Ethics Awareness Inventory Paper
What are ethics? This is often a difficult question for individuals to answer. Ethics can be defined with more than one meaning. In this paper, I will attempt to explain the importance of my own personal ethical perspective. I will also analyze the relationship between personal and professional ethics in the field of psychology.
Ethics can be defined as, “the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles” (Bottorff, 2005). Bottorff defines moral principles as the code of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations that a particular society requires of its members. Research has shown that the words morals, ethics and values are often tied together. As a young child my parents instilled in me values that I absorbed from them and my surroundings. Ethics on the other hand are how we behave in the face of difficult situations (Bottorff, 2005).
I completed the Ethics Awareness Inventory and was surprised by the results. I understood that there was no right or wrong answers for this test but some of the questions made me think long and hard about my ethical beliefs. According to the Ethics Awareness Inventory Scoring Summary, my ethical profile is closely aligned with character. The inventory also showed that my ethical profile is least closely aligned with equity. I believe it is extremely important for individuals to understand their own personal ethic perspective because prior to this assessment I had not thought about assessing where I stood ethically. I believe in some areas of the inventory their assessment of my ethical beliefs were accurate. I was raised by my parents to believe that character and integrity was all an individual had in life and that no one individual could take that away. I was taught to look for the honor, justice and benevolence in individuals. The inventory also stated that I believe ethics relies on the ability of...