Personal Code of Ethics - Essay Example

? Personal ethics Personal ethics Personal of ethics enables an individual to do things that he or she believes in. Ethics empowers an individual to do what is morally accepted within the society in which one lives. I have developed my principles and standards that shape my day-to-day interaction with people. Developing a personal code of ethics will enable one to stand for what is right in order to promote and enhance their areas of profession. The environment plays a critical role in promoting one’s morality. Through our interaction with the environment, we learn more about how people behave and how they interact with each other. It should also be noted that what a society may consider morally upright might not apply to other societies. This means that personal morality may vary from one society to another. In addition, an individual may go against the society ethical norms and embrace different values depending on his or her conscience and judgment (Howard & Korver, 2008). My personal code of ethics is developed from ethical relativism, which points out that what a society believes in will influence the other person either positively or negatively. In this case, individuals in most cases are influenced by society to make choices for themselves, which in the end may assist in shaping their personal ethical values. The developmental theory coming into play is the learning theory. According to this model, learning ethics values and behaviors takes place through the process of reinforcement and association. Human ethics are shaped by ones society and they define how one is going to apply them in real life situations. During my childhood, my society used to frown on me when I engaged in dishonest activities and so through positive reinforcement, honesty became one of my ethical values. My society shaped me positively by enabling me to learn virtue ethics (Howard & Kover,2008). The Ethical system that shapes my codes of ethics is the ethics of virtue. Basing on ethical relativism where the society shapes ones behaviors and ethical standards either positively or negatively, my society instilled virtues ethics in me as I value doing what is right basing on values that are upheld by virtue ethics. The main values that ethics of virtue has promoted include integrity, humility, honesty, respect, being responsible, trust, being principled and trust. Most of these virtues are engrained in almost every society and they form the basis of morality in the world. Upholding positive values that are promoted by ethics of virtue enhance positive human interaction, promote fairness and justice, and enabled one to appreciate and respect the society and other people. In addition, virtue is essential in minimizing perceived immoralities such as crime, child prostitution, war and other social evils. As a woman, upholding my virtuous codes of ethics has been instrumental in my positive behaviors especially when dealing with my family members, children and the society in general. As a woman, my caring, gentle and good behaviors can be attributed to the virtues that I uphold and the social norms that I was subjected to by my society (Kowalski,2012). When applying the ethical codes, I have faced a number of dilemmas, some of which threatened the basic tenets of my beliefs and moral behaviors. One of dilemma is how to handle a situation that requires sound judgment such as a criminal case involving murder. This situation requires fairness and justice without pity or mercy but according to my codes of ethics, humility and mercy are some of the major values that dictate my codes of ethics. I always manage this dilemma by applying the value of principle where I make my decision basing on what I feel is right for a given situation without being dictated by other ethical values that the society may have instilled in me. Further, in solving ethical dilemmas, I consider the environment of a given situation before making any judgment. For example, if a problem occurs between family members, I use the value of familial responsibility to mediate the conflict. However, in work environment where conflicting people seek justice, I use my codes of work ethics to mete justice regardless of what my personal virtue codes dictate. For instance, I may sentence a murder suspect to death without having mercy in order to ensure that justice has been given to the victim (Robert,Bove & Zee,2007). Comparing and Contrasting the First paper with the Current Analysis of Personal Code of ethics Both papers tend to lay an emphasis on the ethical system, which are the foundation of human behaviors, morality and the base of judgment. They give us some principles based upon which human beings should act when faced with challenges. Just like morality may be difficult to define, the same applies to ethics because what might be ethically correct to an individual may not favor the other group. However, there are several differences between the ethical codes stipulated in my ethics of virtue system and the ethical systems presented in the first paper. Ethical formalism considers anything to be ethical if it results from good intention. However, this system is different from my ethical system because results from good intentions my break values such as honesty, trust and integrity in order to obtain results (Kowalski,2012). When utilitarianism is considered, justifying the end may involve means that break a number of virtues such as honesty. As such, this system is not fully compatible with my ethics system because of a number of ethical violations that it may involve (Howard & Kover,2008). Part 2 From my studies of ethics, I have learned that developmental view on ethics explores the strongholds and weak points of psychologists at divergent levels of their profession. Development term of ethics theory focuses on the manner in which these stages of life appear or insist on ethical problems (Swennen & Klink,2009). The first stage is the training stage which is characterized by ethical ambiguity that creates anxiety and this tend to make things go astray. The second stage is the mid career stage where many professional accomplishment come to be met. With time, people become overwhelmed with personal responsibilities, demands from family and financial demand leading to ethical lapses. In the third stage vulnerability appears as people tend to feel that rules of ethics apply to other people and not oneself. People tend to choose wrong or right without consulting codes of ethics and legal regulations (Robert,Bove & Zee,2007). According to Pollock (2010), she tries to addresses the issue of morality and determining moral behavior through the systems which in this case act as a guide to our moral and ethical standards in a society where we live and interact with people. She also goes beyond to explain what it entails to become an ethical professional, where she points out that through education and training one is able to climb to the ladder of a criminal justice professional. According to her, the law enforcement officers face day-to-day challenges just like any other professional in an organization in the application of ethics. Just like the teacher encounters challenges on how to apply ethics in their profession when dealing with students, the law enforcement professionals find it a difficult task due to their day to day challenges that they face. In my view, one of the challenges that have continued to persist within this professional body is corruption in selected areas and in this case, various ways have been established on how to deal with corruption as a way of reducing its high rate in the society. However, despite the codes of work ethics in criminal justice system, corruption still prevails in many areas because most of the people do not have strong personal codes of ethics that would dictate the way they believe and work. As such, many evils witnessed in the society and work places can be attributed to breakdown of codes of ethics and social norms (Pollock, 2010). Criminal justice approaches some issues in a different perspective. For instance, it does not check whether something is right or wrong but rather concentrates on whether it is legal or not. This is opposite as compared to the social ethical standards which emphasizes on the acceptable manners within the society. In this case, it may be considered that the biggest dilemma in criminal justice is the differences caused by what is legal and what is ethical. For example, most of communities do not approve killing, but in criminal justice system perspective killing is one form of providing justice (Howard & Kover,2008). In the criminal justice system, we can deduce that the professional officers are entitled to perform certain tasks and duties, which in other terms when performed by an ordinary individual may be perceived to be interfering with the rights of an individual. For instance, a thief surrounded by a mob when caught in the act of stealing may be going against the ethical standards that should not be portrayed by an individual. On the other hand, the professional are supposed to abide by their ethical standards in order to protect the lives of the citizens even if it means risking their lives while fighting with the armed robbers (Pollock, 2010). In this course, we learn that it is very difficult for one to understand the ethical standards that guide an individual because what might be accepted as morally upright to an individual might be viewed as being against the morally acceptable standards of another individual We also learn that one is considered a professional when he or she abides by the behavioral and ethical actions that guides that certain profession when in line of duty References Howard, R. A., & Korver, C. D. (2008). Ethics for the real world: Creating a personal code to guide decisions in work and life. Harvard: Harvard University Press. Kowalski, D. A. (2012). Moral theory at the movies: An introduction to ethics. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Pollock, J. M. (2010). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. New York, NY: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Roberts, D., Bove, C., & Zee, E. (2007). Teacher research: Stories of learning and growing. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press. Swennen, A., & Klink, M. (2009). Becoming a teacher educator: Theory and practice for teacher educators. Harvard: Harvard University Press. Read More