Behavioral Ethics: Ethical Practice Is More Than Memorizing Compliance Codes

Cicero F. R. (2021).

Behavior analysis in practice, 14(4), 

1169–1178.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00585-5

Abstract

Disciplines establish and enforce professional codes of ethics in order to guide ethical and safe practice. Unfortunately, ethical breaches still occur. Interestingly, it is found that breaches are often perpetrated by professionals who are aware of their codes of ethics and believe that they engage in ethical practice. The constructs of behavioral ethics, which are most often discussed in business settings, attempt to explain why ethical professionals sometimes engage in unethical behavior. Although traditionally based on theories of social psychology, the principles underlying behavioral ethics are consistent with behavior analysis. When conceptualized as operant behavior, ethical and unethical decisions are seen as being evoked and maintained by environmental variables. As with all forms of operant behavior, antecedents in the environment can trigger unethical responses, and consequences in the environment can shape future unethical responses. In order to increase ethical practice among professionals, an assessment of the environmental variables that affect behavior needs to be conducted on a situation-by-situation basis. Knowledge of discipline-specific professional codes of ethics is not enough to prevent unethical practice. In the current article, constructs used in behavioral ethics are translated into underlying behavior-analytic principles that are known to shape behavior. How these principles establish and maintain both ethical and unethical behavior is discussed.

Here are some thoughts:

This article argues that ethical practice requires more than memorizing compliance codes, as professionals aware of such codes still commit ethical breaches. Behavioral ethics suggests that environmental and situational variables often evoke and maintain unethical decisions, conceptualizing these decisions as operant behavior. Thus, knowledge of ethical codes alone is insufficient to prevent unethical practice; an assessment of environmental influences is necessary. The paper translates behavioral ethics constructs like self-serving bias, incrementalism, framing, obedience to authority, conformity bias, and overconfidence bias into behavior-analytic principles such as reinforcement, shaping, motivating operations, and stimulus control. This perspective shifts the focus from blaming individuals towards analyzing environmental factors that prompt ethical breaches, advocating for proactive assessment to support ethical behavior.

Understanding these concepts is vital for psychologists because they too are subject to environmental pressures that can lead to unethical actions, despite ethical training. The article highlights that ethical knowledge does not always translate to ethical behavior, emphasizing that situational factors often play a more significant role. Psychologists must recognize subtle influences such as the gradual normalization of unethical actions (incrementalism), the impact of how situations are described (framing), pressures from authority figures, and conformity to group norms, as these can all compromise ethical judgment. An overconfidence in one's own ethical standing can further obscure these influences. By applying a behavior-analytic lens, psychologists can better identify and mitigate these environmental risks, fostering a culture of proactive ethical assessment within their practice and institutions to safeguard clients and the profession.

Train PhD students to be thinkers not just specialists

Gundula Bosch
nature.com
Originally posted February 14, 2018

Under pressure to turn out productive lab members quickly, many PhD programmes in the biomedical sciences have shortened their courses, squeezing out opportunities for putting research into its wider context. Consequently, most PhD curricula are unlikely to nurture the big thinkers and creative problem-solvers that society needs.

That means students are taught every detail of a microbe’s life cycle but little about the life scientific. They need to be taught to recognize how errors can occur. Trainees should evaluate case studies derived from flawed real research, or use interdisciplinary detective games to find logical fallacies in the literature. Above all, students must be shown the scientific process as it is — with its limitations and potential pitfalls as well as its fun side, such as serendipitous discoveries and hilarious blunders.

This is exactly the gap that I am trying to fill at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where a new graduate science programme is entering its second year. Microbiologist Arturo Casadevall and I began pushing for reform in early 2015, citing the need to put the philosophy back into the doctorate of philosophy: that is, the ‘Ph’ back into the PhD.

The article is here.

Social Mission in Health Professions Education: Beyond Flexner

Fitzhugh Mullan
JAMA: Viewpoint
Originally published June 26, 2017

Here is an excerpt:

Today, with a broader recognition of the importance of social determinants of health and a better understanding of the substantial health disparities within the United States, new ideas are circulating and important experiments in curricular redesign are taking place at many schools. Accountable care organizations, primary care medical homes, interprofessional education, cost consciousness, and teaching health centers are all present to some degree in the curricula of health professions schools and teaching hospitals, and all have dimensions of social mission. These developments are encouraging, but the creative focus on social mission that they represent needs to be widely embraced, becoming a core value of all health professions educational institutions, including schools, teaching hospitals, and postgraduate training programs.

Toward that end, the unqualified commitment of these institutions to teaching and modeling social mission is needed, as are the voices of academic professional organizations, accrediting bodies, and student groups who have important roles in defining the values of young professionals. The task is interprofessional and should involve other disciplines including nursing, dentistry, public health, physician assistants, and, perhaps, law and social work. The commitments needed are not the domain of any one profession, and collaborative initiatives at the educational level will reinforce social mission norms in practice. The precision with which health disparities and the morbidity and mortality that they represent can be documented calls on all health professions schools, academic health centers, and teaching hospital to place their commitment to social mission alongside their dedication to education, research, and service in pursuit of a healthier and fairer society.

The article is here.