Barriers To Ethical Thinking Essay

A few barriers to ethical thinking and development that I have experienced are memory, immediacy, and self -justification. In the next few paragraphs I will define the terms, put them in my own words, and provide examples of situations that I have experienced that influence these barriers. I will first explain memory, then immediacy, and finally end with self-justification.
Memory is defined as, “the natural tendency to forget evidence that does not support our thinking and to remember evidence that does” (Josephson, 2013). I few that as selective hearing. A person hears what they want to hear and tunes out the rest. An example that I have experienced with this is lecture material. I took a criminal justice course in college that involved discussing the death penalty. My professor was for the death penalty and I was against it. I could not remember the statistics or specific arguments that he had against it. His viewpoint went against my ethical views, so that may have contributed to why I wasn’t able to retain a lot of the information. As I progressed in college I was able to listen more different viewpoints without involving emotion, which has helped me understand and respect different viewpoints.
Immediacy is defined as, “the natural tendency to

It is difficult to make decisions and have intellectual judgment. Decisions are at times influenced by personal experiences, information presented, emotion, amongst other numerous factors, therefore it is a lengthy process. Even when a person is trying to make the best decision it may be the “wrong” choice due to the fact that it negatively impacts other people. For instance, allowing a person to bend the rules a bit may seem innocent, but it may hinder the other people that are following the rules (such as allowing someone to use the computer longer than what their allotted time