Informed Consent refers to the premeditated and thoughtful approval or assent given by an individual or corporation. For assent to pass as an informed consent, then the party involved must be properly, clearly and in details be informed on the matter at hand.
This should be followed by an elaborate explanation and expounding to ensure there are no ambiguous words and ascertain the matter is crystal clear to the participant before making any binding decision. In research projects, informed consent is very important.
Research and behavioral study are very important fields in psychology. If a research on a specific group of people or an individual is conducted without informed consent, the research findings and recommendations are deemed to be unreliable and lack authenticity.
Such research could lead to the prosecution of the researchers, as it is illegal and raises major ethical issues. The main aim in the creation of the informed consent rule was mainly to shield people from the medical practices of psychology.
The rule clearly stipulates that no research can be conducted without the involved party’s knowledge and most important, approval. The ethical issue arising emanates from the notion that human beings are born free with a free will, no effort should undermine that freedom.
Therefore when an individual is used as a specimen without his/her approval, then the endeavor to always let people exercise their freedom is tampered with.
Ethically, human beings should not be used as objects of research with the notion that the end justifies the means, rather human beings should at all time be viewed as the end itself. Informed consent at times leads individuals to get involved in fatal practices, raising the ethical issue whether we have authority to choose life and death.
Competence
Competence refers to the conventional needs, requirements and expectations to be met for any person to be deemed as suitable and preferred to take charge of any given task. Competence could also be mental. Mental competence is the ability and capacity of any given individual to properly, efficiently and objectively participate in legal proceedings.
Competence is a very important aspect in professional practice. Competence in any given field like in psychology, or medicine ensures delivery of services is in the appropriate professional manner. This ensures people are catered for their specific needs.
In psychology, competence ensures clients are treated for the respective disorders and the diagnosis is for the right ailments. This saves time, resources and creates a healthy society whose needs are properly catered for. This in turn creates order and harmony in the society eliminating chaos.
In professional practice, competence is maintained in a number of ways. The most important is making sure the professionals are highly qualified in the specified field. Specialization is thus very central in maintaining competence. Qualification should be both in academic and experience gained. To ensure the right personnel are hired, it is important to hire workers on merit and weed out corruption.
Competence is also maintained through formulating of the right policies in running an institution. Policies and rules guiding the personnel should be objective, clear, and implemental. Laws governing the practice and conduct of professionals are also in place and effective to ensure those who are not competent are suspended or at times charged.
Use of the appropriate IT facilities has also been emphasized, this ensures more materials to refer to are available and professional sharing is facilitated. Competence is the key to successive and objective professionalism.