Operational Psychology: Legal and Ethical Considerations is a new 2-hour online continuing education (CE) course that explores the differing viewpoints on the necessity, legality, and ethical use of psychologists to aid the U.S. government in military commitments.
Whether psychologists should aid the U.S. government in hostile actions against its enemies may be the most controversial topic in the history of the helping professions. The military operational psychologists and their supporters in APA governance advance indirect assessments, consultations to interrogators, and other such duties as protecting the government and American society from what could otherwise be catastrophic harms.
They advance the position that such duties are not unlike other third-party consultations, in which the psychologist’s primary duties are to an agency or governmental authority, informed consent is not required, and the targeted individual may be seriously harmed. They attribute the major atrocities of the past to a small number of rogue psychologists, behavioral drift, and poor supervision, which all but ushered in the recently published Professional Practice Guidelines for Operational Psychology.
The self-identified peace psychologists, who have led the movement in disfavor to what they consider unethical adversarial military operational psychology, conclude the alleged rogues were not alone in supporting a torture program and they, like their self-interested supporters in APA governance, have never taken personal responsibility or been held professionally or legally accountable. The peace psychologists conclude military demands and psychology ethics may be irreconcilable, the operational psychologists’ primary duties to the U.S. government subordinate the human rights of individuals who are the target of intervention, and amount to a perversion of professional ethics unbefitting the helping professions in entirety.
Each side attributes the other’s criticisms to conflicts of interest and other forms of bias. This course neutrally reviews the key legal and ethical issues, presents the peace and operational psychologist positions, and concludes with a summary and implications for the future of military operational psychology.
Outline
- Introduction
- Section 1: Professional Ethics & National Security
- Section 2: Law
- Section 3: Mental Health Treatment and Evaluations
- Section 4: Psychology Ethics
- Section 5: Recourses and Resolutions
- Section 6: Conclusions
Course #21-69 | 2026 | 36 pages | 15 posttest questions | Mobile-Friendly
Professional Development Resources, a small Florida nonprofit educational corporation 501(c)(3) organized in 1992, is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Professional Development Resources maintains responsibility for all programs and content. Professional Development Resources is also approved by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC ACEP #5590); the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB #1046, ACE Program); the Continuing Education Board of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA #AAUM); the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA #3159); the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR Prior Approval Program); the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling, Board of Psychology, Office of School Psychology, Board of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology, Board of Occupational Therapy, and Dietetics and Nutrition Practice Council; the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists (#PSY-0145), State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors (#MHC-0135) and marriage and family therapists (#MFT-0100), and the State Board for Social Workers as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers (#SW-0664); the South Carolina Board of Professional Counselors and Marriage & Family Therapists (#193); the Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage and Family Therapists (#114) and State Board of Social Worker Examiners (#5678); and is CE Broker compliant (#50-1635 – completions are reported next business day, currently reporting for 47 boards). Learn more about us.
Target Audience: Psychologists, School Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists (MFTs), Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), Occupational Therapists (OTs), Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs), and Teachers
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