Ethics Awareness Inventory - Research Paper Example

I. Ethical Awareness Inventory Result Summary The result of my Ethical Awareness Inventory are as follows. On character, Iscored 9 which was considered as the ethical guideline that I am predisposed to judge ethical issues. I scored 1 on obligation, 4 on results, and -12 on equity. Equity is considered as the least ethical guideline that I am inclined to follow. Reviewingthe graphical representation of my Ethical Awareness Inventory scores, I can safely conclude that my value or ethical system is mainstream.

In the graph below, the red line represents the median score of the the 945 adults who took the assessment and my score relatively goes with the trend. Of course, I cannot expect the same exact pattern or score from the rest of those who took the assessment because of individual differences. The Ethical Awareness Inventory revealed so much about myself, on how I evaluate ethical issues and how I tend to resolve them. In general, I am more predisposed to evaluating the character of the person and not on their actions perse.

In judging people, I do not judge the act alone but rather tends to “contextualize” it of what motivates the person to do it and what purpose does it serve. To illustrate, we will take an extreme example of an act which is killing a person. Killing by the its act alone is immoral, unethical, barbaric not to mention that it is a crime. But when we contextualize it, there may greater reasons why certain individuals do it. For example, our soldiers may be compelled to “kill” to keep us secure from those who threatens our safety, peace and tranquility.

This may also even be consistent with the obligation ethics in the CORE categories of Ethical Awareness Inventory because a professional soldier’s act is guided by certain rules. Does that mean that our soldiers are unethical or immoral? Our national acts are the best gauge of the propriety of their actions. We treat them as heroes and mourn of their loss. We send them our prayers to keep them safe. Yet they kill. But do we celebrate killing? No we do not, but as a country who had been attacked by terrorists, we understand that it could sometimes be necessary and we know that majority of our soldiers are good people. II. Importance of Understanding my Ethical Perspective Taking the Ethics Awareness Inventory assessment was an insightful experience on how I evaluate the moral or ethical issues at hand.

The ethical standards of which I measure things up were clearly articulated by the summary of which I find to be agreable in general. It was also equally important that along the way of taking the assesment, that are also other ethical perspectives whom other takers might find it to be as valid as I find my own ethical perspective. This understanding of my own ethical perspective is important so that I would that ethics do not only revolve on my own perspective. Having this knowledge, it would allow me to see how I differentiate my values compared to others.

This understanding will lead me to understand that my own ethical ground ground is based on virtue-ethics which other people may not actually subscribe to but follows other ethical theories such as the normative ethics which is more predisposed to responsibility than character (Stanford Encyclopedia of Ethics, 2011). That does not mean that the other person is “bad”, it is just we weigh our world and universe differently and we have different priorities in life (Velasquez et al. nd). This understanding will lead to an acceptance of differences that will allow me to seek common and shared values rather than highlighting our differences.

The latter approach will only invariably trap me and the other party in a web of argument that neither party wins. Instead of proving who is right or what is right, this acceptance will facilitate discussion rather an argument to find the most effective, sound, relevant resolution of any ethical issue which would not have been possible if parties would be arguing on who or what is right (The Williams Institute for Ethics and Management, 2012). III. The relationship between personal and professional ethics in the field of psychology.

Psychology involves people. The practice, either in a clinical set up whereby a practitioner helps solve a patient’s dilemma or in a classroom setting whereby a professor teaches the rigors of the profession, redounds to dealing with people. People with different perspectives, different values and varying origins. These sound understanding of one’s ethical perspective and how it relates to others will provide the practitioner an invaluable insight to adopt, understand, cope and to a certain degree, empathize with how other people weigh and see ethics.

This would also enable the pyschologists to better enable deal with people and to really “get through” them which is essential for the efficacy of the practice. References: Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (2011). Deontological Ethics. Online. Retrieved at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-deontological/ The Williams Institute for Ethics and Management (2012). Ethics Awareness Inventory. https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/Vendors/TWI/EAI/ Velasquez, Manuel ; Andre, Claire; Shanks, S.

J ,Thomas; Meyer, Michael J. (nd). Ethical relativism. Santa Clara University. Available at http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/ethicalrelativism.html