Realities of decision-making and social issues: Implications for developing and implementing ethics guidelines

To demonstrate that psychological influences should be accounted for in developing and implementing effective ethics guidelines/codes of ethics in professional fields such as environmental epidemiology, widely accepted psychological studies are reviewed. It is shown that attitudes and good intentions are not well-correlated with actual behavior. THis suggests a need for codes which could both aid in professional decision-making and promote the public interest. As yet, there are no standard procedures for developing codes. The development and interpretation of codes is, in part, a political process that can be difficult to document or quantify. It may be useful to survey practitioners and other stakeholders to identify areas in which codes would be useful. However, surveys on values and ethical behavior must take into account questions of validity, reliability, competence versus performance, socially desirable responding, and demand characteristics. With regard to codes currently in use, studies are reviewed in two areas that are not well-recognized. To be effective at the individual level, codes should address the fact that, consciously or not, people make varying interpretations of ethical standards as a function of personal views and self-interest. At the macro level, the codes that are currently in use do not apply when professions as a whole contribute to social issues (e.g. environmental problems, militarism). An Appendix provides an initial outline of general attributes that may help to define a good code of ethics.