Ethical issues in South African psychology : public complaints, psychologists' dilemmas and training in professional ethics.

Abstract

This study examined three perspectives on ethical dimensions of South African professional

psychology. These perspectives were derived from three data sets. The first data set comprised a

series of public complaints against psychologists; the second a series of ethical dilemmas reported

by psychologists themselves, and the third comprised a study of the training of South African

psychologists in professional ethics.

Clear patterns emerged in the analysis of each data set, and efforts were made to integrate the

findings. Psychologists in particular registration categories, trained at particular universities and

working in particular practice contexts were disproportionately more likely to attract complaints.

Similarly, patterns of dilemmas experienced by psychologists also emerged. Comparison of

complaints with dilemmas suggested that there were significant differences and some similarities

in the ethical issues and contexts associated with public complaints and psychologists' own ethical

dilemmas. The study of ethics training suggested general dissatisfaction with the relevance and

quantity of ethics training nationally.

The main findings were integrated to make recommendations for improving the ethics training of

South African psychologists. The limitations of the data are described, along with suggestions for

future research to examine in greater depth and specificity several dominant patterns described by

the present study.