Peer reporting of ethical violations: Factors contributing to the decision-making process

Many factors have been suggested to play a role in the decision-making process of reporting a peer for an ethical violation. The field of psychology mandates that psychologists engage in peer monitoring as one means of upholding the ethical principles and standards. However, many known violations may go unreported due to a number of factors which impact the decision to report. This study investigated, via hypothetical scenarios, the influence of the independent variables "relationship to the violator," "relationship to the client/victim of the violation," and "type of dual relationship violation" on the dependent variable of selecting the "Report" option or the "Do Not Report" option, referring to reporting or not reporting the violation to the state ethics board/licensing committee. Methodology involved the use of a questionnaire including one of 16 scenarios containing different levels of the three variables under investigation, demographic items, and other exploratory items. Each of the 16 scenarios was sent to 100 randomly selected APA members identified as "clinicians" or as Division 29 members. A total of 542 usable questionnaires were returned (34% of the original sample of 1600). Results showed no significant effect for relationship-to-therapist. Supportive findings were shown for relationship-to-client and type of dual relationship on the likelihood of choosing to report. Some gender interaction effects were also suggested. Knowledge levels for the APA and ASPPB ethical principles/codes of conduct seem to be related to the peer-reporting decision-making process.