Ethical Decision Making - Eppp Knowledge

1. What is the best step when cultural factors may affect how an ethical issue is understood?

   Incorporate cultural context and seek culturally informed consultation. Incorporating culture ensures culturally sensitive decisions, with consultation providing expertise to avoid ethnocentric biases in ethics.

2. Which step comes immediately after defining the ethical problem in most models?

   Gather relevant facts and contextual information. Gathering facts ensures a comprehensive understanding of the situation, reducing ambiguity and informing accurate application of ethical standards.

3. Which action best reflects risk management within a structured ethical decision-making model?

   Prefer the option that reduces foreseeable harm while meeting obligations. Prioritizing harm reduction while fulfilling duties integrates nonmaleficence and fidelity, central to ethical risk management strategies.

4. Which resources should be consulted to identify applicable professional standards in a dilemma?

   Ethics code, laws/regulations, and institutional policies. These resources provide authoritative guidance on standards, ensuring decisions are aligned with professional, legal, and organizational expectations.

5. What should you do to protect confidentiality when seeking professional consultation?

   Disclose the minimum necessary information, de-identify when possible. Minimizing disclosure upholds ethical obligations to confidentiality, allowing necessary consultation without breaching client privacy.

6. What is the central task in the "generate alternatives" step of an ethical model?

   List feasible courses of action, including doing nothing. Listing all options, including inaction, promotes comprehensive consideration and adherence to systematic ethical problem-solving.

7. Which analysis step explicitly compares risks and benefits for each possible action?

   Evaluate consequences of each alternative. This step systematically weighs potential impacts, ensuring the chosen action maximizes benefits and minimizes harm per ethical principles.

8. What is the primary purpose of a structured ethical decision-making model in psychology?

   To make defensible, systematic decisions in ethical dilemmas. Structured models provide a systematic framework to ensure decisions are justifiable, consistent, and aligned with professional standards in complex situations.

9. What is the first step in most structured ethical decision-making models?

   Identify and clearly define the ethical problem. Defining the problem establishes a clear foundation, distinguishing ethical issues from legal or practical ones to guide subsequent steps effectively.

10. What is the meaning of "least restrictive alternative" in ethical decision-making?

    Choose the option that meets goals while minimizing intrusion on rights. It prioritizes options that achieve objectives with the least interference in individuals' rights, aligning with beneficence and nonmaleficence.

11. What is the "publicity test" used for in ethical decision-making models?

    Assess whether you could justify the decision publicly and professionally. The publicity test evaluates defensibility by considering public scrutiny, promoting transparency and accountability in ethical choices.

12. Which option is the best next step when personal values may bias your ethical judgment?

    Acknowledge the bias risk and seek consultation and objective standards. Acknowledging bias and seeking external input maintains objectivity, aligning with ethical requirements for impartial professional judgment.

13. What is the final step in most ethical decision-making models after implementation?

    Evaluate outcomes and revise future practice as needed. Evaluation assesses effectiveness and informs improvements, fostering ongoing ethical competence and refinement of professional judgment.

14. Which step of a structured ethical model explicitly requires choosing and carrying out a plan?

    Implement the selected course of action. Implementation translates analysis into practice, ensuring the decision is enacted effectively to resolve the ethical issue.

15. What is the "justice" or "fairness" test used for in ethical decision-making models?

    Check whether the decision treats parties equitably and without bias. The justice test promotes equity by examining fairness and bias, aligning with ethical mandates for impartial treatment in decisions.

16. What is the best action when two ethical principles conflict and both are relevant?

    Balance principles using facts, standards, and foreseeable consequences. Balancing requires integrating evidence and principles to resolve conflicts, ensuring decisions are principled and contextually appropriate.

17. What is the "universality test" used for in ethical decision-making models?

    Ask whether the decision should be applied consistently in similar cases. The universality test ensures consistency and impartiality, verifying if the decision sets a precedent applicable across comparable situations.

18. What is the key distinction between an ethical dilemma and an ethical violation?

    Dilemma: competing duties; violation: clear breach of a standard. Dilemmas involve conflicts requiring balancing, while violations are unambiguous infractions that demand corrective action per ethical codes.

19. Identify the best immediate step if you have a potential multiple-relationship boundary concern.

    Assess role conflicts and risk of harm, then consider alternatives/consult. Assessing conflicts and risks first identifies issues, followed by alternatives and consultation to ensure ethical boundary management.

20. What should you do first when you suspect an issue is primarily legal rather than ethical?

    Consult applicable laws and regulations before choosing actions. Legal issues take precedence to ensure compliance and avoid violations, as ethics codes often require adherence to laws before ethical considerations.

21. What should be documented to make an ethical decision defensible if later reviewed?

    Facts, standards consulted, options, rationale, consultation, actions, outcomes. Comprehensive documentation demonstrates systematic reasoning and accountability, essential for defending decisions in reviews or challenges.

22. What is the best next step if the facts are ambiguous and the ethical classification is unclear?

    Seek additional information and clarify assumptions. Clarifying facts and assumptions prevents misclassification and supports accurate progression through the decision-making model's subsequent steps.

23. Which option best reflects the "consultation" step in ethical decision-making models?

    Obtain input from a qualified colleague or ethics/legal expert. Consultation offers objective perspectives and expertise, helping to identify blind spots and ensure decisions align with ethical standards.

24. Which principle is most directly captured by selecting the least restrictive alternative?

    Respect for autonomy. Selecting least restrictive options honors individuals' self-determination, a core ethical principle in psychological practice.

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