There is only one way to describe
Koocher and Keith-Spiegel’s Ethics in Psychology, Professional Standards and
Cases:  This is a
"classic-in-the-making;" that is a must-have reference for the
learning (and teaching) of psychological ethics.  I just recently had the opportunity to teach a graduate level
ethics class in clinical psychology and had the opportunity to look over
several different texts describing "intro" ethical issues and the
2002 revision of the APA code.  This
book, was by far, the best of the bunch of which I perused. Another book that
was quite strong was a book I reviewed last year, Decoding the Ethics Code:
A Practical Guide for Psychologists by Fisher, (reviewed in Metapsychology
September 2004). 

The main strength of the book, in
my opinion, lies in its liberal and practical use of real-life example
illustrating the logic or scope of ethical "standard" being
discussed.  The cases are short and to the
point which aids in their functionality and utility.  Further, they are sanitized using entertaining pseudonyms that
help the reader maintain attention (there is a problem with this that will be
discussed later).  One nice feature of
the vignettes is that they are not all ethical violations — and there is no
overt designation (by title for example) specifying beforehand whether the
psychologist in the case was acting ethically or not.  This simple omission allows for a more active approach to be
taken by the reader- the reader can take an active learning approach, quiz
themselves and guess the outcome before being given the answer.  This is in contrast to other books (see
Ethics for Psychologists) that clearly demarcate violations or non-violations,
taking away this option for the student.

A secondary strength of the book is the breadth of
ethical dilemma and situation discussed by the authors.  Koocher and Speigel do not simply cover the
five ethical principles and ten ethical standards in the 2002 APA code, rather,
the book is divided into 17 chapters that cover such specialized topics such as
"how complaints are enforced" "ethics in specific work
settings", "ethical problem solving models."  The inclusion of "special topics"
is a real strength for this book.  Many
psychological ethics books cover either special topics, or the 10 APA
standards.  It is rare that a book
attempts to cover both.  This is not to
say that there are not other books that cover the special topics, perhaps in
wider scope and depth of example (see review of Hanson, Kerhoff and Bush’s
book), but the inclusion of these topics in this particular book rounds out the
presentation of psychological ethics and makes it an excellent resource for
teacher and student alike. 

That said, when it came time to
choose a textbook for my ethics class, I chose this book.  The robust examples presented in this
manuscript, teamed with the judicious presentation of special topic and APA
standard deserves to be on every ethical psychologist’s shelf. 

I know I learned as much from the
text as did my students.

© 2005 Michael Sakuma
 

Michael Sakuma,
Assistant Professor, Psychology Department at Dowling
College, Long Island, New York.

Categories: Ethics