Ethics deal with questions such as “how should we live? Shall we aim at happiness or at knowledge,
virtue, or the creation of beautiful objects? If we choose happiness, will it
be our own or the happiness of all? Can we justify living in opulence while elsewhere
in the world people are starving? What are our obligations, if any to the
generations of humans who will come after us and to the nonhuman animals with
whom we share the planet?” ("ethics," 2014) Basically, ethics is “the discipline
concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong”
("ethics," 2014). The Williams
Institute for Ethics and Management developed the Ethics Awareness Inventory as
a “tool for developing ethical competency” (Ethics Awareness Inventory, 2011)
in professional settings. This paper
will briefly discuss the results from my Ethical Awareness Inventory as well as
the role and importance of personal ethics in psychology, principles, and the
code of conduct. This paper will also
discuss how ethics can affect how you apply psychological principles to
personal, spiritual, social, and organizational issues and assess how ethics
affects psychological knowledge and principles related to personal growth,
health and development. In conclusion this paper will analyze advantages of
psychology as a degree choice and how ethics play in role in deciding to pursue
a degree in psychology.
Ethics Awareness Inventory
Reading the numeric results from the Ethics Awareness Inventory
were a bit confusing because I couldn’t understand what the numbers represent,
however further into the results I learned that my ethical perspective is based
on the results or consequences of my actions.
The results from my ethical perspective states that I believe “that
conduct should be directed toward promoting the greatest good for the greatest
number of persons. In judging whether an
individual’s actions are ethical, I look for concrete evidence”. I couldn’t
agree more with this perspective because I almost never go by a person’s word
but rather their actions. My ethical style is one that believes that “we each
have a moral right to experience the good life”. My focus is typically on the improving the
well-being of the people because unhappy people have a negative effect on
societies moral which influences ethical behavior.
Importance of Personal Ethics In Psychology
Personal ethics are developed through an individual’s lifespan and
are extremely important in psychology because they influence professional
ethics. Professional ethics shape the
foundation of professional behavior in psychology and that is why the “APA
formed an ethics committee in the 1930s, and developed its first set of ethical
principles in 1953” (Plante, 2011 p. 371).
The American Psychological Association developed the ethics code of
conduct and ethical principles to protect the well-being of clients by
outlining the responsibilities of a psychologist that ensures no harm is done
to anyone obtaining services. The code
of conduct outlines what types of behaviors and actions in the field of
psychology are acceptable as well as unacceptable.
Effects of Ethical Application
According to the Ethical Awareness Inventory results my increased
awareness influences how I will apply psychological principles to personal,
spiritual, social, and organizational issues.
I scored high on result-oriented perspectives that are based on the
consequences of actions taken; therefore following the ethics code of conduct
and principles are extremely likely in all aspects of life because positive
results are extremely important. I am
goal-oriented, productive, systematic, and analytical and a global thinker and
my main goal is to always do what is good for the people by focusing on getting
positive results in any given situation.
Ethics Effect on Personal Growth, Health, and Development
Lawrence Kohlberg developed a theory on stages of moral
development that shows how ethics effect personal growth, health, and
development because ethical behavior develops as one advances through the
stages. Personal growth influences
ethics because individual’s display responsible behavior through learning new
skills and obtaining knowledge. Personal
development causes an individual to grow which changes their attitude in a
positive manner. A positive attitude is
good for an individual’s health because it reduces stress. Ethics boost self-confidence because
individuals believe they are more capable of accomplishing certain things which
increase development through learning from experience.
Psychology as a Degree
Pursuing a degree in psychology can open the door to a variety of
careers, such as Clinical Psychology, Forensic Psychology,
Industrial/Organizational Psychology just to name a few. A degree in psychology also is an excellent
way to learn more about other people as well as yourself because by studying
psychology individuals gain a better understanding of human nature such as how
and why people think, feel and behave certain ways. Ethics play a major role in people making the
decision to pursue a degree in psychology because most people with strong
ethics want to help others and psychology is a field that focus on helping
people.
Conclusion
The Ethics Awareness Inventory is used to assess the personal
ethics, principles and moral judgment of an individual in any given situation
and the results give an ethical perspective based of the answers provided. Personal ethics is very important in
psychology because they can have a direct influence on professional behavior
and that is why the American Psychological Association developed the code of
conduct to protect the well-being of clients by ensuring that psychologist do
not allow their personal views affect their judgment when providing services. There
are many benefits of obtaining a degree in psychology such as multiple career
choices, however the most beneficial of all is learning what motivates human
behavior.
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