To understand how relationships are the keystone to building successful field experiences
? Setting ethical boundaries
Activities
1. Identify an important field placement relationship.
Read the journal article, “Multiple Relationships and Boundaries” by Barnett, Jeffrey E.; Lazarus, Arnold A.; Vasquez, Melba J. T.; Moorehead-Slaughter, Olivia; Johnson, W. Brad. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol 38(4), Aug 2007, 401-410.
THE ARTICLE IS PASTED BELOW
1. Comment on two points from the article as they relate to your field experience (1-page maximum) My field experience is working with youth at risk, helping them overcome social barriers, through life skills and construction training. At the end the youth become employable.
Multiple Relationships and Boundaries
Moorehead-Slaughter, Olivia1
Section Editor(s): Barnett, Jeffrey E.
Author Information
4Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Denver. She is a senior faculty consultant at the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center and is also the psychologist at The Park School, an independent school for those in nursery school through Grade 9. Her areas of professional interest include children and families, ethics, community mental health consultation, and school and learning-related issues.
Editor’s Note. Michael Roberts served as the action editor for this article.
Received January 31, 2007; Revision received April 18, 2007; Accepted April 23, 2007
Psychologists are required to continually evaluate their work for potential ethical problems across a range of issues. As noted in this article by Jeffrey E. Barnett, issues related to boundaries and multiple relationships are particularly challenging and require practitioners to be ever vigilant and mindful of possible difficulties. In no circumstance is this perhaps more evident than when working with clients who are culturally different from oneself. The complexity of issues related to boundaries and multiple relationships can present perplexing challenges to psychologists who are striving to practice ethically and to deliver services that are efficacious to those seeking them.
For all psychologists, the APA ethics code (APA, 2002) is front and center and must be considered as the point of origin for our thinking about these issues. In general, the ethical psychologist has a thorough understanding of this document and uses it as a “living and breathing†guide to ethical practice. It bears restating, however, that knowledge of the APA ethics code is necessary but not sufficient in terms of making ethical decisions across the range of professional roles held by psychologists. There is a need for critical thinking and decision making by the individual psychologist as each unique situation presents itself.
Though not enforceable, the General Principles represent the aspirational section of the APA ethics code and provide the psychologist with the highest ethical ideals for our profession. Principle E: Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity states, in part,
Psychologists are aware of and respect cultural, individual, and role differences, including those based on age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, and socioeconomic status, and consider these factors when working with members of such groups. Psychologists try to eliminate the effect on their work of biases based on those factors, and they do not knowingly participate in or condone activities of others based upon such prejudices. (p. 1063)
Thus, psychologists are encouraged to consider culture in their professional practice and to make it a part of their ethical decision making. For psychologists who practice in areas where an increasingly diverse population is seeking services, making ethical decisions about boundaries and multiple relationships within a multicultural context becomes critically important if therapeutic effectiveness is to be maximized.
Arguably, an ethical psychologist is also a culturally competent psychologist who considers cultural contextual factors to be an essential lens through which all clinical issues must be considered, including boundaries and multiple relationships (Bryan & Lyons, 2003; Constantine, 2002). As noted by Barnett, “examples of such boundaries include time, place, touch, self-disclosure, gifts, money, and others†(p. 2). Psychologists working with persons from other cultures are often in the position where there is a need to reexamine the definitions of when a boundary has been appropriately “respected, crossed, or violated.†To do so, there must be both a clear understanding of the intent of the standards related to boundaries and multiple relationships, as well as their meaning within the particular cultural context of the client.
By way of example, consider the Peruvian psychologist who relates that her culturally similar clients have expectations of warmth, personal relatedness, and touch, which would likely be off-putting to clients outside of that culture. This psychologist notes that not being willing to engage in conversation with a client outside the therapy agenda would be countercultural and would feel isolating to the client. It would signal that the therapist does not care about the client as a person but only as a compilation of symptoms to be treated. The end result would be a client who may withhold information related to her or his emotional distress as the client would not be assured that the psychotherapist cares about her or him as a person.
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