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.