Other Guidance

The SCE has also produced guidance on ethical conduct with respect to providing services via the Internet, for the teaching of ethics and for forensic work as an expert wit­ness ( http://ww4v.efya.eu^/ethics/^/efpa-guidelines ). These were developed and approved by General Assemblies over the period 1999-2006. In each case, the Meta-code is the basic framework to which each relates. The development of specific guidelines for each area of practice is a method used by many psychological associations. It allows more detailed guidance than appropriate in a generic code of eth­ics and also an easier process of revision if required.

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Dissemination and Support

The SCE has built upon the publication of the Meta-code and various guidelines by seeking to support national asso­ciations through dissemination and engagement. This has included contributions to major conferences as mentioned above and also meetings with ethics committees of national associations. For example, the Turkish Psychological Association's (TPA) code of ethics was approved in 2004 (Korkut, 2010). Support for the development of its evalua­tion of alleged unethical procedures was provided through an invited presentation to psychologists and a workshop with senior members of the TPA (Lindsay, 2007).

The major initiative, however, was the production of Ethics for European Psychologists (Lindsay, Koene, 0vreeide, & Lang, 2008). This was designed to provide a fuller exposition of the Meta-code with its main emphasis on the use of vignettes to exemplify ethical dilemmas. These provide an opportunity to discuss how ethical decisions may­be made when there may be no clear action. This approach was stimulated by research that explored the ethical dilem­mas faced by psychologists. A study by Pope and Vetter (1992) of members of the АРА found that confidentiality was the main domain reported for dilemmas (18% of respondents): for example, where there was a conflict with the possibility that harm to the client or a third party could be prevented. Their paradigm was used by Lindsay in the UK for a survey of members of the BPS (Lindsay & Colley, 1995), where a similar number (17%) reported confidential­ity dilemmas, and a replication with psychotherapists (Lindsay & Clarkson, 1999); further replications were car­ried out in other countries with similar results. Also of note was the proportion of respondents who claimed not to have had any ethical dilemmas in the recent past, about 20% for the АРА and 37% for the BPS studies, respectively.

The importance of the Meta-code for educative purposes has been fundamental throughout its development. There are a number of models of ethical decision-making (see Pryzwansky & Wendt, 1999 for a review). This was an important objective for the CPA's code (Sinclair & Pettifor,

1992), which was adapted by Lindsay (2008a, 2008b) for use by educational psychologists. The Meta-code has also been used to support decision-making, its format as well as content found to be particularly useful (Lindsay, in press).

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