10/chapter 12 let's get ethical, ethical

Question: Where are the ethical principles of APA most relevant to AT? 

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

4: Lets get social about AT

How might The Outward Bound Process be used in psychology other than treatment?

In order to find out how the Outward Bound Process model is used in psychology, I felt it would be good to start at this base of the subject.  For this journal, I decided to gather more information about what exactly Walsh and Golins where originally seeking to convey, this is what I found.  I then was kind of curious about what these folks looked like, the picture below is what I found.  Side-note, Don't get to time warped with these outfits and forget to check that killer backdrop. 

Victor "Vic" Walsh is third from the left (note cool hat), Gerald "Jerry" Golins is first on the right

Secondly, I went to a solid reliable source I was familiar with, my notes from my Social Psychology class with Dr. Powell.  Here is a condensed snip it on which part of my notes I focused on. 

The article from the 70s talked about how this social environment is created by a ten group or primary group.  This primary group has about seven to fifteen people who seek a common objective.  Also, a bound and collective consciousness is present.  The size of the group allows them to have stricter conformity in the group and eventually participants realize that fighting against the group is less than ideal and taking a “go with the flow” attitude is imperative for our social being.  Those who don’t find themselves a member of the group might experience self-doubt and having a fear of rejection. 

Another area of the OBP that relates to social psychology is the idea that the learner finds reward in solving concrete and manageable problems within a positive peer environment.  The new attitudes and values allow people to become more likely to tackle upcoming problems.  This leads to the social psychology concept of internalization.  Internalization occurs when behaviors persists after the group is no longer present.  Formally, participants might have experienced cognitive dissonance, which is a disconnect between their internal beliefs and statements leading to discomfort.  There is now, for a participant, no disconnecting between these internal beliefs and the external statement.  Afterwards, A participant has demonstrated the internalized gained knowledge with no feelings of guilt or doubt.

Drawing these points together, the Outward Bound Process can be used in the research component of social psychology.  It can be used to further provide support for these theories and continue to expand and further define these concepts. In conclusion, the OBM has many connections to social psychology with this blog displaying only a few examples.

To gain more insight on these two Outward Bound founders and see more old photos from other pioneers go here.   

 Citations:

Walsh, V., & Golins, G. L. (1976). The exploration of the Outward Bound process.  Denver, CO: Colorado Outward Bound School.

Powell, C. (2012). Unit 1: Conformity. Personal collection of C. Powell, Georgia College, Milledgeville, GA.

Robertson, J. (2012, June) . COBS Pioneers. Retrieved from http://outwardbounds50thanniversary.weebly.com/cobs-pioneers.html

Gass, Michael A., Lee Gillis, and Keith C. Russell. (2012).  Adventure Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York: Routledge