The ethical significance of diagnostic test results in psychology practice

"Psychologists base the opinions contained in their recommendations, reports and diagnostic or evaluative statements including forensic testimony on information and techniques sufficient to substantiate their findings". Do expert psychodiagnosticians rely in their professional final reports on the materials and raw data obtained from test materials? How ethical are they in their professional performances? In order to answer this question, expert clinical psychologists were given batteries of psychodiagnostic tests, accompanied by one of two different types of background information, suggesting either a Borderline Personality Disorder, or a Paranoid Personality Disorder. This background information was a full and strongly suggestive story in one experiment, and a mere hypothesis in another. All conditions manifested a confirmation bias: the psychodiagnostic reports were profoundly biased by the background suggestions. The present paper focuses on a content analysis of the reports, and shows that the experts referred very little if at all to the psychodiagnostic materials they received. They were found less professional and as a result- less ethical. The ethical relevance of these findings to the teaching and training of professional psychodiagnosticians is discussed, with an emphasis on the importance of teaching students and interns in clinical psychology to base their diagnostic reports on the test data.