Ethical dilemmas among psychologists in Sweden and South Africa

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate ethical dilemmas and ethical difficulties experienced by psychologists in Sweden and South Africa. The study is a replication of previous studies conducted by Colnerud (1997) and Slack and Wassenaar (1999). A sample of 295 psychologists in Sweden and 312 psychologists in South Africa were asked to describe situations that they identified as ethically difficult. 53 psychologists in Sweden described 61 incidents and 21 psychologists in South Africa described 24 situations. This corresponds to a response rate of 20% in Sweden and 8% in South Africa. The reported dilemmas were categorized according to a qualitative content analysis developed by Pope and Vetter (1992). The contribution of this study is that the results confirm that confidentiality is a prominent ethical dilemma for psychologists in Sweden and South Africa. This finding is consistent with findings in comprehensive international research. Furthermore, the results indicate that psychologists, especially in Sweden, experience ethical problems due to weakened legitimacy when conducting assessments. The results are discussed taking into consideration the different contexts in which psychologists work, the application of different ethics codes and different levels of ethical awareness. The weaknesses of the study and the method used are also discussed.