Author
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
12 articles
Is the GRE Necessary in Admissions?
In 2020, the world has been plagued with a pandemic, continued incidents of state-sanctioned violence by police officers toward Black Americans, and natural disasters. During this time, various countries had stay-at-home orders to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This year has unmasked a multitude of unjust, inequitable, and corrupt systems, necessitated to reflect on the […]
James Lodovic, B.A. + 1 more
December 1, 2020
Ethics of Addressing Police Brutality and Racial Violence During the Black Lives Matter Movement
A recent article from The New York Times revealed that the Black Lives Matter movement might be the largest social justice movement in United States History (Buchanan et al., 2020). The profound and continued systemic inequities and injustices towards Black people and communities have been observed with recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
August 27, 2020
More Than Bubble Baths and Wine
I recently attended a faculty awards ceremony at my university. The faculty award recipients, along with the audience, watched videos of remarks and comments from the awardees’ students and colleagues. All of the remarks were expectedly heartwarming and lovely; however, I could not help to notice a trend in each of the videos. Nominators remarked […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
April 21, 2020
Ethical Use of Interpreters for Non-English-Speaking Clients in Forensic Contexts
According to the United States Census Bureau, 60.4% of the United States population consists of White persons not of Hispanic or Latino ethnicities, and 41.8% of the population consists of racial/ethnic groups identified as Black or African American, American Indian and Native Alaskan, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino, or those […]
Caitlyn Azama, B.S. + 1 more
March 8, 2020
I Would Never Do That!
In graduate school, I had an ethics class (actually, three 1-credit classes) which repeatedly discussed how to avoid boundary crossings and violations. During my pre-doctoral internship orientation, I was handed a pamphlet entitled “Therapy Never Includes Sex,” and expected to read the pamphlet and sign a statement indicating I read the pamphlet. In my current […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
October 30, 2019
Moving Target
In late 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui revealed that twin girls had been born from embryos he had created using genome editing (referred to as the “CRISPR babies” after the molecular tool used that may render them immune to HIV). Internationally, legal and ethical debates quickly began. There is a fear that other scientists will […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
April 15, 2019
Paging Dr. House
Primary care physicians and pediatricians are often the first ones to provide a mental health diagnoses and prescribe psychotropic medications. In fact, one study found the proportion of primary care visits at which antidepressants were prescribed, but no psychiatric diagnosis was noted in the record, increased from 59.5% to 72.7% from 1996 to 2007 (Mojtabai […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
December 12, 2018
Rinse and Repeat
Scandals involving psychological research have been making the headlines since World War II (see Adair, 2001, for review). These public critiques make individuals skeptical of the veracity of psychological science. Recently, participants from Phillip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973) were interviewed and revealed potential ethical violations, including feeling they were obligated […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
October 17, 2018
Knowing What You Don’t Know
Recently in one of my courses, I lectured on ethics in forensic psychological assessment. A case example was provided involving a psychologist who provided testimony citing non-existent risk and risk assessment literature in a death penalty case, which later resulted in the case being overturned. One of my students inquired about the repercussions of psychologists […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
August 18, 2018
Revisiting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, Address
April 4, 2018, marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee. One of the nation’s most prominent civil rights advocates and leaders left a long-lasting impact on the world with his messages of civil disobedience and social change. His legacy prevails as society continues to strive towards […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
May 4, 2018
Social Justice, Advocacy, and Early Career Practice
Colin Kaepernick kneeling for Black Lives Matter. Protests at Standing Rock. Fighting against the elimination of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). #MeToo. Social justice movements are abundantly present in our current political/cultural climate. Where is psychology’s role in these movements? What are our personal roles, as early career practitioners? How do we help those […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
December 30, 2017
Conversion “Therapy”
On April 25, 2017, Senate Bill 928 (2017)—Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 was introduced to Congress. The act would “prohibit, as an unfair or deceptive act or practice, commercial sexual orientation conversion therapy, and for other purposes.” Conversion therapy, also known as reparative therapy, is a term for approaches aimed at changing lesbian, gay, […]
Apryl Alexander, Psy.D.
August 6, 2017