Answer:
Ethics is defined as moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior. When outlining and designing ethics for any organization by even looking at the definition it is clear to see how establishing solid and reliable ethics plays an important part in how an organization functions. A couple of defining principles from the American Psychological Association that are relevant to Adventure Therapy can be seen in several different areas. Gass, Gillis and Russell (2012) mention that it is important to understand your clients values, your values, and various factors that go into their identity. If a professional isn’t careful, often times over-generalizing can lead to stereotyping. This reason amongst others is why it is helpful to reference the ten areas for adventure therapists to assess before making ethical decisions in relation to clients. Part of the ten identified include identifying the biological differences that different genders may experience, the stereotyping and discrimination that is experienced amongst those with disabilities and the socioeconomic status and perceive power or powerlessness experienced amongst these different ethnicities. Across all of these domains the important commonality is to not discriminate against any of these populations. This falls under the realm of the American Psychological Association ethical policies seen in Standard 3: Human Relations. In standard 3.01, it specifically states that psychologists do not engage in unfair discrimination based on gender ethnicity or disability amongst other populations also categorized in Adventure Therapy practices.
Another overarching ethical principle that is highlighted in Adventure Therapy is the concept of nonmaleficence, which means, “above all do no harm”. Basically, this idea covers the importance of risk and benefits that are experienced in adventure programming. Although it is impossible to avoid all harm in adventure programming I feel like this concept can be better understood under the umbrella of the American Psychological Associations ethics principles. In section 3.04 Avoiding Harm, APA specially states that reasonable steps must be taken to avoid harm to people who they work with and work to minimalize harm when it is foreseeable and unavoidable. I feel like this section of human relations is especially relatable because without some form of risk, perceived or actual, AT programs wouldn’t function as they did.
Although many relevant ethical principles can be drawn between the two, I specifically focused on the human relationships piece because I feel like it is such a valuable portion for both the APA and AT and plays a big part in the moral of professionals in either field. The question I am left with at this point is what are other overarching concepts that you feel are relevant to both AT and APA and why? Thanks for reading!
References:
Gass, Michael A., Lee Gillis, and Keith C. Russell. (2012). Adventure Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York: Routledge
American Pscyholocial Association (2010). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx?item=6
Oxford University Press (2013). Ethics. Retrieved from http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/ethics
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