Ethics and professionalism CPD for health practitioners in Australia [email protected]
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Online course · Australia

Ethics and Ethical Standards for Psychologists

Values, Ethical Reasoning and Hard Decisions Under the Psychology Board's Code

  • About 2 hours
  • 15 scenario questions
  • Reflective account
  • Certificate of completion
  • Online, self-paced

About this course

The Psychology Board's Code of conduct tells you what you must and must not do; it cannot settle every case where two good values pull apart. This course is for the moments in between, when a client's autonomy, someone else's safety and your own integrity all have a claim on the decision.

This course sits beneath the rules. It begins by separating ethical, professional and legal questions and identifying the values that the Psychology Board's code is built to protect, then explains why psychological work raises distinctive problems of power, intimacy and confidentiality.

Thinking tools come next: four ethical lenses, the four components of ethical action, the rationalisations that quietly bend judgement and a justification test you could defend to a peer. These are applied to autonomy and capacity, supported and substitute decision-making, mandated and reluctant clients, threats to others, family violence and child safety, organisational and multi-party work, fairness in waiting lists and endings, conscience and non-discrimination, and cultural safety defined by the client's experience.

Later sections deal with honesty about the evidence for therapy, novel interventions, ruptures and mistakes, and the ethical questions raised by technology and AI before the rules catch up. The course closes with moral distress, speaking up and an ethical practice habit, followed by your reflective account.

What you will learn

  • Tell an ethical question apart from a professional or legal one, and name the values your code protects
  • Look at a hard case through principles, consequences, duties, character and care before choosing
  • Strengthen your own judgement with Rest's four-component model and simple checks for bias
  • Respect a client's right to choose while staying alert to capacity, coercion and mandated referral
  • Reason through threats to others, family violence and child safety, and work where more than one party is the client
  • Allocate scarce sessions fairly, end services well and keep your personal values out of a client's goals
  • Be candid about what therapy can offer, about new interventions and AI, and about your own mistakes
  • Recognise moral injury in yourself and act with courage when colleagues or systems fall short

Who this course is for

  • Generally registered psychologists in private, public and organisational settings
  • Psychologists with an area of practice endorsement and registrars working towards one
  • Provisional psychologists and the supervisors who guide them
  • Psychologists in forensic, school, workplace or NDIS roles where loyalties are divided
  • Psychologists wanting a structured way to reflect on a case that still troubles them

How the course works

  1. After checkout the course is added to My Courses in your account, so you can start straight away on any device with a modern browser.

  2. Move through 7 sections (26 lessons in total) in your own time; lessons open in sequence and the player remembers where you stopped on that device.

  3. Each section ends with key points and prompts for reflection. Your notes can be downloaded as a Word course pack or printed for your portfolio.

  4. Sit the 15-question assessment at the end. Score 80% or more (12 of 15) to pass; answer options are reshuffled if you retake.

  5. Complete the reflective account and feedback to finish. Your certificate of completion shows the estimated learning time (about 2 hours), and you record the time you actually spend in your CPD log.

Course content

8 sections · About 2 hours · 15-question final assessment

1Ethics in Psychology: What Sits Beneath the Code3 lessons
  • Ethics, Professionalism and Law: Three Different Questions
  • The Values the Board's Code Protects
  • Why Psychology Raises Distinctive Ethical Questions
2Thinking Tools for Ethical Reasoning4 lessons
  • Four Lenses: Principles, Consequences, Duties and Character
  • The Four Components of Ethical Action
  • Biases and Rationalisations That Distort Ethical Judgement
  • Testing Your Reasoning: Justification You Could Defend
3Autonomy, Capacity and Coercion4 lessons
  • Respecting Autonomy When Clients Make Choices You Disagree With
  • Capacity, Supported Decision-Making and Substitute Decision-Makers
  • Mandated, Referred and Reluctant Clients
  • Consent as an Ongoing Ethical Conversation
4Confidentiality, Harm and Competing Loyalties4 lessons
  • Confidentiality as a Value, Not Only a Rule
  • Threats to Others: Permission, Duty and Judgement
  • Family Violence, Child Safety and Divided Loyalties
  • Who Is the Client? Organisational and Multi-Party Work
5Justice, Fairness and Cultural Safety4 lessons
  • Fairness in Access and the Allocation of Scarce Services
  • Ending Services Ethically
  • Personal Values, Conscience and Non-Discrimination
  • Cultural Safety as an Ethical Commitment
6Honesty, Integrity and Evidence4 lessons
  • Truthfulness About What Therapy Can Offer
  • Novel Interventions, Evidence and Innovation
  • Admitting Mistakes and Ruptures
  • Technology and AI: Ethical Questions Before the Rules Catch Up
7Ethical Resilience and Courage3 lessons
  • Moral Distress and Moral Injury in Psychological Work
  • Speaking Up About Colleagues and Systems
  • Building an Ethical Practice Habit
8Conclusion, Final Assessment and Reflection4 lessons
  • Conclusion and key points
  • References and quick-reference guide
  • Final assessment (15 questions, 80% pass mark)
  • Your reflective account

Assessment and certificate

  • Certificate of completion stating the estimated learning time (about 2 hours); record the time you actually spend.
  • A written reflective account you can keep with your CPD records.

Questions about this course

Is this course based on the Psychology Board's new code?

Yes. The psychologists' code that has applied since 1 December 2025 is the reference point throughout, and each lesson shows where ethical judgement has to fill the gaps it leaves.

Does it cover the duty to warn?

It explains how permission and duty to disclose differ, how Australian law handles risk to others, and how to reason and record a decision when a client discloses a threat. It does not replace legal advice in a specific case.

How is this different from the psychologist professionalism course?

This course concentrates on values and ethical reasoning in hard cases. The professionalism course covers scope, CPD and peer consultation, records, billing and accountability to the regulator.

Is it useful for supervisors?

Yes. The reasoning tools and worked cases translate well into supervision conversations with provisional psychologists and registrars.

What evidence do I get when I finish?

You receive a certificate of completion stating the estimated learning time, and you can download a course pack holding your learning record, a revision sheet and your own reflections. Your CPD log should show the time you actually spend.

Does completing the course satisfy a condition or undertaking?

Not automatically. Where a Board has set education as a condition or undertaking, the course usually has to be nominated and accepted first, so check with Ahpra or the Board, and your legal adviser or defence organisation, before you enrol.

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