Issues in Psychological Psychology

University of Phoenix Material

Issues in Psychological Testing Worksheet

Using the text for this course, the University Library, the Internet, and/or other resources answer the following questions. Your response to each question should be at least 200 words in length.

What are at least two ethical issues associated with psychological testing? What impact do these issues have on the field of psychological testing?

Ethics are what a person "should or should not do, according to principles or standards of conduct" (Hogan, 2007, p. 584). Two main documents were created for ethical codes related to psychological testing, which are the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (Hogan, 2007). Ethical codes are provided for numerous reasons, such as providing confidentiality and security (Hogan, 2007). Three ethical issues associated with psychology testing are maintaining confidentiality, guarding test security, and informed consent.

Hogan

Hogans

English: Chief Justice Warren Burger Source: http:...

Maintaining confidentiality means that the psychologist must handle test results as private material (Hogan, 2007). Test results must only be made to an additional licensed/skilled specialist and with the agreement of the person who took the test. The psychologist is not allowed to speak of the test results beyond the situation and reason for which the results were acquired (Hogan, 2007). Guarding test security means test materials are detained in a protected setting, and test items are not exposed in unintended discussions and open broadcasting (Hogan, 2007). The only exceptions are created for official training programs and when instructed by law (Hogan, 2007). Psychologists need to gain voluntary permission from the person before a test is conducted. Informed consent involves ongoing permission, but the person may retract permission at any time (Hogan, 2007). Permission must be granted by a parent, legal guardian, or proper substitute when...