Research Paper on "Psychology as it Is Applied"

Research Paper 4 pages (1230 words) Sources: 0

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3. Investigate the legal issues regarding police psychology. Include the background and purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the role of forensic psychological testing in law enforcement and the issues that these two areas may raise for police psychologists.

The background and purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was the need to ensure equal opportunity in employment to individuals with disabilities, mainly by protecting them from workplace discrimination in hiring. In principle, the ADA prohibits employers from denying the equal opportunity to compete for jobs (and any positional or promotional opportunities or vocational benefits). It also requires employers to make reasonable accommodations as necessary to allow disabled individuals to fulfill the elements of the job description, provided it is possible to do so without presenting an undue economic burden on the employer or undermining the operational efficiency of the employing organization.

At the same time, forensic psychological testing is widely used in law enforcement as part of the employment screening process and it is substantially relied upon as one of the most reliable approaches to screening out individuals considered unsuitable, in an objective sense, for law enforcement service. Naturally, this poses certain potential conflicts for police psychologists, since the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability (including mental and psychological disabilities). Generally, this potential conflict is resolved by framing the critical job requirements in objective terms that emphasize specific states of mind and psychological predispositions as fundamental to the ability of police officers to perform their duties.

4. Examine the ethical issues that may arise from incorporating psychologists into law enforcement. What are some ethical guidelines must a police psychologist abide by? Why is it important to abide by these guidelines?

In principle, there are primarily two fundamental sources of potential ethical dilemmas in the realm of psychologists working in the policing vocational environment. The first set of potential dilemmas relates to the different roles that the police psychologist fills. More specifically, the police psychologist typically provides assistance in forensic screening of job applicants in connection with which he is expected to help identify individuals who are not suitable for employment with the agency and must be disqualified from the application process before being hired. The police psychologist also provides assistance in the form of consultation in the realm of industrial psychology to help police agency management design and implement organizational policies conducive to optimal operational productivity, efficiency, and employee satisfaction and retention. In the capacity as counselor, the police psychologist provides clinical counseling services to individual officers in connection with which the APA standards of client ethics (including confidentiality) apply. As professionals, police psychologists are bound by their obligation to abide by APA guidelines as are all of their colleagues working in other vocational realms.

The other fundamental source of potential ethical dilemma faced by police psychologists is that matters that would ordinarily obviously fall under the umbrella of client confidentiality in all other vocational contexts often require different approaches in connection with clients employed as police officers. In principle, police psychologists must abide by the traditional guidelines as pertains to client confidentiality except where doing so could represent danger to the community or to fellow police officers, or potential liability of the employing department where information disclosed by clients to the psychologist is deemed, in the professional judgment of the psychologist, to be important enough… READ MORE

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