Stephen H. Behnke, J.D., Ph.D.
Director, APA Office on Ethics

June 26, 2010 - Argosy University, Honolulu, 6 CE
June 27, 2010 - Maui Arts & Cultural Center, 4 CE

This ethics workshop will address ethical decision-making, the relationship between ethics and law with specific attention to Hawai’i state law, and ways for practicing psychologists to minimize exposure to legal and ethical liability. This workshop will include a discussion of the APA Ethics Code, with a focus on the structure of the Code and specific ethical standards that are especially relevant to ethical practice.

Reference will be made to other mental health professional codes of ethics, as a way of more deeply understanding and analyzing the APA Ethics Code. The program will emphasize how psychologists can use the APA Ethics Code to facilitate ethical decision-making.

Case vignettes will be used to illustrate ethical decision-making applied in actual clinical practice. The focus of this workshop will emphasize ethical decision making over risk management, although both of these important goals will be considered and discussed.

Learning Goals and Objectives:

1. Identify a process for resolving legal and ethical dilemmas;

2. Find concrete ways to minimize exposure to legal and ethical liability;

3. Use the Ethics Code as a tool to facilitate ethical decision-making;

4. Identify how Hawai'i law and the APA Ethics Code interact;;

5. Compare and contrast other mental health care professional codes of ethics with the APA Ethics Code;

6. Understand how specific standards in the new Ethics Code relate to the practice of psychology.