Are the changes in APA Standards 1.02 and 1.03 sufficient?
The 2010 Amendments in APA Standards 1.02 and 1.03 are quite sufficient. They relate to the 2002 Standards for resolving ethical discrepancies, namely the discrepancy between ethics and the law (1.02) and between ethical and organizational requirements (1.03). They are associated with the situations where the ethical responsibilities of psychologists contradict the law (Young, 2017). Prior to the 2010 Amendments, it turned out that psychologists could adhere to the law or organizational requirements without further discussion if they had to resolve some ethical conflicts (Knapp & VandeCreek, 2003). Instead of this statement, a new sentence has been added, according to which this standard can not be used to justify human rights violations under any circumstances. Thus, ethical Standards 1.02 and 1.03 were amended to remove any ambiguity. These changes are important as they clarify that these standards must not be interpreted as justifying human rights violations.
In what ways do you think that forensic psychology practice creates challenges for the concept of competence?
The professional competence of forensic psychologists depends on the basic psychological education and understanding of the specifics of the activities of law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, the qualitative composition of psychologists does not fully correspond to the needs of the practice and the level of development of psychological science. Forensic psychologists often have professional deformation that creates challenges for the concept of competence (Humphreys et al., 2017). As the practice of correctional institutions show, there is no integral educational system based on psychological and pedagogical methods. This does not allow the staff to successfully solve the tasks of purposefully changing the personality and collective of convicts. Therefore, it is necessary to actively introduce psychologically sound technologies for the resocialization of convicts into the practice of correctional institutions (Humphreys et al., 2017). It is generally accepted that the effectiveness of the functioning of correctional facilities depends largely on the professional competence of forensic psychologists. Therefore, considerable attention should be paid to the substantiation of the psychological requirements for the staff.
Reference
Knapp, S., & VandeCreek, L. (2003). A guide to the 2002 revision of the American Psychological Association’s ethics code. Professional Resource Press/Professional Resource Exchange.
Humphreys, L., Crino, R., & Wilson, I. (2017). Psychological functioning predicts competence development for postgraduate students of professional psychology. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 11(1), 49-56.
Young, G. (2017). Revising the APA ethics code. Springer International Publishing.