Problemy etyczne w naukach o zdrowiu na przykładzie psychologii klinicznej i psychologii rehabilitacji

Abstract

Psychology, as the science exploring multi-dimensional functioning of a man, definitely can he classified as one of the health sciences. Despite distinct ontological and epistemological backgrounds of life sciences - biology and medicine - they can co-exist with psychology, because they have a common focus: a human being. It is likely that representatives of health sciences will have the same moral problems, faced with the same subject: a patient. Due to this, the aim of this work is discussing ethical problems in health sciences, on the example of clinical psychology and rehabilitation psychology. Problems, which psychologists face, originate from the ancient times, when the job of the psychologist was unknown. The problems are primarily related to strong interpersonal influence and the risk of ‘power’ abuse. They can be categorized to four groups, including: diagnostic tests, psychological help, therapy and scientific research, including studies involving the use psychological experiments. Identifying the ethical dimension with the competence one, ethical problems occurring in those areas were analyzed in detail. Therefore we provide the reader with an opportunity to become acquainted with the ideal ethical behaviors model, i.e. the Psychology Profession Act, Mental Health Act and Ethical Code of this professional group. We will also show case common behaviors, which nevertheless are contradictory to the desired and expected ones.