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(6 CEUs in Professional Ethics for Full Day; 3 CEUs for the Half-Day Course)
Course Description
This course takes up some of the challenges posed to
policymakers, people in the helping professions, and the
broader community by rapid and often unchecked technological
development, dissemination, and use. People in the helping
professions see working for positive social change as a
significant part of their mission, and this work requires an
understanding and command of the phenomena that continue to
affect all persons and their ability to meet basic needs.
Technology and its benefits and detriments have enormous
significance in this regard. The main goal of the course is
to help bring about a better understanding of the ethical
and social challenges posed by the current waves of
technology in our world and to consider some ways in which
people in the helping professions can address these
challenges. |
Learning Objectives
Participants who complete this course should be able to:
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Describe some of
the principal ethical and social problems raised by rapid and
widespread technological development.
-
Discuss the
responsibility of the helping professions to effect positive
social change.
-
Discuss the
responsibility of policymakers to address the unintended effects
of technological development.
-
Show and
understanding of specific effects on public health and wellbeing
of widespread use of technology.
-
Identify
fundamental ethical principles relevant to these concerns and
discuss ways in which such principles can be applied.
Course Outline
I. Introduction
A. Keynote: the phone in the car
B. What is public policy ethics?
C. What is technology ethics?
D. Public policy and the helping professions
E. The Code of Ethics of the NASW
II. Technology and public policy - some current challenges
A. Cybercommunication
B. Telecommunication and its devices
C. Medical research and technology
D. Energy innovation
E. Environmental technology
F. Consumption of media output
III. Technology and public policy - ethical underpinnings
A. The ethics of science and engineering
B. Basic needs and the dangers of excess
C. Special responsibilities of members of the helping
professions
IV. Technological development, basic needs, and the helping
professions
A. Challenges for clients
B. Informed decision making
C. Variations in concerns
D. Autonomy and confidentiality
E. Beneficence, benevolence, and boundaries
V. Conclusion
A. Continuing and unfolding challenges
B. Private practice and public service
C. Our original problem revisited
Bibliography and suggestions for further
reading
Code of Ethics of the National Association
of Social Workers. Approved by the 1996 NASW Delegate Assembly
and revised by the 1999 NASW Delegate Assembly.
www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp
DSM-IV-TR: Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th edition, text
revision. American Psychiatric Association, 2000.
Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics.
Translated by Sir David Ross. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press,
1980.
Beauchamp, Tom L., et al, eds. Contemporary
Issues in Bioethics. 7th ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2008.
Feinberg, Joel. Social Philosophy.
Prentice-Hall, 1973.
Harris, Charles E., Jr., Michael S. Pritchard,
and Michael J. Rabins. Engineering Ethics - Concepts and Cases.
3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2005.
Kant, Immanuel. Foundations (or
Groundwork) of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785).
There are many editions currently available.
Mappes, Thomas and Jane Zembaty, eds. Social
Ethics: Morality and Social Policy. 6th
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. See especially Chapter 1,
“Abortion”; Chapter 2, “Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide”;
and Chapter 6, “Drug Control and Addiction”.
Mill, John Stuart.
Utilitarianism (1863). There are many editions currently
available of the entire book, often as a part of a collection of
readings.
Rachels, James, and
Stuart Rachels. Elements of Moral Philosophy. 5th
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
Rawls, John. A
Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press, 1971.
Reamer, Frederic G.
Ethical Standards in Social Work. NASW Press, 1998.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Cyrus Hoy
ed., 2nd edition. W. W. Norton, 1992.
David L. Prentiss, PhD
Good Thinking Works, 2009
www.goodthinkingworks.com
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