ISPA Ethics Committee

Chair: Mary E. Stafford, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School Psychology, University of Houston Clear Lake

Committee report, January, 2006

Members: - to be determined
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Goal I: To reconstitute a multinational Ethics Committee, which has been inactive for a period of time.

Activity 1: Email selected members from a variety of member nations to see whether they will serve on this committee or recommend an ISPA member from their country who will serve on the committee.
Progress so far: None (The goal is to accomplish this activity by the end of March)

Activity 2: Select members for the committee from those willing to serve and communicate the makeup of the committee to ISPA’s Central Office.
Progress so far: None (The goal is to accomplish this activity by the end of April)

Goal II: To develop a reader consisting of a collection of cases of ethical violations with solutions that follow the ISPA Code of Ethics and can reasonably be used in a variety of countries with differing political realities.

Activity 1: Email committee members, asking them to submit cases that they know of where there was an ethical violation. Ask them to provide an ethical way that the school psychologist in their country might handle the situation.
Progress so far: None (The goal is to begin this activity after the committee is formed.)

Activity 2: Email the cases and proposed solutions to other committee members, asking for other potential solutions to the problem and asking them to attend to the political realities in their countries that might demand a modification of the solution that is proposed.
Progress so far: None (The goal is to begin this activity after the committee is formed.)

Goal III: To continue to gather ISPA Codes of Ethics that have been translated into the native languages of member nations.

Activity 1: Email members from member nations who have not submitted the ISPA Code of Ethics translated into their native language to get them to submit their translations to ISPA so they can be linked to the ISPA website or, if they haven’t translated the code into their language, to encourage them to do so.
Progress so far: None (The goal is to do to accomplish this activity before or during the colloquium next summer.)

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Ethics Committee Report - July 2002

Chair: - Mary E. Stafford
Members: - 28 members from 19 member nations (Names of former members of the committee who no longer appear on the ISPA membership list have been removed from this list.)
1. Australia: Michael Faulkner, Kate Prescott
2. Brazil: Solange Muglia Wechsler, Raquel Guzzo
3. Canada: Marvin L. Simner
4. Islas Canarias: José Tomás Bethencourt Benítez
5. People's Republic of China: Hongwu Zhou
6. Denmark: Henning W. Nielsen
7. Estonia: Külli Muug
8. France: Roséne de Saint Hilaire
9. Germany: Joachim Friedrich Pfaffe
10. Greece: Panayiotis Chinas, Sissy Hatzichristou
11. Holland: Helen E. Bakker
12. Hungary: Imre Szito
13. Iceland: Vidir Hafberg Kristinsson
14. Latvia: Malgozata Rascevska, Sarmite Voitkane
15. Lithuania: Grazina Gintiliene
16. Paraguay: José E. García
17. Russia: Irina Chaus, Nadejda Klueva
18. Sweden: Jan Backenroth
19. USA: Gearld Angerstein, Bill Brook, William Masten, Thomas Oakland, Mary E. Stafford (Chair)
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Goal I: To gather data about which countries have translated the ISPA Code of Ethics into the primary language of the respective country and about the code of ethics from each country's psychological association.

Activity 1: Communicate by email, fax, or postal mail with committee members and ask them to send copies of both their translated ISPA codes of ethics and their psychological associations' codes of ethics.

Progress so far: All members received a message asking for their ISPA codes of ethics in their native tongue and their psychological association's codes of ethics in their native tongues as well as in English. To date we have received the following:

Codes of Ethics Sent by Ethics Committee Members
ISPA Code of Ethics Psychological Association's Code of Ethics No Code
In Native Tongue In Native Language In English Available
Spain (Canary Islands) Germany
The Netherlands
Slovenia *
Iceland
France
Greece
* Irena Dogsa was the Ethics Committee member from Slovenia who sent in information to me. However, she no longer appears on the list of ISPA members, so her name has been removed from this committee. She has been active in participating in this committee.

Activity 2: Send electronic copies of codes to Peg Dawson for linking to the ISPA website.

Progress so far: All 9 electronic files for codes of ethics have been forwarded to Peg Dawson to be linked to the ISPA website. However, the links have not been set up on the website so far.
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Goal II: To ascertain qualitative data relative to ethical dilemmas and value differences among nations.

Activity 1: Communicate by email, fax, or postal mail with committee members about the direction to take to uncover underlying values and dilemmas that members face.

Progress so far: Committee members were asked to provide feedback as to the direction(s) this committee should take to uncover ethical dilemmas that school psychologists are facing. Three suggestions were made by the Chair: 1) survey members about dilemmas using last year's survey; 2) survey members using a qualitative approach; and 3) use vignettes to elicit conversation about ethical dilemmas. Responses were received from seven members. Consensus was received that the use of vignettes will be most effective in eliciting discussion and understanding of dilemmas that school psychologists face in their practices.

Activity 2: Communicate as well about vignettes to use at next year's colloquium around these issues.

Progress so far: Two committee members submitted vignettes about ethical dilemmas in their respective countries: Helen Bakker from Holland and José Bethencourt from the Canary Islands. Following are the dilemmas that they submitted.

Helen Bakker: "Formally, and according to our ethical code, the child (and as their representatives: the parents) is the client. However, in schools, the school representative is often the one approaching the psychologist. In our system, the psychological services are provided by psychological and educational service agencies and they are being paid by the schools. The dilemma is: can you report to schools without first reporting to the parents (according to the ethics code: no, but schools do not always want to pay for extra parent conferences…) Psychologists are put in the middle: the school is the 'paying client', but formally the child/parent is the client…and what if the parents do not want the results to be reported to the school?"

José Bethencourt: Three dilemmas were presented based on the conflicts that arise for School Psychologists (SP) in the Canary Islands who contract with the Council of Education of the Independent Government of the Canary Islands (Autonomic Administration = AA) to provide services. (Note: Professor Bethencourt sent the report to me in Spanish. I have translated it using a web-based translator and then paraphrased the dilemma below.)
1) The first dilemma arises when SPs in their daily professional practice are forced to identify personal information to the AA about the students for which they are requesting necessary services when they request resources from the AA, yet the AA does not grant the necessary resources. SPs are left in a dilemma, not knowing whether to give personal information considering that the necessary resources may not be approved, or to withhold all identifying information until resources are obtained.
2) The second dilemma appears when the SP receives directives or orders of performance that introduce conflict within the professional. Before such situation of contradiction, the SP considers what to do, if to obey the orders that were received, thus to avoid sanctions or punishments, or not to obey, thus to maintain a coherent performance with one's professional ethics. Actually the question is, to whom should he obey? To himself? To the "Administration"? Or the "Conscience ethical-professional"? An illustration of this type of administrative impositions we found was in the obligatory nature or exigency of which confidentiality of data or psychological information is violated or is not respected.
3) The third dilemma appears when SPs observe that some colleagues use inadequate professional practices, but the SPs doubt whether they should denounce such practices or keep quiet and not denounce those practices. If they denounce them, they are aware that they enter a process of conflicts and inevitable confrontations with those colleagues, resulting in negatively repelling the psychological well-being of the denouncer. If they do not denounce, they are avoiding confrontations with the colleagues, but become accomplices and accessories after the fact to those mistaken practices.

Mary E. Stafford, Ph.D., NCSP – Chair,
Associate Professor and Training Director, School Psychology, Arizona State University.

ISPA Code of Ethics