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 risk management and ethical mindfulness posturing. Understanding these two concepts is vital for any writer who plans to have a main character who is a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Professional ethics in psychology can differ in some ways depending on professions, yet risk management and ethical mindfulness posturing can be applied to all ethical psychological professions. Risk management is an approach to ethics that proposes ways in which to avoid ethical problems through the meticulous adherence to the tenets of all relevant laws, policies, professional standards, and ethics codes (Koocher & Keith-Spiegel, 2016, p. 6). Risk management can be practiced by not accepting clients with characteristics or diagnoses that potentially pose a high risk of future legal or ethical entanglements, refraining from multi-role relationships with clients, document consent from all parties for role changes, practice in a professional setting, and keep meticulous notes and records documenting all consultations, diagnoses, and risk behavior (Koocher & Keith-Spiegel, 2016). Writers can make use of risk management to explain why their character made the decisions that they did or the writer can use a lack of risk management techniques by their character to create or enhance plot elements in their story.

Ethical mindfulness posturing differs from risk management in that it focuses on practicing ethical mindfulness within a psychological field instead of focusing on decreasing the risk of practicing. According to Guillemin and Gillam (2015), “ethical mindfulness is a state of being that acknowledges everyday ethics and ethically important moments as significant in clinical care, with the aim of enabling ethical clinical practice.” One of the key elements of practicing ethical mindfulness posturing is self-awareness, a key hallmark of a mental health professional, as it allows a practitioner to avoid extraneous influences that could negatively impact both the practitioner and the client (Schwebel & Coster, 1998). Practicing professional ethics in psychology requires a balance between risk management and ethical mindfulness posturing as not all risks of taking on a client can be managed, yet by practicing ethical mindfulness posturing the risk of legal or ethical action being taken can be curtailed. Writers can make use of ethical mindfulness posturing to explain the decisions of a character or a lack of ethical mindfulness posturing to create drama, suspense, and plot elements.

Ethics express the professional values and provide a common set of principles and standards upon which psychologists build their professional (American Psychological Association, 2018).

 Professional ethics in psychology can differ in some ways depending on professions, yet risk management and ethical mindfulness posturing can be applied to all ethical psychological professions by writers. Unethical situations can occur even when risk management and ethical mindfulness posturing are practiced as these situations can often be caused by an individual being uninformed or misinformed which can be used by writers to explain character mistakes, decisions, and/or to add plot elements to the story.

References

American Psychological Association. (2018). Ethics. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/topics/ethics/index.aspx

Guillemin M, Gillam L. (2015). Emotions, narratives, and ethical mindfulness. Acad Med. 90:726–731. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000709.

Koocher, G. P., & Keith-Spiegel, P. (2016). Ethics in psychology and the mental health professions: Standards and cases (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Schwebel, M., & Coster, J. (1998). Well-functioning professional psychologists: As program heads see it. Professional Psychology, 29, 284–292. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.29.3.284