Ethical Considerations for Behavior Analysts
Behavior analysis is a scientific field that applies principles from biology, psychology, and other fields to understand behavior.
Applied ethics
Bioethics. Business ethics. Moral psychology
Conscientious objections (bad orders)
An 18-year-old asthmatic with an acute exacerbation of her condition arrives in the emergency department. The examining physician asks the nurse to give the patient 0.3 cc of epinephrine, 1:10,000 dilution.
Physician attitudes toward patients
An 8-year-old child with a minor head injury is brought in to the emergency department and is judged by the physician to be completely normal. The parents say that a sibling had a skull fracture under similar circumstances and that they would sleep much better if a skull x-ray were taken.
What is ethics?
There is considerable difference of opinion and even confusion about what ethics is. Sometimes, the term “ethics” is used to refer to the conduct of a person or a group, as when it is said “His ethics are questionable”.