Ethical and legal considerations are important in the field of psychology. This certainly holds true for the area of psychological assessment. Understanding the ethical codes and federal and state laws that apply to psychological testing and assessment is essential to the psychology profession, because these codes and laws protect both you and your clients.

To prepare for this Discussion, select one of the case studies in the document “Week 3 Case Studies” from this week’s Learning Resources and consider the ethical and/or legal considerations related to psychological assessment it presents.

Case Study 5

Chase Knotting was a patient who had been seen in 2003 by Dr. David Miller, a psychiatrist. In 2008, Chase was about to remarry, and his fiancée’s father asked a psychologist friend, Dr. Saul Leventhal, to write Dr. Miller to find out about his soon-to-be son-in-law. Dr. Leventhal wrote to Miller stating specifically that he was requesting information in order to advise and apprise a concerned future father-in-law. Dr. Miller’s response letter indicated that Chase had been diagnosed as a “manic-depressive with psychotic features.” Dr. Miller went on to write that his advice to the bride-to-be was to “run as fast and as far as she could away from this man . . . of course, if he didn’t marry her, he would marry some other poor girl and make her life hell.”