In my article "The Need for Psychology Understanding,” I discussed how fiction writers need at least a basic understanding of psychology in order to write realistic content, dialogues, characters, and relationships. One such psychological concept is informed consent and confidentiality. Many writers have a basic understanding of informed consent and/or confidentiality, but they do not have the in-depth understanding needed to be able to accurately make use of the concepts in their stories, books, and other forms of writing. Understanding informed consent and confidentiality is vital for any writer who plans to include aspects of research studies, psychology, or experiments involving people in their stories.

Informed Consent

Informed consent involves communication between the practicing psychology professional and another individual with the goal of providing adequate information, determining if the decision the individual is making is voluntary, and ascertaining if the individual has the capacity to make the decisions (Southern New Hampshire University, n.d.). Informed consent is a part of the APA Code of Ethics standard of human relations which requires that psychologists work to avoid harm, harassment, multiple role relationships, exploitative relationships and conflicts of interest while also ensuring informed consent (American Psychological Association, 2017). Ensuring that an individual or client has the information that they need to make a decision as well as the capacity to voluntarily do so is an ethical standard that all practicing psychology professionals must work to ensure to remain in compliance with the APA Code of Ethics.

Establishing Informed Consent

Practicing psychology professionals from different psychology fields can establish informed consent utilizing different methods, but these methods all share the same three phases to establishing informed consent. These phase steps are:

1. The practicing psychology professional must communicate the nature, risks, and benefits of the procedure, treatment, research or any other eventuality that the individual is consenting to the individual; this is typically when the individual is given the opportunity to ask questions and fill out any authorization forms that are required (Zur, 2018).

2. The practicing psychology professional evaluates the capacity of the individual to understand the information, the individual’s ability to make a competent informed decision, and the individual’s understanding of the provided information (Zur, 2018).

3. The practicing psychology professional obtains acknowledgment from the individual that they have been informed and that they consent (Zur, 2018).

The third phase is, typically, where the approach differs the most based on the field of psychology the practicing professional is in. For example, a therapist might prefer to obtain verbal consent from his or her client, as it might be more comfortable and less formal for the client than signing a document. However, in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, written documentation is the preferred method of completing the third phase as it is the most formal, can be proven that the individual agreed, and it has all of the terms and conditions clearly laid out for the individual to read and sign.

References

American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/

Southern New Hampshire University. (n.d.). Informed consent and confidentiality. Retrieved from https://learn.snhu.edu/d2l/le/content/137539/viewContent/3253001/View

Zur, O. (2018). Introduction to informed consent in psychotherapy, counseling, and assessment. Retrieved from https://www.zurinstitute.com/informedconsent.html#process