Human rights and psychology: codes of conduct and common themes

Year 2018, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 18 - 28, 29.12.2018

Ulaş Başar Gezgin

Abstract

This article which focuses on psychology and human rights starts
with a discussion of psychologists’ codes of conducts in 6
different continents. It is argued that human rights are defined in
different ways in different countries although some similarities
are visible. Some of the codes take into account the possibility
that the law and human rights principles can be incompatible, but
more elaborate discussions are necessary. The discussion includes
a set of key questions and common themes on the intersection of
psychology and human rights. It is observed that unlike the first
impression, psychologists conducted lots of research on human
rights areas; however they rarely theorize and present them in
such terms. That is why, this article invites psychology
researchers to be more holistic. As a case in application, in what
ways psychology is relevant for human rights and social
institutions is presented. Human rights perceptions research was
briefly discussed in the article. Finally, official psychological
discourse is questioned from a human rights perspective.

Keywords

Psychology and human rights, psychologists’ codes of conduct, human rights and social institutions, and human rights perceptions

References

• Association of German Professional Psychologists (1999) Code of Conduct of the Association of German Professional Psychologists. Retrieved January 29, 2018, from www.bdp-verband.org/bdp/verband/clips/ethic.pdf
• Australian Psychological Society (2007) APS code of ethics. Retrieved February 5, 2018, https://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/APS-Code-of-Ethics.pdf
• Boyd JW, LoCicero A, Malowney M, Aldis R, Marlin RP. (2014) Failing ethics 101: psychologists, the U.S. military establishment, and human rights. International Journal of Health Services 44(3):615-625.