{"id":203933,"date":"2022-01-31T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=203933"},"modified":"2022-01-25T04:34:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T04:34:16","slug":"the-operational-psychology-professional-practice-guidelines-are-deeply-flawed-the-american-psychological-association-needs-your-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/01\/the-operational-psychology-professional-practice-guidelines-are-deeply-flawed-the-american-psychological-association-needs-your-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cOperational Psychology Professional Practice Guidelines\u201d Are Deeply Flawed \u2014 the American Psychological Association Needs Your Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

24 Jan 2022 – <\/em>Through February 15th, the American Psychological Association (APA) is soliciting\u00a0online comments<\/a>\u00a0from psychologists, the public, and interested organizations in response to a new draft proposal for\u00a0Professional Practice Guidelines for Operational Psychology<\/a>. Here I would like to briefly share some thoughts about why this is important and deserving of readers\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n

The drafters of the Guidelines define\u00a0operational psychology<\/em>\u00a0as the \u201capplication of psychological science to the operational activities conducted in support of national security, national defense, and public safety.\u201d\u00a0To be sure, this is a challenging arena of professional work, so developing practice guidelines would certainly seem to be a worthwhile endeavor. But after closer inspection, I believe that the\u00a0APA\u2019s approval of these particular Guidelines would risk lending unwarranted legitimacy to\u00a0highly problematic areas<\/em>\u00a0within the larger domain of operational psychology \u2014 areas that still require extensive discussion and evaluation by a range of stakeholders much broader than the task force members who have produced these Guidelines.<\/p>\n

Context for the new Guidelines is crucial. For years there has been incontrovertible evidence linking psychologists working for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies to \u201cwar on terror\u201d abuses at\u00a0CIA black sites<\/a>,\u00a0Guantanamo Bay<\/a>, and\u00a0elsewhere<\/a>. Tragically, psychologists were directly involved in designing and implementing cruel, inhuman, degrading, and torturous detention and interrogation practices. Among the abuses suffered by prisoners were prolonged solitary confinement, disorienting sleep and sensory deprivation, painful stress positions, physical beatings, cultural and sexual humiliation, waterboarding, and indefinite detention.<\/p>\n

The psychologists who played key roles in this regime of unconscionable mistreatment of other human beings were obviously not working as healthcare professionals. Rather, they were engaged in a realm of operational psychology that my colleagues and I have described as\u00a0adversarial<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0unethical<\/a> \u2014 activities where the intent is to cause harm, where informed consent is absent, and where professional ethical oversight is often obstructed by the classified nature of the work. The proposed Guidelines make no mention of this ugly stain on the profession of psychology. By all appearances, the drafters have no interest in acknowledging or drawing attention to this disturbing history. Nor do they provide clear guidance regarding the necessity that psychologists avoid engaging in adversarial\u00a0activities<\/a>\u00a0characterized by\u00a0deception, manipulation, coercion, and assault.<\/p>\n

What is perhaps most striking about this omission is that the APA itself took an important step in 2015 to proscribe a significant form of adversarial operational psychology. By a near-unanimous vote, the association\u2019s governing body adopted a\u00a0resolution<\/a>\u00a0that specifically prohibits psychologists from any involvement in national security interrogations. The same resolution also prohibits psychologists from being present at Guantanamo or any other U.S. foreign detention site that the United Nations deems to be in violation of international law\u00a0unless<\/em>\u00a0they are working directly on behalf of the prisoners, or for an independent third party working to protect human rights, or providing treatment to military personnel. Yet these Guidelines ignore these prohibitions entirely. It is difficult to imagine that this is merely an oversight. More likely, the drafters do not believe operational psychologists should actually be constrained in this way, and they therefore have opted not to reference this resolution in the Guidelines that they nevertheless want the APA\u2019s leadership to endorse.<\/p>\n

To be clear, many operational psychologists are\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>involved in\u00a0adversarial<\/em>\u00a0activities of the sort described above. The broader field includes many areas of work that are better described as\u00a0collaborative<\/em>\u00a0operational psychology. Personnel assessment and selection, training, and evaluation are examples. Of course, many psychologists who do not see themselves as \u201coperational psychologists\u201d at all \u2014 and who have no connection to the military-intelligence establishment \u2014 also include these and other collaborative activities in their practices.<\/p>\n

These collaborative activities are not immune from ethical pitfalls. But unlike adversarial operational psychology, they are not intrinsically in conflict with fundamental dimensions of psychologists\u2019\u00a0code of conduct<\/a>. This is a key reason why it is so important that the small community of military-intelligence psychologists who engage in or defend adversarial activities\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0gain unwarranted acceptance and influence by claiming common cause with the many psychologists \u2014 \u201coperational\u201d and otherwise \u2014 who do not. Furthermore, operational psychology in the military-intelligence context differs from the realms of domestic law enforcement and public safety, where community oversight, citizen activism, and independent media all serve important roles in promoting transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n

In this regard, it is noteworthy\u00a0that the Guidelines task force is\u00a0primarily comprised of operational psychologists with military-intelligence backgrounds. Some of these individuals currently run their own consulting firms, with the Department of Defense and related agencies as their clients. The task force chair, a past president of the APA\u2019s military psychology division, fits this profile. And in a 2018\u00a0article<\/a>, he\u00a0seemingly\u00a0dismissed<\/a>\u00a0the very idea that psychologists should be expected to adhere to their own separate professional code of conduct, writing\u00a0that \u201ceither an activity is ethical, or it isn\u2019t. If ethical, then psychologists should be allowed to provide their expertise to whatever problem or issue is presented.\u201d<\/p>\n

I hope my criticisms here are not misinterpreted or misleadingly portrayed as reflecting a lack of appreciation for the valuable and ethical work of the many psychologists \u2014 military or otherwise \u2014 who devote their careers to the care and protection of our soldiers, veterans, and the public at large.\u00a0But when evaluating these draft Guidelines, the concerns I have described should serve as a warning to the APA, to the profession, and to the public. Some leaders within the operational psychology community have shown only a limited interest in adopting practice guidelines that involve clear restrictions in the context of military or intelligence operations. A careful review also reveals that these Guidelines are replete with vague and vacillating language. Too often, such language \u2014 regardless of intent \u2014 protects the perpetrators of unethical actions rather than their vulnerable victims.<\/p>\n

There is certainly a need for the APA and all stakeholders to seriously consider the development of guidelines for operational psychology. But that project will require the kind of extensive discussion and debate among diverse interested parties\u2013including the human rights community outside the APA \u2014 that have not yet taken place. It would be ill-advised \u2014 and perhaps dangerous \u2014 for the APA\u2019s leadership to approve these Guidelines without such careful and thorough deliberations. Indeed, for the APA to honor its\u00a0avowed vision<\/a>\u00a0to serve \u201cas an effective champion of the application of psychology to promote human rights,\u201d it cannot afford to blur the meaning or undercut the prioritization of the profession\u2019s do-no-harm ethics.<\/p>\n

As a final note, the APA\u2019s\u00a0formal review process for all professional practice guidelines\u00a0requires<\/a>\u00a0the Guidelines developers \u201cto respond to all comments and incorporate changes where appropriate.\u201d This, then, is an opportunity for interested individuals and groups to review the Guidelines and make their voices heard. The form for submitting comments online \u2014 by the February 15th deadline \u2014 can be accessed here:\u00a0https:\/\/apps.apa.org\/CommentCentral2\/default.aspx?site=85<\/a>.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Roy Eidelson is a member of the TRANSCEND Network<\/a> and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of Eidelson Consulting<\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/a>, former executive director of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, and a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/a>. Roy is the author of <\/em>Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What\u2019s Happening, What\u2019s Right, and What\u2019s Possible<\/a> and can be reached at reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24 Jan 2022 – My deep concerns about the \u2018Guidelines\u2019 that will soon be considered for adoption by the APA. The period for online comments has begun and extends until 15 Feb. I would like to briefly share some thoughts about why this is important and deserving of readers\u2019 attention. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":110813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[2755,133,1810,112,572,70],"class_list":["post-203933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-american-psychological-association-apa","tag-cia","tag-enhanced-interrogation","tag-pentagon","tag-torture","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}