The boundaries of confidentiality: what and to whom can a psychologist tell about you? Professional secrecy Confidentiality and professional secrecy in psychology.
Information disclosure
Disclosure of information is one of the important infrastructural (providing) conditions for the implementation of ethical standards. At the same time, disclosure of information ensures the effective implementation of all these principles.
So, for example, professionalism includes such a condition as disclosing information about one's incompetence in some matter.
The principle of informed consent means that information must be disclosed in order to make a full decision "with open eyes".
The criterion of possible disclosure of information must be taken into account when analyzing the forthcoming actions of any participant in corporate relations. The question - what will be the reaction of other participants in the public disclosure of actions, if they are committed - is a significant obstacle to the commission of unethical actions.
Thus, the requirement to disclose information about all actions or inactions that are critical from the point of view of ethics is one of the most important conditions for the implementation of ethics in the company's activities. Therefore, the withholding of information in disputable situations, even if this information nevertheless complied with the framework of ethical rules, should be recognized as an ethical violation, even if this did not cause adverse consequences.
To simplify the information disclosure procedure, it is advisable to develop samples of internal corporate documents (certificates, memos, etc.), which will contain the grounds, content and explanation why this or that information is subject to disclosure.
Confidentiality means respect for and protection of the secrecy of the affairs of the company, shareholders, directors and managers and other participants in corporate relations.
Confidentiality means keeping only information about good faith and law-abiding behavior secret.
When we are talking about incompetence, withholding of information subject to disclosure, then the mandatory rules for disclosure of information come into force, up to sending information about illegal or unethical behavior to governing bodies companies or competent government bodies.
Privacy includes the following components:
· Protection of information related to the activities of the company and not subject to disclosure - that is, information related to trade secrets.
· Complete secrecy regarding the business and financial and personal affairs of shareholders, directors, managers, employees and counterparties of the company.
· Non-disclosure of information to third parties, including government agencies, if the requirements of third parties are not based on law. In conditions high level administrative pressure on business and corruption, such situations may occur.
· Disclosure of information to third parties can only be in cases where: a) either there was a requirement based on the law; b) or there was the consent of the person concerned, whose interests are affected by this information.
· Ensuring that all communications, whether verbal, written or otherwise, are handled with care to prevent the dissemination of confidential information and exercise extreme caution when using any means of telecommunication.
· Restrict access to any confidential or important documents.
· Respect for the rights of colleagues and subordinates to the secrecy of their personal affairs, except in cases where the interests of the good of the company or the rights and legitimate interests of a participant in corporate relations may be at risk as a result of non-disclosure of information.
In order to give due rigor and regulation to the confidentiality regime, it is recommended to establish and comply with a general rule according to which any information received in professional activity owner, director, manager or employee and relating to the activities of the company and / or its counterparties, should be treated as confidential.
Directors and managers must ensure to owners (shareholders) and other stakeholders that company employees who work with confidential information, the disclosure of which may harm these stakeholders, are properly instructed and real mechanisms and procedures are in place in the company (receipts, instructions, control measures ) to prevent disclosure of information.
It should also be taken into account that the protection of confidential information should be ongoing. An employee, director or manager working for the company undertakes not to disclose confidential information that became known to them in connection with the performance of official duties, and after leaving the company and terminating work in it. This information belongs to the company and directors, managers and employees should be aware of the relationship of mutual trust and loyalty that existed between the company and its employees.
The most reliable and guaranteed method for an employee to keep confidential information is his firm and strict decision not to discuss it with anyone, even with colleagues who do not have access to this information, as well as with relatives. The problem with discussing with relatives is that when business issues are discussed with them, both confidential and non-confidential data are used.
As a result, relatives have no idea what can and cannot be disclosed in conversations with acquaintances. The condition of confidentiality in conversations with relatives is delicate and requires careful explanation within the company so that employees do not feel that management is interfering with their privacy.
5. What does the term "professional secret" mean?
The activity of a practical psychologist, like many other types of activity, is characterized by a professional secret - following the rule according to which certain information can be known only to a narrow circle of specialists. This is required by the interests of the client, as well as the psychologist himself. This is not an easy task. The position and status of a psychologist in the system of professional communication is such that he is obliged to provide certain psychological information. Under this type, requirements may also be made regarding personal information. The professional duty of a psychologist does not allow him to provide information about the client to most officials. First of all, the psychologist defends the rights of his client, and confidentiality is an essential part of them. Professional secrecy reflects the principle of confidentiality shared by all psychologists in the world. At the same time, professional secrecy and confidentiality have their limits. If the client reported any information about a possible danger to his life, health, well-being or the lives of other people, then the psychologist will take measures to prevent it. And this may require the intervention of other people and the disclosure of information. For example, a psychologist cannot ignore a message about a planned suicide, a crime, or a child running away from home. The opportunity to discuss the client's problem with colleagues is also reported at the initial stage of work. In the group, the psychologist makes an effort to form group norms that create an atmosphere of confidentiality.
6. Expand the content of the principle of no harm.
The principle of non-harming is one of the basic principles of the activity of practical psychologists, suggesting that the results obtained in the course of interaction with the client should in no case harm him. This principle has a medical origin. He calls on the psychologist to restraint and even to a certain conservatism in everything that affects health, social status and the ability of a person to solve his problems. The client can be traumatized in the process of communicating with a psychologist as a result of receiving overwhelming information about himself, his behavior, with which he does not know what to do. He can strengthen himself in the thought of the impossibility of finding the help he needs. Wrong actions of a psychologist can form dependence and passivity of the client. Harm can be caused by the careless behavior of the psychologist with people who have power over the client, and can use for evil everything that they have learned from communication with the psychologist. A psychologist should use only proven methods that meet modern scientific standards. The psychologist builds all his work on the basis of unconditional respect for the dignity and inviolability of the client's personality. It respects fundamental human rights as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
8. Name the main levels of the methodology and briefly describe them.
The methodology of science is its worldview positions that determine the understanding of the subject under study, the approach to it, the purpose, direction and method of research. It is useful to distinguish between different levels of methodology. In relation to science, a distinction is made between philosophical and special-scientific methodology.
Philosophical methodology is spoken of as the basis on which activity is based; it is the doctrine of the most general laws of nature, society and thought. Philosophy determines the starting positions of the scientist in relation to reality. Major philosophies act as methodological basis certain scientific directions. This level of methodology includes the consideration of general forms of scientific thinking, for example, a discussion of the specifics of the humanitarian and natural scientific methods of cognition. To the provisions constituting common methodology sciences include, for example, the following laws of materialistic dialectics:
- matter is primary, and consciousness, psyche are secondary;
- the world cognizable for a person;
- everything in the world is in constant motion, change;
- the law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones;
- the source of development is the unity and struggle of opposites;
- development proceeds by negating what has been passed, overcome;
Within the framework of a special scientific methodology, several levels are distinguished: the level of general scientific methodology, the level of specific scientific methodology, the level of the method as a specific methodology (or method of action with an object).
General scientific methodology includes universal principles, means, forms scientific knowledge, correlated not with any science, but applicable to a wide range of sciences (without expanding to general worldview settings). This level includes, for example:
- concepts of systemic scientific analysis;
- structural-level approach;
- cybernetic principles for describing complex systems, etc.;
Specific scientific methodology develops similar (general scientific methodology) problems within specific sciences - both in relation to theory and in relation to empirical activity, based on the characteristics of the object. This is done within the framework of knowledge systems created scientific schools defining their explanatory principles and methods of research and practical work.
At the level of a method or a specific methodology, psychology uses groups of methods: organizational, empirical, data processing methods, and correction methods. The organizational methods include: the longitudinal method, the cross-sectional method and the comparative method. Empirical methods include: observation and self-observation, experimental methods(laboratory, natural, formative), psychodiagnostic (tests, questionnaires, questionnaires, interviews, conversations); analysis of products of activity; biographical method. The methods of psychological correction include: auto-training, group training, methods of therapeutic influence. Data processing methods include: quantitative method(mathematical statistics, computer data processing) and a qualitative method (differentiation of material into groups, its analysis and generalization).
10. What principles relate to the methodological principles of psychology?
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Whatever I see or hear during treatment (as well as outside treatment, in the everyday environment), which should not be spread, I will not divulge that, considering it a sacred secret.
From the Hippocratic Oath
Confidentiality is mentioned in works on the ethics of a psychologist, but professional secrecy is not mentioned in them and seems to be absent. This is wrong.
The principle of maintaining professional secrecy, confidentiality (from lat. confidential - trust) common to all professions. This is a culture and experience of preserving information about customers, information requests, services, technologies, recipes. If sincerity and openness are expected from a person in personal relationships, then professional morality dictates that a specialist should always remember the need to keep special information related to his work secret. Professional secrecy came into the ethics of specialists from the Hippocratic oath.
In Soviet times, such forms of keeping official information as commercial secrets were unknown, since there was no competition between enterprises, industrial espionage was not known to our people, but there was a widely understood “military, state secret”. cold war, the confrontation of the USSR with the world of capitalism formed an understanding of the importance of preserving the main, state secret, which was understood as everything that could reveal to the “enemy” both achievements and shortcomings Soviet system. Since the state believed that citizens could not have secrets from it, it itself was interested in everything. Diagnoses, personal relationships, private conversations, reader interests - everything that in society relates to issues privacy and therefore should be closed, it was of interest to representatives of state security, party organs, and enterprise administrations. From the Soviet system, not only in the work of government agencies, but also in the activities of many modern services, organizations are left neglecting personal data, the habit of collecting and asking about a person as much as possible. Today, these data are posted on the Internet, causing their subjects a lot of grief, because they can be used and, unfortunately, are sometimes used for selfish interests. In the USSR, violations of morality were called "remnants of capitalism", today it is time to call some of the dismissive forms of attitude towards people inherited from the USSR "remnants of Sovietism". It is important for professional psychologists to adhere as strictly as possible to the position of non-disclosure of data about people: this should not only help to increase the level of communication culture, but also strengthen confidence in psychologists and help popularize their services.
Confidentiality and secrecy should be distinguished. A professional secret is understood as information about technologies, innovations, features of activities, principles and methods of working with clients (patients), methods of manufacturing and storing medicines, drugs, explosives etc., which may affect the security interests of the state and individual people, commercial interests of the firm, specialist, patented or not.
All over the world they are carefully guarded. Confidentiality, apparently, is primarily concerned with private life, the inviolability of the individual. And if the need to keep state secrets today is supported by a special law on civil servants, stipulated in contracts in the private sector, then confidentiality issues have to be resolved through trial and error.
Professional secret - special information that has become known to a specialist in the course of work and is not subject to disclosure. Special storage of documents related to such information, the rules for their destruction, the use of special codes, as well as non-disclosure of the very fact of the existence of such information, is fundamental in the state and military service, in development departments, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, etc.
A professional secret may have the status of state, military, commercial, medical, etc., and provide for various degrees of responsibility from purely official to criminal. Working in such institutions, the psychologist must remember his responsibility.
However, until now, the secret of the secret is not obvious to everyone. And it's not about the ignorance of individual citizens. Society is interested in the non-proliferation of weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction, in the inadmissibility of manipulating the mass consciousness, every company, enterprise has its own trade secrets and wants to keep them. At the same time, society is interested in the publicity of developments in the field of nuclear physics and their application, chemical research, crime statistics and the spread of especially dangerous diseases, epidemics, conditions for drug testing and other situations where, under cover of secrecy, new species that threaten people's safety can be prepared. weapons, drugs, psychotropic substances, methods of manipulation, hiding information about impending natural disasters and cataclysms, etc. Publicity and accessibility of generally significant information, on the one hand, and strict observance of official secrets, on the other hand, are fixed by the relevant regulations. There should be secrets, not secrets. So, for example, on each label you can read what the product consists of, its calorie content, production and storage times - this is not a secret. But not a single self-respecting company will print on the label the recipe for the manufacture of its product, because this is its secret. The work of a psychologist also has its own secrets and confidentiality issues. Professional secrecy in the work of a psychologist, as in any other profession, concerns several aspects of the security of the individual and society.
This is, firstly, the social aspect - the need to keep secret recipes, prescription forms, places of storage of strong analgesics and psychotropic drugs that cause addiction and dependence. Professional secrecy in psychology and psychiatry also means not disclosing to outsiders information about how drugs were obtained and where they were stored.
Secondly, the security conditions of the office and its employees must be kept secret - alarm codes, safes, access to computer programs, documents, internal information.
Thirdly, methods of work, own developments of employees, their journals, diaries of observations, files of scientific developments should be inaccessible to patients, outsiders.
Confidentiality in psychology primarily concerns the non-disclosure of data about patients and clients, about the reasons for contacting. This is also the non-disclosure of the problems of counseling, testing, therapy of psychopathologies, registration of patients, persons registered in psychological dispensaries, persons undergoing treatment or rehabilitation after psychological trauma or any other situations. In each case, we are talking about compliance with certain standards for the preservation of information, about a narrow circle of people to whom it is available or necessary. It is desirable for every psychologist to limit discussion psychological problems people in conversations with colleagues, relatives, to refuse the temptation to give an example: “here in my practice there was a case ...”, in general, a psychologist should not, has no right to judge about your work with anyone. Of course, it is permissible and desirable to consult with colleagues, supervisors about difficult cases, own failures, questions. But at the same time, specific names are not called, situations are veiled whenever possible. The exception is cases when help is needed, urgent intervention of colleagues, law enforcement agencies. These are specially specified cases of suicide threats, reprisals against offenders, preparation of terrorist attacks, conditions that threaten the safety of people (for example, an inadequate driver or pilot).
The professional secrecy of a psychologist may concern specific individuals and be considered as a condition for maintaining their autonomy. This may be a secret instruction for colleagues participating in the experiment as assistants. Or the key to the test, representing the property of the researcher or not yet published data obtained by him personally.
Confidentiality requires not to name the subjects during the experiments, not to transfer information about the behavior of individuals during the tests (see paragraph 7.1 "Ethics scientific research in psychology”), not to disclose the results of interviews, tests without a proper reason. The code of the Russian Psychological Society notes: “Research results must be presented in such a way that they cannot compromise the Client, the Psychologist or psychological science ...
Psychodiagnostic data of students obtained during their training should be treated confidentially. Customer information must also be treated confidentially...
By demonstrating specific cases of his work, the Psychologist must ensure the protection of the dignity and well-being of the Client.
At the same time, the psychologist is obliged, like any specialist, to strive for the maximum openness of his activity, without resorting to deception and false significance in his work. He should not hide from the consulted neither his profession, nor the goals of the conversations, nor the possibilities of the methods, nor the predicted result. This is called informed (informed) consent. At the same time, the psychologist must be aware of the importance of maintaining maximum competence and responsibility in his work.
- See, for example: The Psychologist's Code of Ethics. URL: http://andreevg.ru/down-load/ethics.pdf (date of access: 05/07/2016).
- The ethical code of the psychologist. URL: http://www.pno.pcj)/rpo/documcntat:ion/ethics.php (accessed 05/08/2016).
“We did not wait for the sailors to come, and ourselves - Ellerdyce, the carpenter and I - pulled the chest onto the deck and pushed it overboard. Spray shot up like a fountain, and the box sank to the bottom. There, in the depths, he still lies, and if it is true that the seas dry up over time, then I mourn in advance the fate of a man who finds a strange striped chest and tries to penetrate his secret ”A. Conan Doyle. Striped chest. Story.
Common to all professions is the principle maintaining professional secrecy, confidentiality (from lat. confidentia - trust) of information about customers, information requests, services, technologies, recipes. If sincerity and openness are expected from a person in personal relationships, then professional morality dictates that a specialist should always remember the need to keep special information related to his work secret. Professional secrecy came into the ethics of specialists from the Hippocratic oath.
In Soviet times, such forms of keeping official information as commercial secrets were unknown, our people were not aware of industrial espionage, but there was spy mania. The entrance to any office, pantry with brooms in the USSR was decorated with the inscription " Outsiders entrance forbidden!" At the same time, each Soviet institution had Department No. 1 (secret), designed to preserve the main - state secret - whose activity consisted in spying on individual citizens, from whom the secret was kept. Since the state believed that there could be no secrets from it, it itself was interested in everything. Disease diagnoses, personal relationships, private conversations, readers' interests - everything that is confidential in a democratic state was of interest to this department.
Professional secret - special information that has become known to a specialist in the course of work and is not subject to disclosure. The special storage of documents related to such information, the rules for destruction, the use of special codes, as well as the non-disclosure of the very fact of the existence of such information, is fundamental in the state and military service, in development departments, banking and so on. A professional secret can have the status of state, military, commercial, medical, etc., and provide for various degrees of responsibility - from purely official to criminally punishable.
Confidentiality and secrecy should, in my opinion, be distinguished. By professional secret it is logical to understand information about technologies, innovations, features of activity, features of the manufacture and storage of medicines, explosives, etc., which may affect the security interests of the state and individuals, the commercial interests of a company, specialist, patented or not. All over the world they are carefully guarded.
In the United States, for example, in 1996 a law was passed making economic espionage a criminal offence. So the theft of recipes of well-known Coca-Cola brands led to a lawsuit for disclosing trade secrets, which is punishable by a prison term of up to 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000.
In the UK, according to the press, up to 30% of managers use the information entrusted to them for personal enrichment.
And it's not just the ignorance of individual citizens. Until now, the "holiness" of the secret is not obvious to everyone. Society is interested in the non-proliferation of weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction, each company has its own trade secrets and wants to keep them. On the other hand, society is interested in the publicity of developments in the field of nuclear physics and their application, chemical research, in the statistics of crimes and the spread of especially dangerous diseases, epidemics, the conditions for testing drugs and other situations when, under cover of secrecy, new ones that threaten people's safety can be prepared. types of weapons, medicines, psychotropic substances, hiding information about impending natural disasters and cataclysms, etc. When a mysterious recipe is not safe for health. Publicity and accessibility of generally significant information on the one hand, and strict observance of official secrets on the other, it is advisable to fix the relevant regulations. After all, the question is that there should be secrets, not secrets.
So, for example, on each label you can read what the product consists of, its calorie content, production and storage time - this is not a secret. But no self-respecting company will print on the label the recipe for the manufacture of its product, because this is its secret.
One of the reasons for the spread of corruption is the lack of legal regulation of issues related to proprietary information, which can be sold by civil servants to interested parties to the detriment of the interests of the state.
From 1987 to 1994 in Russia, these issues were regulated by the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 556-126, dated May 12, 1987, where official secrets were equated with state secrets and were classified as “secret”. After the adoption in 1994 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On State Secrets”, official secrets ceased to be protected by the Law, since only state secrets began to be classified as “secret” information. In 1995 (with the entry into force of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), an official secret received a legal status with the possible application of civil liability to persons who disclosed it. Since May 1998, disciplinary liability has been introduced for the disclosure of official secrets. And yet, according to the current legislation, there is no criminal liability for the disclosure of official secrets (unlike state and commercial ones), and, therefore, there is no barrier to bribing officials, both at the level of the Russian Federation and in its subjects.
Confidentiality in relation to the work of a specialist, in my opinion, should be understood as non-disclosure of information relating to the person and become the property of a specialist as a result of the performance of his official duties or in connection with them.
For example, in a bank, the professional secrecy is the documentation of departments, the location of the alarm, codes, etc., and the information about depositors and the size of deposits is confidential. The law obliges in some cases (for example, when investigating crimes) to report confidential information to representatives of law enforcement agencies, who, in turn, can use it solely for the benefit of the investigation and in no other way, avoiding intentional or inadvertent disclosure of it and causing moral harm to those whom they touch.
The need to possess information as a condition for the activities of a professional and the possibility of using it for personal enrichment can cause a conflict of interest.
Conflict of interest and work ethics
“Integrity is the ability to act consciously and fairly where the operation of the law is not provided” Aristotle. Nicomachean ethics.
All professions require refusal to use official position for personal purposes. The codes of many professional workshops, specific firms contain sections on conflict of interest. In contrast to patriarchal morality, professional ethics affirms the primacy of official duties and the secondary nature of personal and family duty. In the legislation of many European countries and the United States are separate items of a special law on public servants. A professional does not have the right to receive other income for work, except for the agreed wages or the remuneration indicated in the contract. Any other remuneration, service, due to the nature of the work, the position held, can be considered as a fact of corruption.
In all professions associated with the possible occurrence of dependence, a subordinate position, indispensable are equal conditions for all customers, visitors, users, the inadmissibility of a privileged attitude towards anyone, as well as the inadmissibility of discrimination based on race, nationality, religion, age, social or property status or any other grounds. Briefly, this principle can be understood as lack of privileges in connection with the profession.
A clear formula for overcoming a conflict of interest is the recognition priority of professional debt over personal. This may mean, for example, that if under normal circumstances a mother should take care of her child first, then at work a female doctor is obliged to provide assistance to those children who need it at the moment.
The conflict of interest is overcome by the fulfillment of professional duty, respect for property rights in all its forms.
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