CMA Ethical Standards & Professional Applications 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A CMA practitioner discovers that a colleague has been misrepresenting their Laban Movement Analysis credentials to clients. What is the most ethically appropriate first step?
- Ignore it to avoid conflict with the colleague
- Confront the colleague privately and encourage them to correct the misrepresentation (Correct answer)
- Immediately report the colleague to all their clients
- Post about the issue on social media
Correct answer: Confront the colleague privately and encourage them to correct the misrepresentation
Ethical standards require addressing credential misrepresentation directly with the colleague first before escalating to formal reporting channels.
Question 2: When using Effort qualities in movement observation for clinical or therapeutic purposes, a CMA must ensure that:
- Observations are kept entirely subjective and untranscribed
- Movement profiles are shared freely among all staff without consent
- Clients provide informed consent before movement analysis is used in treatment planning (Correct answer)
- Only the Space effort quality is assessed to avoid bias
Correct answer: Clients provide informed consent before movement analysis is used in treatment planning
Informed consent is a foundational ethical requirement when using movement analysis data in clinical or therapeutic decision-making.
Question 3: A CMA working in a corporate wellness setting is asked by management to provide individual employee movement profiles without the employees' knowledge. The ethical response is to:
- Comply because management has authority over the workplace
- Refuse, as conducting covert assessments violates professional ethics (Correct answer)
- Provide anonymized group data instead without disclosing the limitation
- Complete the assessment but charge double the fee as compensation
Correct answer: Refuse, as conducting covert assessments violates professional ethics
Covert assessment of individuals without their consent is a fundamental violation of professional ethics in movement analysis.
Question 4: In Bartenieff Fundamentals practice, maintaining professional boundaries with clients most critically involves:
- Avoiding all discussion of emotional responses to movement work
- Ensuring physical touch is only used with explicit client consent and clear therapeutic purpose (Correct answer)
- Limiting sessions to 30 minutes to reduce intimacy
- Requiring clients to wear specific clothing to depersonalize the session
Correct answer: Ensuring physical touch is only used with explicit client consent and clear therapeutic purpose
Because Bartenieff Fundamentals involves physical touch, obtaining explicit consent and maintaining clear therapeutic intent is essential for ethical practice.
Question 5: A CMA is hired to analyze the movement style of a public figure using only publicly available video footage. Which ethical consideration is MOST relevant?
- The analysis should only focus on Space effort to remain neutral
- The practitioner should consider whether the analysis could harm the individual's reputation (Correct answer)
- Public figures have no expectation of professional ethical consideration
- The practitioner must obtain a government permit before proceeding
Correct answer: The practitioner should consider whether the analysis could harm the individual's reputation
Even when using public footage, CMAs must consider the potential harm their published analyses could cause to individuals.
Question 6: According to professional ethics for CMAs, when publishing movement analysis research, the practitioner should:
- Attribute all movement observations solely to the Laban framework without acknowledging subjects
- Obtain appropriate consent, anonymize identifiable information, and accurately represent methodological limitations (Correct answer)
- Publish raw data without interpretation to avoid bias
- Only publish in non-peer-reviewed outlets to avoid academic scrutiny
Correct answer: Obtain appropriate consent, anonymize identifiable information, and accurately represent methodological limitations
Ethical research publication requires consent, anonymization, and honest representation of the study's scope and limitations.
Question 7: A CMA practitioner feels strong personal discomfort with a client's cultural movement patterns that differ from Western norms. The ethical obligation is to:
- Discontinue working with the client immediately
- Impose Western movement standards as the professional baseline
- Engage in cultural humility, seek supervision if needed, and avoid imposing cultural bias in observations (Correct answer)
- Document the discomfort as a diagnostic sign in the client's record
Correct answer: Engage in cultural humility, seek supervision if needed, and avoid imposing cultural bias in observations
Professional ethics require CMAs to practice cultural humility and seek supervision to address personal biases that could affect objective movement analysis.
CMA Ethical Standards & Professional Applications 2
A CMA practitioner discovers that a colleague has been misrepresenting their Laban Movement Analysis credentials to clients.
What is the most ethically appropriate first step?