Ethical and Clinical Application Flashcards

A school psychologist uses the WAIS-IV to evaluate a 17-year-old for special education eligibility. Who must provide informed consent for this evaluation?

Answer: The student's parent or legal guardian, with assent from the student

For minors, informed consent must be obtained from the parent or guardian, while the student should be provided assent appropriate to their developmental level.

Which factor most threatens the ecological validity of a WAIS-IV assessment conducted in an unfamiliar clinical setting?

Answer: Test anxiety and environmental stressors that may suppress actual performance

Environmental and psychological factors like anxiety can cause scores to underestimate an individual's true cognitive abilities.

A forensic psychologist administers the WAIS-IV to determine intellectual disability in a death penalty case. The primary ethical obligation unique to this context is:

Answer: Recognizing the adversarial nature of the context and maintaining objectivity rather than advocacy

Forensic psychologists must remain objective and not become advocates for either side, even in high-stakes capital cases.

The 'Flynn Effect' has significant ethical implications for WAIS-IV interpretation in forensic settings primarily because:

Answer: Older test norms inflate current IQ scores, potentially misclassifying individuals near diagnostic cutoffs

As population IQ scores rise over time, older norms make current scores appear lower, which can affect diagnoses like intellectual disability.

A client asks to see their WAIS-IV raw data and completed answer booklet after an evaluation. According to APA ethical guidelines, the psychologist should:

Answer: Provide a copy of the report but protect raw test data from direct release to prevent misuse

APA ethics balance client access rights with test security obligations by releasing reports to clients while protecting raw protocols.

When interpreting WAIS-IV results for an older adult (age 75+), the clinician must ethically consider:

Answer: Age-corrected norms and whether observed declines reflect normal aging versus pathological processes

The WAIS-IV provides age-based normative comparisons, and clinicians must distinguish normal cognitive aging from neurological conditions.

A psychologist working in a rural area is asked to evaluate a client for whom no in-person testing is feasible. The ethically preferred approach for telehealth-based WAIS-IV administration is to:

Answer: Acknowledge the limitations of remote assessment, obtain specialized training, and document departures from standard conditions

Telehealth assessment requires awareness of psychometric limitations, informed consent about those limitations, and documentation of any non-standard conditions.