Assignments

For this assignment you are required to reflect on and answer the following questions. Each response should be between 250-300 words. The total length of your assignment should not exceed 10 double-spaced pages, not including your title page. No references are required for this paper.

1. What are some of your most strongly held personal beliefs regarding right and wrong?
2. As a child and young adult, who or what, was most influential in shaping your beliefs regarding right and wrong?
3. As a child and young adult, to whom did you go to seek advice about good choices? Why did you choose these individuals?
4. In what ways have your central cultural identities influenced your beliefs regarding right and wrong?
5. What major life experiences (or world events) have shaped the values that inform how you live your life?
6. What are your three most important values and how do these align or conflict with Canadian ethics codes and professional standards? You can choose either or both of the two codes to answer this question.
7. How might the alignment or conflict (identified in #6) influence your work with clients or colleagues?
8. Have you ever felt ethically mistreated by a professional? If so, indicate how this has influenced your professional values. If not, indicate three or more personal values that you think will help decrease the possibility that you will ethically mistreat a client.

Conclude with a summary that indicates what you have learned through your reflections on these questions, and how you think these learnings will help foster your current and ongoing commitment to ethical practice.

Grading Criteria	Weight (15 marks)
Adherence to APA formatting	3 marks
Personal reflection on beliefs and values Identifies personal beliefs and values regarding right and wrong relevant to professional ethics Tracks beliefs and values to personal experiences and if applicable, world events Analyzes critically the influence of cultural identity on personal beliefs and values Articulates consonance and dissonance between personal beliefs and values, and ethical principles and standards Reflects critically on how personal beliefs and values might influence professional ethical practice	9 marks
Summary Summarizes personal learning with reference to key discoveries, insights, and reflections Articulates how insights and learnings from this assignment will help promote future ethical practice	3 marks

1. Beginning in the first week of the course, and ending in the last week of the course, each week you are to document in your Edublog your intellectual and emotional reactions to the week's lesson, with emphasis on the emotional. All aspects of the lesson can be reflected on, including the readings, forum discussions, and assignments.

2. Total number of required words for the week is between 200-300. You can attain this through a series of short entries or through one long entry. Either way, your weekly entry(ies) must be made by the last day of each lesson. You cannot go back at a later date to fill in missed weeks.

3. From time to time your instructor will review your Edublog entries but will not make comments unless you expressly ask the instructor to do so. This is because the Edublog assignment is designed primarily to facilitate your reflective process rather than promote back-and-forth exchange with your instructor.

4. Your Edublog does not need to be APA formatted, though it does need to be clearly written with attention to spelling and grammar.

5. Your final entry for the course will provide a summary (400-600 words) of your key learning points attained throughout the entirety of the Edublog process. This assignment requires no submission on your part. Your Instructor will grade your Edublog and return a grading form in the designated drop-box.

Technical Instructions

IMPORTANT: Your Edublog is set to publish so that other students cannot read your posts, only your instructor. Also, while making entries in your Edublog please ensure that the "Allow Comments" field is set to "Yes.”

How to Add an EduBlog

It's up to you to create your own Edublog entries in Moodle. Each entry into the Edublog is composed as a message (blog), as it is in the discussion forums. It can be accessed through the Moodle activities (in the Weekly EduBlog Section under Assignment Drop Boxes).

To add a new entry, click on the EduBlog posts link, then click the “New blog post” button. You will be taken to the standard screen for entering information. Click on the “Add blog post” button at the bottom to save your changes.

If you wish to view the entries you have created, choose your name from the drop box in “Visible individual” field. You can edit or delete your Edublog using the buttons on the lower right corner of the blog entry area.

Tags

Tags are short words or phrases that help identify the content included in an online post, similar to the subject line of an email. Every blog entry can have one or more tags applied to it (optional). We recommend you enter a tag, which indicates the section of your course, in all of your entries (GCAP632F19 for example). If you wish, add additional tags to it.

User-defined tags allow you to make up your own tags. A tag you create can be used by any student in the course, but only you can edit or delete your user-defined tag.

Grading Criteria	Weight (20 marks)
Clarity of writing throughout your Edublog	3 marks
Meets length requirements (200-300 words each week)	3 marks
Demonstrates personal awareness through reflecting on intellectual and emotional reactions to the content of each lesson	10 marks
Summary of key personal and professional learning points (final summative blog entry)	4 marks

Assignment Description

Length: 2 pages maximum

1. Choose an ethical issue, possibly a controversial one, of special interest to you that you would like to explore in more depth. Listed below are example topics. You are free to choose one of these topics or one of your own. If you are unsure of your topic, consult with your instructor.

   • Limits to confidentiality when working with minors
   • Dual relationships when working in small or rural communities
   • The legal and moral rights of vulnerable populations
   • Informed consent when working with dependent adults
   • Ethical issues associated with technology and counselling
   • Counselling and recovered memories
   • The use of touch in psychotherapy
   • Ethical issues associated with the use of psychotropic medications
   • Addressing unethical behaviour of colleagues
   • Counselling children of separated or divorced parents
   • Ethical issues involved when counselling cultural minorities
   • Ethical issues involved when providing services to Indigenous clients/communities

2. Present a case scenario involving an ethical dilemma related to your chosen topic. Note: By definition a dilemma must involve a difficult choice involving at least two ethically defensible yet conflicting courses of action. To help ensure that you have created an actual dilemma, email your case scenario to your instructor prior to completing your assignment. Your instructor will provide relevant and timely feedback.

Grading Criteria

Grading Criteria	Weight (7 marks)
APA Style - See APA Style Grading Criteria	2 marks
Case scenario Describes a case scenario that is relevant and realistic. The case scenario contains an ethical dilemma involving a difficult choice. between at least two ethically defensible yet conflicting courses of action.	5 marks
Penalties will apply for failure to adhere to the following GCAP Writing Standards:
Intellectual Honesty Scholarly Foundation in Writing

Assignment Description

Length: 7-9 pages maximum

3. Discuss the ethical concerns or issues important to your topic based on current and relevant literature. Be sure to include areas of controversy and dispute. Demonstrate your knowledge of the ethical principles, standards, and guidelines that are relevant to your topic.

Grading Criteria

Grading Criteria	Weight (7 marks)
APA Style - See APA Style Grading Criteria	2 marks
Critical synthesis of the literature Identifies the ethical importance of your topic through a critical synthesis of current and relevant literature. Critically analyses key issues, controversies, and disagreements associated with your topic. Articulates ethical principles, standards, and guidelines relevant to your topic. Critically synthesizes and integrates the current relevant literature and the key ethical principles, standards, and guidelines relevant to your topic.	5 marks
Penalties will apply for failure to adhere to the following GCAP Writing Standards:
Intellectual Honesty Scholarly Foundation in Writing

Assignment Description

Length: 7-9 pages maximum

4. Demonstrate how you would resolve your dilemma through applying the decision-making process from either the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Code of Ethics or The Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists. If you choose to use the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists, you are only required to include steps 1-6 of the decision-making process. Note that for this task you have an option to use a table format, to demonstrate your thinking about part of the decision-making process (see here for an example and instructions). Whether or not you choose to use a table (suggested), you must still show a sound reasoning process that ends in a defendable position.

5. Describe how your personal beliefs and values interface with the professional values and whether this presents any dissonance or personal conflict for you. What changes in the dilemma described could have made it easier, or more difficult, for you personally?

Grading Criteria	Weight (16 marks)
APA Style - See APA Style Grading Criteria	2 marks
Ethical decision Articulates an ethical decision-making process that is: clearly described. demonstrates a carefully reasoned and thorough movement through either the CPA or CCPA ethical decision-making process. culminates in an ethically defensible position.	8 marks
Personal and professional values Articulates clearly the interface between personal and professional values. Critically analyzes sources of dissonance and personal conflict between professional and personal values. Identifies aspects of the case scenario that if altered would positively or negatively influence your personal response.	6 marks
Penalties will apply for failure to adhere to the following GCAP Writing Standards:
Intellectual Honesty Scholarly Foundation in Writing

Imagine that five years from now you are in private practice. If all goes according to plan, you are now fully registered in your discipline. Like most counsellors, psychotherapists, or psychologists in private practice you have a website and you've noticed that many websites refer to the regulatory or credentialing body to which the practitioner is accountable.

Draft language suitable for a public-facing document, such as a website, Psychology Today profile page, or print brochure, that includes :

• the statutory body or bodies that regulate you (for example, some Ontarians maybe regulated both by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario and the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers);
• the voluntary credentialing body or bodies that certify you;
• and, links to the regulatory or credentialing bodies;

Please keep in mind that a public-facing document should typically be written in simple language that is appealing and relatable to the general public. This kind of document is designed to instill confidence in potential clients and to be inviting. After all, this will be part of your advertising strategy. “Legalese” is unlikely to be appealing. Accordingly, once you have completed drafting this document, use the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level feature in Microsoft Word to ensure that it is lower than a Grade 11 reading level.

In addition, include a section entitled “Ethics FAQ.” On this page you will pose, and answer, five of the following 10 questions. Please choose questions most relevant to your anticipated practice five years in the future. Draw upon principles, standards, guidelines, laws, and relevant scholarship to support your responses. For each of your five FAQs, write 1- to 3-paragraph commentary citing the authorities on which you are relying. This would not appear in the public-facing document but will be used to evaluate the soundness of your answers.

• Will you tell my parents what we talk about in therapy?
• Are my sessions with you completely confidential?
• Will other people working in this agency be able to view my confidential information (e.g., administration staff, supervisor, manager)?
• What will you do if we happen to meet in public?
• What if you and I hold very different beliefs regarding religion or politics?
• Will you meet me at my home if I don’t feel up to coming in to see you?
• I am in the midst of separating from my spouse. Will you write a letter supporting my bid for sole custody?
• If I share that I am having an affair, will you inform my partner?
• It is okay if we do some of our sessions using Skype or a related technology?
• If I admit to a serious crime, will you inform the police?

Please submit a document containing this text to the Assignment dropbox. Your instructor will return this document along with your grade and written feedback.

Grading Criteria	Weight (20 marks)
Overview of codes and standards for your jurisdiction	3 marks
Consumer-friendly language (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level < Grade 11)	4.5 marks
Foundation for FAQ response 1.	2.5 marks
Foundation for FAQ response 2.	2.5 marks
Foundation for FAQ response 3.	2.5 marks
Foundation for FAQ response 4.	2.5 marks
Foundation for FAQ response 5.	2.5 marks