As we enter the final weeks of our course, psychology has made the news in a very unpleasant way. An embarrassing, profession-shattering report has been released by an independent consultant (and former prosecutor) hired by the American Psychological Association. The Hoffman Report is on the APA website (http://apa.org/independent- review/revised-report.pdf ) – merely reading through a few pages of its summary conclusions (starting on p. 9) will shock anyone who cares about the ethics of our profession and the organization leading us. It turns out that the role of psychology went well beyond the research of Philip Zimbardo, listed in your Unit 8 highlights. 

The three APA staff members most responsible for ethical practice in clinical and school psychology colluded with the CIA and Department of Defense to create an after-the-fact justification of psychologists’ roles in the Abu Ghraib torture, manipulated the APA ethics code in order to permit future involvement in such torture, and in the process repeatedly lied and misled members of APA and the public. 

It wasn’t that we “ordinary” psychologists weren’t concerned. First, there was the suspicion, confirmed earlier this year, that psychologists were actually involved in the torture - as it turns out urning a lot of money in the process by, ironically, applying the 

same horrific tactics such as waterboarding that psychologists had previously been training our soldiers to resist under a CIA funded program called SERE (http:// www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11283967/CIA-paid- psychologists-80m-to-devise-and-use-torture-techniques.html). 

Then there was a rebellion by the membership against APA’s failure to adopt a strict ethical position prohibiting involvement in torture, as 16 other organizations (such as the American Psychiatric Association) had done (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ dangerous-ideas/201110/safe-legal-ethical-and-effective-it-s-time-annul-the-pens-report). We can proudly include URI Psychology Professor Emerita Bernice Lott among those who fought APA for years to force APA to allow its membership to vote on that ethical statement against involvement with torture, which passed with a strong majority. 

The Hoffman report details the intense efforts of a handful of APA leaders to squelch investigation and ethical actions, even leveling personal attacks on well-known psychologists who dissented. Now under new leadership, APA immediately fired the one offender named in the report who was still working there, and is taking steps to address their damaged reputation (http://apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/07/independent- review-release.aspx). 

The impact on a nation’s trust of psychologists will be much harder to repair. 

Read any 10 pages of the 60+ page executive summary starting on p. 9 of the Hoffman report, and post your reaction to what you have read. Pay special attention to the role of politics and personal gain can play in the profession we claim to be “value-free”. Cite the 10 pages (by number) and the topics included in your “read”; points will be awarded for thoughtfulness, not your particular standpoint on the issue. Expected length 250 words.