
The day you will present was randomly assigned and is posted in the syllabus. 

Ethical Dilemma Analysis
60 points

Purpose: This task requires students to apply knowledge of ethical standards and reason through realistic scenarios faced by psychologists. This task requires a blend of objective knowledge, critical thinking skills, individual and cultural diversity factors, and self-reflection. This assignment helps prepare students for professional experiences that include clinical responsibilities and adherence to ethical standards and relevant legal codes. This assignment also serves as a summative assessment of ethical knowledge and reasoning. This assignment provides a learning opportunity relevant to subsequent practicum courses and pre-doctoral internship. This assignment evaluates two elements in the Profession-Wide Competency (PWC) Ethical and Legal Standards (see grading rubric). It is required that students receive a grade of B- or better on this assignment to be eligible to pass the course. If students receive a grade lower than B-, appropriate remediation options will be determined by the course instructor

Process: This is a summative assessment of your emerging ethical reasoning skills. For this assignment, you will complete a written analysis of a set of ethical dilemmas provided on Canvas. These dilemmas represent realistic scenarios that psychologists encounter when working with clients. You will respond to each ethical dilemma with a brief analysis of the issue that includes reference to the relevant APA Ethical Standards and legal statutes.  You will provide additional information, such as identifying contextual factors that may influence your ethical decision making. Lastly, you will provide a solution or potential solutions that represents the best course of action to take. 


Exams 150 points (50 points for each exam)

Purpose: The exams in the course serve as a summative assessment tool to determine if students have developed a knowledge base of ethical practice consistent with an early developmental stage of doctoral study.

Process: There will be two exams and a cumulative final. These exams will be open in the testing center for a week at a time. Exams will have two parts, one part will be an open resource portion in which students will be asked to identify specific laws, principles, and ethical standards that apply to various situations. The second portion of the exam is a multiple choice portion in which the students will demonstrate their understanding of ethics through selecting the appropriate action as required by law or ethical standards. 


Course Outline

Week One: Why ethics matter
Week Two: well-intentioned professional missteps
Week Three: Informed Consent
Week Four: Confidentiality and privilege
Week Five: Therapy: beginning and ending
Week Six: Professional boundaries
Week Seven: Competence
Week Eight: Ethics in testing
Week Nine: Ethical complaints
Week Ten: Suicide and risk
Week Eleven: Human Rights
Week Twelve: Supervision

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

Missed exams, quizzes, and journal entries cannot be made up without a university excused absence, or without approval from the instructor prior to the missed assignment. In order to gain approval from me before you miss an assignment, you need to email me as soon as you know you will be unable to attend class. If you will not be attending class due to a university excused absence or a preapproved absence arranged with the instructor, you will need to make up any missed points. 


Attendance Policy

It is expected that you will attend the course unless an emergency circumstance, illness, or university-approved absence occurs. Please contact your instructor if an unanticipated event occurs and you are unable to attend class. Students are expected to arrive on-time and prepared to discuss the assigned readings. 

Course Fees

$12

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.