CPL Professional Ethics & Governance 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following is an example of a program leader exercising professional boundaries?
- Sharing personal contact information with all participants
- Maintaining separate personal and professional social media accounts (Correct answer)
- Forming close personal friendships with program participants
- Providing participants with personal loans during hardship
Correct answer: Maintaining separate personal and professional social media accounts
Keeping personal and professional identities separate helps maintain appropriate boundaries and protects both leaders and participants.
Question 2: The principle of informed consent in recreation and leisure programming primarily means:
- Participants must sign waivers before all activities
- Participants receive full information about activities and voluntarily agree to participate (Correct answer)
- Leaders must obtain parental permission for all adult programs
- Organizations must disclose their nonprofit status to participants
Correct answer: Participants receive full information about activities and voluntarily agree to participate
Informed consent requires that participants understand what they are agreeing to and make that agreement freely without coercion.
Question 3: When a CPL program leader identifies a safety hazard during a program activity, the FIRST action should be:
- File a written incident report after the program
- Immediately address or eliminate the hazard to prevent harm (Correct answer)
- Notify participants of the risk and let them decide
- Consult a supervisor before taking any action
Correct answer: Immediately address or eliminate the hazard to prevent harm
Immediate action to address a known safety hazard is required by duty of care to prevent foreseeable harm.
Question 4: Which of the following behaviors would be considered a breach of professional ethics for a CPL credential holder?
- Attending professional development workshops
- Misrepresenting qualifications on a job application (Correct answer)
- Referring participants to other community resources
- Documenting program outcomes for grant reporting
Correct answer: Misrepresenting qualifications on a job application
Misrepresenting qualifications is dishonest and violates the ethical standards of integrity that CPL professionals are required to uphold.
Question 5: Organizational transparency in program governance is BEST demonstrated by:
- Limiting budget information to senior staff only
- Publicly reporting program outcomes, budgets, and decision rationales (Correct answer)
- Avoiding public criticism of the organization's programs
- Allowing only board members to review program evaluations
Correct answer: Publicly reporting program outcomes, budgets, and decision rationales
Transparency involves openly sharing information about decisions, finances, and results with relevant stakeholders.
Question 6: A program leader learns that a participant disclosed a child abuse situation during a program activity. Under mandatory reporting laws, the leader must:
- Maintain confidentiality and support the participant privately
- Report the disclosure to the appropriate child protective authority (Correct answer)
- Refer the participant to a counselor without making a report
- Wait to see if additional evidence emerges before reporting
Correct answer: Report the disclosure to the appropriate child protective authority
Mandatory reporting laws require professionals to report suspected child abuse to authorities, superseding confidentiality obligations.
Question 7: Ethical decision-making frameworks in recreation leadership typically involve all of the following steps EXCEPT:
- Identifying the ethical issue
- Considering the impact on all stakeholders
- Choosing the option that benefits the leader most (Correct answer)
- Consulting relevant codes of ethics or policies
Correct answer: Choosing the option that benefits the leader most
Ethical frameworks prioritize the well-being of participants and communities, not the personal benefit of the decision-maker.
CPL Professional Ethics & Governance 3
Which of the following is an example of a program leader exercising professional boundaries?