Ethical Dilemmas for Psychologists

Confidentiality

Psychologists cannot break client-therapist confidentiality, but a counselor may feel conflicted in some cases.

A real life example of this is when a patient tells the psychologist something that may harm another person. In this case, the psychologist is having a counseling session with a married couple who is falling apart. The husband admits that he is cheating his wife with someone else. The ethical dilemma here is if the psychologist will tell the wife if her husband is cheating on her in order to let her know the truth or not to tell in order to keep them from falling further apart.

Another real life example is a case wherein the patient admits that he has killed someone. A psychologist's ethical dilemma is if he would tell the police or keep it because of confidentiality.

Conflict of Relationships

Problems with dual or blurred relationships can occur, and are particularly common in small towns and rural areas. 

An example of this Type of Ethical Dilemma for Psychologists is when your patient is your ex boyfriend or girlfriend. In that case a psychologist need to deal with his/her feelings for the person.

Payment

A client's inability to pay and limits of insurance coverage can lead to ethical dilemmas.

In this case, if a psychologist's client is gravely sick but is unable to pay a psychologist is going to have an ethical dilemma. He/she needs to decide whether he/she would continue treating the patient without pay or he/she will not continue the sessions because the patient can not pay and if the psychologist will stop the session the patient might worsen. This is the real life example in this Ethical Dilemma of Payment.

Forensic Psychology

A psychologist may become increasingly more willing to testify in court and skew his testimony for clients most willing to pay. 

This Moral Dilemma's real life example is when a Psychologist is in a court setting and he/she is being bribed to change the truth and tell the court a different story. The dilemma in this is that he/she is pressured with the money being offered that is why he/she is facing an Ethical Dilemma.

These are the different examples of the different Ethical Dilemmas for Psychologists.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

Major Lessons Learned in Philosophy

Philosophy and Ethics is an important part of our lives. We all have to make choices and accomplish goals therefore Philosophy teaches us to be reasonable in everything that we do. Being reasonable enables us make good choices, accomplish our goals, live a better life, and become better people. Being reasonable allows a person to think critically and analyze a situation better. It helps us sharpen our minds and not only does it increases our mental capability, it also helps us to be moral. Being moral is not only doing what is right and refraining from doing what is  wrong. Being moral means doing what is right in your eyes, what is right in the eyes of other people, in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of God.

I have learned a  lot of valuable lessons in our Philosophy class and one of those was knowing my purpose in life. For me, my real purpose in life is to be good at what I am right now and that is to be a good student, friend, sibling, and daughter. I believe that that is my real purpose in life for now. I know that purposes in life changes over time. I have my own set of beliefs. We should always trust in what we believe because our beliefs is what makes us, it is our image. When you believe something you live it and it becomes our identity- it becomes who we are. But one things I have learned is that we should always be mindful of other people's beliefs because that is who they are and we must always respect them and their beliefs because there is this thing called Cultural Relativism in which there is a view that one person's beliefs, customs and ethics are right in their own eyes. 

I have learned that if there is virtue in science, there is also science in virtue. Science in virtue literally means that in every virtue you do, there is science. When you do something virtuous, you apply the things you learn and where there is learning there is Science. Science and Virtue are two words that can change your whole life, from the way you think to the way you act towards yourself and towards other people. CEU not only helps your mind grow but it also helps you grow spiritually. We are not only trained to be smart and intellectual, we are morally challenged to do the right things scientifically. We are trained to have the knowledge but more than that we are raised to have wisdom which is the application of knowledge. The knowledge and the application of knowledge is the true meaning ofCiencia y Virtud.

I have learned that Man as a person can act on his own and make rational decisions in life. A man has his own free will and rights. Therefore, he is a person. The word person cannot be always be related to a human being because not all person can be considered as a human being, and not all human beings can be considered as a person. A man's person-hood should not be contrasted to man's humanity and individuality. The Person-hood and man's individuality manifest man's individual unique personhood. Personhood means pagkatawo or pagkatao and that it is easy  to be a person but it is hard to be human.

Man as a person has rights. I have learned about a person's rights which is stated in the country's book of laws. One of the laws is call Bill of Rights. It states every person's rights.

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” ― Albert Einstein

Major Lessons Learned

Man as a Person

Man as a person can act on hiss own and make rational decisions in life. A man has his own free will and rights. Therefore, he is a person. The word person cannot be always be related to a human being because not all person can be considered as a human being, and not all human beings can be considered as a person. A man's person-hood should not be contrasted to man's humanity and individuality. The Person-hood and man's individuality manifest man's individual unique personhood. Personhood means pagkatawo or pagkatao.

There is that great Filipino saying which says that, "Madaling maging tao pero mahirap magpakatao."

Fallacies

"Fallacy" is a vague and ambiguous word. First, "fallacy" is frequently used to mean a common factual error and "Logical fallacy" shares with "factual fallacy" the genus "common error", that is, both are types of error commonly committed by people. Factual fallacies, of course, are mistakes about factual matters, whereas logical fallacies are not errors of fact, but errors of reasoning.

There are many kinds of fallacy in which only three were given to us. These are the basic kinds of fallacy: The Fallacy of Irrelevance, The Fallacies of Presumption and The Fallacies of Ambiguity.

Below is a video to discuss further the fallacies under these fallacies.

Sam Harris: Science can answer Moral Questions

I have watched the video of Sam Harris about Moral Questions which can be answered by Moral Questions. In this video, Sam Harris argues that science can and should be used to address moral issues.

I would think that science does have some input, but I also think this will be a hard sell if you take a wide view of the debate circuit. It seems to me that so long as people continue to blend their morality with dualism we’re going to have a hard time with the discussion. I think that science can tell us how to promote well-being; it can’t tell us that we should value well-being. Science can’t even establish that life itself has value. How to maximize well-being isn’t a moral question. The moral question comes when maximizing well-being means sacrificing autonomy. I would say that there is no absolute morality, as evidenced by the diverse moral systems in societies across the globe. This means that the objective standard we use to make our moral decisions is based on the real world. Since science is an important tool for understanding the real world I see no reason why science should not inform those moral decisions.

As it works now, we get our morality the same way we get our language: from the community we’re raised in. Like language, morality has an innate template that is modified based on local circumstances. Understanding that template could tell us a great deal about who we are. Harris goes way beyond discussing an approach to understanding the biological roots of morality. According to him, science can tell us what’s worth living for and what’s worth dying for. His own cultural biases are clear. He repeatedly uses aspects of Islamic radicalism to illustrate his points. Some might argue that US foreign policy played a role in establishing and perpetuating this extremism. *Their* culture might not be entirely to blame, yet he does seem to blame their culture. He states, “it is possible for individuals and even whole cultures to care about the wrong things”. According to Harris, we can no longer “respect and tolerate vast differences in notions of human well-being”. What kind of action do you think he’s advocating? Can we be scientifically justified in forcing well-being on others?

            

Harris is right in his own way but there should still be a little faith involved. Not everything can be well explained with science but we all base it on faith. Many may argue about this video of his because each and every one of us has different beliefs so not all may agree with his way of thinking but this video only shows his beliefs and opinions and I have my own opinion about this matter.

Ciencia y Virtud

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstein. Growing up, my parents and mentors would always tell me these words. I grew up studying in a Catholic School so I was always thought how to live morally and virtuously. After high school, I entered Centro Escolar University Makati – Gil Puyat Branch where I have learned the motto: Ciencia y Virtud or Science and Virtue.

           

Ciencia y Virtud. What is Ciencia y Virtud? Ciencia y Virtud means Science and Virtue but what is Science? And what is Virtue? There is more to these words than what it really means. Science is knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method and so on and Virtue is a quality considered morally good or desirable in a person. When these two words are put together side-by-side it will have a greater meaning especially when applied.

CEU taught me that there can be virtue in Science. When you apply science to everything you can have an organized and systematized life decisions and when you do, you will be able to do something without trampling other people. For an instance, let’s say you have a group activity and then you and your group mates are in a pinch and you have to make a decision. You will not decide on the spot but you will think of the pros and cons of your decision. When you think, you are already applying science. In that way you can come up with a good decision that will help your group mates and you will not become a burden to them.  When you do come up with a good solution then you have done something morally right because you did something that is good. When you don’t think properly there will be consequences that will affect many people. So we should always apply science in everything.

If there is virtue in science, there is also science in virtue. Science in virtue literally means that in every virtue you do, there is science. When you do something virtuous, you apply the things you learn and where there is learning there is Science. Science and Virtue are two words that can change your whole life, from the way you think to the way you act towards yourself and towards other people. CEU not only helps your mind grow but it also helps you grow spiritually. We are not only trained to be smart and intellectual, we are morally challenged to do the right things scientifically. We are trained to have the knowledge but more than that we are raised to have wisdom which is the application of knowledge. The knowledge and the application of knowledge is the true meaning of Ciencia y Virtud.

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere"

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."

Stated above is a Chinese proverb about learning. In life, there are things that you learn the easy way and the hard way. There are life lessons that we learn through our life journey while there are also lessons that were taught to us by our grandparents, parents, siblings, friends and our teachers.

In life, we mostly learn through our experiences and through our school. There are many things I have learned in school which is learning is not really called learning if you don't examine and apply it in your everyday life.

In our Philosophy class, I have once heard the saying,

"An unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates

I have reflected upon my past lessons and I have learned a  lot of valuable lessons in our Philosophy class and one of those was knowing my purpose in life. For me, my real purpose in life is to be good at what I am right now and that is to be a good student, friend, sibling, and daughter. I believe that that is my real purpose in life for now. I know that purposes in life changes over time. I have my own set of beliefs. We should always trust in what we believe because our beliefs is what makes us, it is our image. When you believe something you live it and it becomes our identity- it becomes who we are. But one things I have learned is that we should always be mindful of other people's beliefs because that is who they are and we must always respect them and their beliefs because there is this thing called Cultural Relativism in which there is a view that one person's beliefs, customs and ethics are right in their own eyes. Cultural Relativism states that,

"An action is right, if and only if some conditions are fulfilled"

It is not appropriate to say that what you believe is the only right belief, one should always be open-minded about other people's belief. There are many faces of Relativism and I have already stated the first one which is Cultural Relativism were in there is no right and wrong in culture because we have different beliefs. Next is the Conceptual Relativism which says that an individual can readily believe a truth that he/she has come out with, for  example your life experiences it may not be true to others but it is true to you. Another type of relativism is social constructivism. Social Constructivism is not like conceptual relativism in which a truth is readily carved out, in social comstructivism it undergoes analization and data interpretation to come up with results. The next type of relativism is post-modernism which is mainly called a "power-play." It is called power-play because whoever has the power, authority and sovereignty is the one who will be likely to be believed and trusted. The last face of relativism is called the new-relativism in which this type of relativism removes all forms of discrimination and bias. There is equality in the truth given off in this type of relativism.

Knowing that I have learned this much in Philosophy in a short term makes me happy. In Philosophy, one will not only learn how to believe in oneself and respect  other people but you can also learn how to be happy through Philosophy. I have learned that happiness depends on the person wanting it. Some poor people say that rich people are happy because they can buy anything they want but not all rich people are happy because as they have said, "money can't buy us happiness." Happiness can only be made by one's hands and it never depends on other people and other things.

It is when we choose to be happy that we become happy.

#Major Lessons Learned

Science is everywhere but above all is the God Almighty

Philosophy

Philosophy is an academic discipline that exercises reason and logic in an attempt to understand reality and answer fundamental questions about knowledge, life, morality and human nature. The ancient Greeks, who were among the first to practice philosophy, coined the term, which means “love of wisdom.” Those who study philosophy are called philosophers. Through the ages, philosophers have sought to answer such questions as, what is the meaning and purpose of life? How do we know what we know? Does God exist? What does it mean to possess consciousness? And, what is the value of morals?

Science

Science is an intellectual activity carried on by humans that is designed to discover information about the natural world in which humans live and to discover the ways in which this information can be organized into meaningful patterns. A primary aim of science is to collect facts (data). An ultimate purpose of science is to discern the order that exists between and amongst the various facts.

This Venn Diagram Shows the difference and similarity between Philosophy and Science. Science focuses on the truth alone while Philosophy focuses on beliefs. The similarity  between them is that they both focus in seeking more knowledge. Science focuses on finding the truth and finding reasons behind those truth. In Philosophy it focuses on belief alone which doesn't need any reasons, only faith alone is enough. Their similarity is that both of them uses knowledge. I have read the article about Philosophy as not being a part of Science. I agree in what the author of the article says. I also believe that Philosophy is not science because in Philosophy it seeks the facts through faith and not on scientific reasons. The article also stated that:

"In sum, philosophy is not science. For it employs the rational tools of logical analysis and conceptual clarification in lieu of empirical measurement. And this approach, when carefully carried out, can yield knowledge at times more reliable and enduring than science, strictly speaking. For scientific measurement is in principle always subject to at least some degree of readjustment based on future observation. Yet sound philosophical argument achieves a measure of immortality."

I also think that it is true, therefore I believe that Philosophy is not Science because Science is Knowledge through Facts while Philosophy is knowledge and faith.

#Science vs Philosophy