Develop a Scenario Involving Boundaries and Multiple Relationships - Essay Example

According to this code a multiple relation occurs when a psychologist is in a professional role with a person: 1. And at the same time is in another role with the same person. 2. Is at the same time in relationship with a person closely associated with or related to the person with whom the psychologist has the professional relations ship 3. Promises to enter into another relationship in the future with the person or a person Closely associated with or related to the person. What needs to be understood is that when a certain behavior becomes a boundary violation, and which behaviors are acceptable in a multiple relationship and which are not.

Another thing that needs to be considered before determining any action or behavior in such a situation is to decipher how the multiple relationships will impact the involved people. Will it be a positive impact or will it increase complexities and create more problems. Psychologists have an ethical principles and a code of conduct that they need to follow which involves fidelity, responsibility, integrity, justice, and respect for others rights along with many other such codes as given in APA ethical principles (Behnke, 2008).

Let’s consider a scenario where a student is facing a similar problem of indulging into a multiple relationship. . She is well aware of Bills history and problems. She understands that his academic carrier has been affected by his personal financial problems. Bill has taken up two jobs apart from his ongoing degree. He needs to pay back loan which he had taken for setting up a business earlier. He needs to get done with his degree so he can work full time and get rid of the burden of loan that he has been carrying for a while now.

He also pays for his tuition, apartment and other necessities. He cannot afford to fail any course or waste any money. Nancy has been closely examining his client and has been providing him with constant support so he doesn’t loose hope and keeps on working hard to make ends meet. Nancy also instructs a psychology course for the management students as a graduate teaching assistance. During the course registration she is surprised to find out that Bill has also registered for taking up the course she instructs.

This makes Nancy really uncomfortable and she is unsure how to deal with this dilemma. Considering the APA Ethics codewhich says that the psychologist should refrain from indulging into multiple relationships (Barnett et al, 2007), her first and foremost idea was to talk to Bill about registering at some other course. Bill told her that he had no other option and taking up this course was his only way to graduate that semester. This meant that Nancy had no other choice but to deal with this ethical dilemma of being in a multiple relationship with Bill.

She sat down to chalk down a plan to minimize the risk of being biased in grading the papers and assignments. She dint want to be unfair to the rest of the class in marking leniently for Bill since she knew his problems and how important it is for him to clear this subject. She