Ethical social justice: Do the ends justify the means?

Ethical social justice: Do the ends justify the means?

This article offers an ethical decision‐making model, informed by community psychology values, as a means for guiding psychologists when engaging in social justice‐oriented work. The applicability of this model is demonstrated through a case analysis elucidating how America's psychologists indi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of community & applied social psychology Vol. 27; no. 4; pp. 298 - 311
Main Authors: Liang, Belle, Chung, Agnes, Diamonti, Alfred‐John, Douyon, Christina M., Gordon, Jena R., Joyner, Emily D., Meerkins, Tera M., Rene, Kirsten M., Sienkiewicz, Stephanie‐Ann, Weber, Amanda, White, Allison E., Wilson, Eva S.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Chichester Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-07-2017
Subjects:
Caregiving
Codes of conduct
community
Community psychology
Compassion
Decision making
Decision making models
Ethical dilemmas
Ethics
feminist psychology
multicultural
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Psychologists
Reflexivity
Self determination
Social justice
social justice work
Social participation
Sympathy
Terrorism
Torture
Values
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Summary:This article offers an ethical decision‐making model, informed by community psychology values, as a means for guiding psychologists when engaging in social justice‐oriented work. The applicability of this model is demonstrated through a case analysis elucidating how America's psychologists individually and collectively arrived at the decision to endorse torture—ostensibly as a means for preventing terrorism. Critics have wondered how the American Psychological Association succumbed to these involvements, and how to prevent such ethical lapses in the future. Unfortunately, the American Psychological Association's ethical codes fail to provide explicit guidance for psychologists' involvement in social justice work that impacts communities and systems. To address this gap, we present a values‐driven, ethical decision‐making framework that may be used to guide psychologists' future practices. This framework infuses fundamental community psychology values (i.e., caring and compassion; health; self‐determination and participation, human diversity, social justice; and critical reflexivity) into a 9‐step model.
ISSN:1052-9284
1099-1298
DOI:10.1002/casp.2323