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Texas LPC Ethics

Section 6
Gender Boundary Dilemmas-
3 Step Method for Deciding what is Ethical

Question 6 | Test | Table of Contents

Now let's look at increasing your self awareness concerning the impact of your gender culture. As you know, culture dictates patterns or ways of behaving in response to a specific situation, and these patterns are given to you as a child through your family, school, church, other social institutions, and your peer group.

In this process, the reasons for selecting a particular way of behaving may be lost. Your behavior becomes invested with an emotional significance, which is the accepted way for your particular culture. Culture also defines significant roles and sets up expectations of the behaviors that accompany them. When these role definitions become rigid, they tend to be counterproductive.

We can see much rigidity operating in the gender-role definitions that have been so inhibiting to women's use of their potential for achievement. We see these gender-roles operating in families where the accepted expectations for wife and parent roles may be so engrained that individuals cannot adapt to people whose expectations differ from their own.

So, with this in mind, let's look at increasing self-awareness of your culture as it dictates ways of behaving regarding gender-role expectations. In general, women are raised to be submissive to men. Men are raised with a culture of entitlement.

♦ A Client of the Opposite Gender
Ask yourself, when you have a client of the opposite gender, do you sometimes have a hard time setting boundaries because of these inferior versus superior roles? As a male, do you feel at a certain level that you should have all the answers for your client, especially your female clients?

Think a minute, as a male do you have more of a tendency to feel you should be able to "fix" your female clients? Or, as a female, do you feel intimidated by some of your more domineering, assertive male clients? In setting a boundary with a client, in order to stay focused on the issues that they present in the session, a brief recall of the gender-role expectation in the culture in which you were raised may be of assistance. In light of the preceding examples, turn the CD off and recall a client of the opposite gender for which you may feel you have a gender-biased boundary issue.

♦ "White Knight" Complex - 5 Questions
The impact of your gender culture may come into play regarding crossing the boundary of providing favors for clients. I have found this creates more of a problem for my male colleagues than their female counterparts. Many males laughingly refer to this as their "white knight" complex. Here's a question for you...
-- If you see a client stranded on the roadside do you give him or her a ride?
-- Do you have clients for which you feel this would be appropriate?
-- Or do you feel there are no clients you are currently treating for which you would violate this boundary, by giving a ride?
-- If you work with children, how about giving a ride to their stranded parent...in the pouring rain?
-- How about this for complications of boundaries?
They are also your neighbors...and you live in a very small town. The situation creates more of a gray area in this case, than for the therapist that works in a big city probation department and the client stated in her last session she was starting to use drugs again.

♦ 3 Step Method for Deciding What is an Ethical Boundary
So how do you decide what is ethical boundary setting and what isn't? A three step method to help you decide, proposed by Robison in his Ethical Decision Making book, is as follows:

#1. What is the context of the situation? i.e. big town versus small town or substance abuse history versus none.
#2.
What are the client's goals? Is this a ploy or manipulation for attention to reinforce dependence or perhaps a sexual fantasy? And finally,
#3. What is the potential harm resulting from a various course of action that may damage your future therapy relationship? I will be referring to Robison's three step ethics assessment techniques several times throughout this CD to give you practice in applying it. Hopefully by the end of the CD you will have a working knowledge of his three step assessment method.


- Gartrell, N. (2002). Boundaries in Lesbian Therapy Relationships. Women and Therapy, 29-50.

Boundary Crossings and Violations in Clinical Settings

-Aravind, V. K., Krishnaram, V. D., & Thasneem, Z. (2012). Boundary crossings and violations in clinical settings. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 34(1), 21–24. doi:10.4103/0253-7176.96151

Update
Considerations of Sex and Gender
Dimensions by Research Ethics
Committees: A Scoping Review

Saxena, A., Lasher, E., Somerville, C., & Heidari, S. (2022). Considerations of sex and gender dimensions by research ethics committees: a scoping review. International health, 14(6), 554–561.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Article References:
Johnson, J. F., & Connelly, S. (2016). Moral disengagement and ethical decision-making: The moderating role of trait guilt and shame. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 15(4), 184–189.

Stauffer, S. D. (2019). Ethical use of drawings in play therapy: Considerations for assessment, practice, and supervision. International Journal of Play Therapy, 28(4), 183–194.

Stillwell, A., & Lowery, B. S. (2020). Gendered racial boundary maintenance: Social penalties for White women in interracial relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication.

Turchik, J. A., Karpenko, V., Hammers, D., & McNamara, J. R. (2007). Practical and ethical assessment issues in rural, impoverished, and managed care settings. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 38(2), 158–168.

Wieczorek, K., & Dobson, K. (2021). The interface of sexuality and gender with mature minor: Ethical considerations and a case illustration. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne.

QUESTION 6
What are the three steps in the ethics assessment technique? To select and enter your answer go to Test.


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