• the Universal Declaration of Ethical Principles for Psychologists (2008)

• Adopted

  • International Union of Psychological Science

  • International Association of Applied Psychology

Principle 1: Respect for the Dignity of all Human Beings

• Psychologists recognize and respect the unique worth and inherent dignity of all human beings.

• Psychologists recognize and respect the diversity among human beings.

• Psychologists respect the customs and beliefs of cultures, limited only when a custom or a belief seriously contravenes the principle of respect for the dignity of human beings or causes serious harm to their well-being.

• Psychologists uphold the value of free and informed consent.

• Psychologists uphold the value of privacy of individuals, families, groups, and communities.

• Psychologists uphold the value of confidentiality of personal information.

• Psychologists uphold the value of fairness and justice in the treatment of others.

Principle 2: Competent Caring for the Well-Being of Others

• Psychologists demonstrate on active concern for the well-being of individuals, families, groups, and communities.

• Psychologists uphold the value of taking care to do no harm to individuals, families, groups, and communities.

• Psychologists uphold the value of maximizing benefits and minimizing potential harms to individuals, families, groups, and communities.

• Psychologists uphold the value of taking responsibility for correcting or offsetting harmful effects that have occurred as a result of their activities.

• Psychologists uphold the value of developing and maintaining competence.

• Psychologists uphold the value of self-knowledge regarding how their own values, attitudes, experiences, and social context influence their actions, interpretations, choices, and recommendations.

• Psychologists recognize and respect the ability of individuals, families, groups, and communities to make decisions for themselves and to care for themselves and each other.

Principle 3: Integrity

• Psychologists uphold the value of truthfulness, and honest, accurate and open communications.

• Psychologists avoid incomplete disclosure of information unless complete disclosure is culturally inappropriate, or violates the confidentiality of others, or carries the potential to do serious harm to individuals, families, groups, or communities.

• Psychologists uphold the value maximizing impartiality and minimizing biases.

• Psychologists uphold the value of not exploiting others for personal, professional, or financial gain.

• Psychologists avoid conflicts of interest and declare them when such situations cannot be avoided or are inappropriate to avoid.

Principle 4: Professional and Scientific Responsibilities to Society

• Psychologists uphold the discipline’s responsibility to increase scientific and professional knowledge in ways that promote the well-being of society and all its members, and that are consistent with the other ethical requirements of this Declaration.

• Psychologists uphold the discipline’s responsibility to ensure that psychological knowledge is used for beneficial purposes, and to protect such knowledge from being misused, used competently , or made useless by others.

• Psychologists uphold the discipline’s responsibility to conduct its affairs in ways that promote the well-being of society and all of its members, and that are consistent with the other ethical requirements of this Declaration.

• Psychologists uphold the discipline’s responsibility to promote and maintain the highest standards of the discipline.

• Psychologists uphold the discipline’s responsibility to ensure that members are adequately trained in their ethical responsibilities and required competencies.

• Psychologists uphold the discipline’s responsibility to develop its ethical awareness and sensitivity, and to be self-correcting as possible.

Psychological Association of the Philippines

• Code of Ethics

Assessment

Bases for Assessment

• use of appropriate assessment techniques

• experts opinions regarding the psychological characteristics of a person

• discuss limitations of opinions and the basis of our conclusions and recommendations

Informed Consent in Assessment

• informed consent prior to the assessment except

  • when it is mandated by the law

  • when it is implied such as in routine educational, institutional, and organizational activity

  • when the purpose of the assessment is to determine the individual’s decisional capacity

• we educate our clients

  • nature of our services

  • financial arrangements

  • potential risks

  • limits of confidentiality

• third part interpreter

  • confidentiality of test results

  • security of the tests

  • limitations of the obtained data

Assessment Tools

• select and administer only those tests which are pertinent

• data collection, methods, and procedures are consistent with current scientific and professional developments

• tests

  • standardized, valid, reliable, and has relevant a normative data

  • appropriate to the language, competence, and other relevant characteristics of client

Obsolete and Outdated Test Results

• we do not base our interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations on outdated test results

• we do not provide interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations on the basis of obsolete tests

Interpreting Assessment Results

• consider validity, reliability, and appropriateness of the test

  • we should therefore indicate our reservations regarding the interpretations

• consider the purpose of the assessment and other factors such as the client’s test taking abilities, characteristics, situational, personal, and cultural differences

Release of Test Data

• test results and interpretations are not used by persons other than those explicitly agreed upon by the referral sources

• we do not release test data in the forms of raw and scaled scores, client’s responses to test questions or stimuli

Explaining Assessment Results

• release test results only to the sources of referrak

• use non-technical language

• we explain findings and test results to our clients or designated representatives

• when test results needs to be shared with schools, social agencies, the courts or industry, we supervise such releases

Test Security

• the administration and handling of all test materials shall be handled only by qualified users or personnel

Assessment by Unqualified Persons

• we do not promote the use of assessment tools and methods by unqualified persons except for training purposes with adequate supervision

• we ensure that test protocols, their interpretations and all other records are kept secured from unqualified persons

Test Construction

• we develop tests and other assessment tools using current scientific findings and knowledge

• appropriate psychometric properties, validation, and standardization procedures