2004 Annual Reports for Boards and Committees

Ethics Committee Annual Report

February 7, 2005

In 2004, the APA Ethics Committee fulfilled its adjudicative function and continued to develop its educative and consultative programs. The Chair of the 2004 Ethics Committee was Linda F. Campbell, Ph.D. Members included: Katherine R. DiFrancesca, PhD , Vice-Chair; Anne L. Hess, PhD; Mary H. Quigley, JD, (Public Member); Neil A. Massoth, PhD; Bertram H. Raven, PhD; Jane K. Hochberg, PsyD; and Olivia D. Moorehead-Slaughter, PhD. Associates were June Grant Wolf, PhD; Elizabeth V. Swenson, PhD, JD; Lynda D. Field, PhD; and C. Gerald O'Brien, PhD. Wolf and Swenson completed their terms as associates in April 2004. The liaison from the Board of Directors was Barry S. Anton, PhD.

Education and Consultation

Convention provides an important forum for the Ethics Committee's educational activities, and the 2004 convention in Hawaii saw a more active program than at any other point in Ethics Office history. The Ethics Committee's program at the 2004 convention included “The Top 15 Questions Posed to the Ethics Office by Psychologists,” “Double Duties—When Ethics and Law Collide” (collaboration with the Committee on Legal Issues), and “Ethical Issues Faced by Graduate Students: Social Relationships, Supervision, Authorship” (collaboration with APAGS). The “Top 15” and “Double Duties” presentations offered continuing education credits. At its October 2004 meeting, the Committee discussed ways to collaborate with APA Divisions to address ethical aspects of topical issues, such as prescription privileges. The Committee also discussed diversity as a specific focus of future convention programs.

Convention is the occasion when the Ethics Committee, in collaboration with the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS), awards a $1000 prize for a student paper on ethics. The student, whose trip to convention and hotel expenses are part of the award, presents the winning paper for comment and discussion. The winning paper is published in the journal Ethics and Behavior. This year's winning paper, “A New Ethical Praxis: Psychologists' Emerging Responsibilities in Issues of Social Justice,” was written by Dhruvi Kakkad of Fordham University. Gerald Koocher, PhD, has provided essential support for the award by publishing top student papers in the journal Ethics and Behavior.

The Ethics Committee provides support and ideas for “Ethics Rounds,” a column in the APA Monitor on Psychology. The column focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on ethical issues of concern to practicing psychologists.

The Ethics Committee reviews written requests for consultations at its meetings. In order to more effectively serve the membership, the Committee is working with the Ethics Office and APA's Management Information Systems (MIS) department to develop a web-based program to facilitate written consultations on an ongoing basis, so that the Ethics Committee can be more responsive to requests for ethics consultations.

Adjudication

The Ethics Committee held two meetings in 2004, reviewed 6 cases, 12 membership-related actions, 13 case-related confidential agenda items, 17 non-case-related confidential agenda items, and 41 nonconfidential agenda items. No Independent Adjudications or formal hearings took place in 2004. Statistics regarding all stages of complaint processing in 2004 will be available in the American Psychologist article "Report of the Ethics Committee, 2004," currently projected for publication in the July/August 2005 issue.

Ethics Office Staff

At the end of 2004, staff in the Ethics Office were: Stephen H. Behnke, JD, PhD, Director; Martha Mihaly, MS, Senior Ethics Investigator; Patricia Dixon, Board and Investigative Officer; Stephanie Brasfield, JD, Ethics Investigative Officer; Jennifer Royster, Ethics Coordinator; and Emily Laumeier, Governance Coordinator. Rhea Jacobson, who left the Ethics Office in 2002 to accept a position elsewhere within APA, continued to provide assistance with administrative tasks related to the ethics appeals process throughout 2004. Deborah Carliner, JD, Ethics Investigative Officer, departed APA for another opportunity in September 2004.

Report on Diversity Training and Representation

At its July 2004 meeting, the Council of Representatives approved a motion that governance groups should include within their annual reports a report on diversity training and representation within the group. The Ethics Committee reports that ethnic minority representation in 2004 included one member and one associate. The member is the vice-chair of the Committee in 2005. The Committee has submitted a proposal for a convention symposium to explore ethical issues involved in working with a diverse (Latina) population.