ETHICAL THINKING

Ethical Thinking



Ethical Thinking

As I think of my journey to enter the profession of psychology in terms of the acculturation model, I am taken back to the days I was a little boy living in Brazil and my own experience integrating myself into a multicultural family. When I was six years old my father, who is of Palestinian descent, and my older brother moved to America, while I stayed in Brazil with my mother, who is Brazilian. As a child, I learned to respond compassionately to my mother's struggle as a single parent and responded indifferently to my father's move to America. The result of this was the development of a strong Brazilian Catholic identity. However, this emotional acculturation came at a cost. Ten years later, my mother and I joined my father and brother in America, and I was confronted with having to adjust to a new country and integrate my Brazilian identity with my father's Palestinian identity.

This process was overwhelming and confusing. I was a 16-year-old Brazilian and Catholic whereas my father was Palestinian and Muslim. Eventually my ability to be compassionate helped me to overcome my own bias about Palestinians and Muslims and develop a meaningful relationship with my father. I clearly remember the day Dad showed me the passport that was issued to him by the Brazilian government; it said “No Nationality”. But, when he showed me his American citizenship, I understood that in the same way I was looking to achieve self-acceptance by integrating my own diverse cultural identities.

As prepared myself to write this paper, I wanted to show that I have integrated my personal and professional ethics. However, I realize that the process of acculturation in to the profession, like the integration of my multicultural identity, is a difficult one. It requires honest self-examination, compassion, and the ability to accept that this is not an instance of either/or, but rather a process that I need to be open and willing to go through. To put it simply, acculturation in to the profession is not about choosing between two alternatives; personal and professional ethics—it is about holding on to both. Here is where I find myself, having an inner dialog about finding ways of including both my personal and professional perspectives and options. In the same way that I looked to achieve self-acceptance by integrating my own diverse cultural identities, now I find myself searching to achieve professional acceptance by finding a balance between my own personal and professional ethics.

Integrating my own diverse cultural identities required me to honestly look at myself and then to be honest with others about the different parts of myself. As a result, honesty and integrity are values that are important to me. While working as an intern, last year, I was confronted with an ethical dilemma that required me to struggle. A counsellor went on vacation, and I was assigned one of the patients she had been working with. The counsellor left me specific directions to do ...