What is ethics?
If one was to ask the question, “What do ethics mean to you?” These responses would be likely to follow. “Ethics is what my feelings tell me is right or wrong.” “Ethics have to do with my religious beliefs.” “Being ethical means following the laws.” Those replies would be expected. Many do relate ethics with their feelings, but it is not a matter of following feelings. In fact, we will often times stray from living ethically if we were guided by our feelings. Although religions urge high ethical standards, if ethics were limited to religion, ethics would only apply to religious people. Following the law is not the same as being ethical. Ethical standards may be incorporated in the law, but laws, won’t always conform to what is ethical.
The most common way of defining “ethics”: norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour (Resnik, D.B, 2010). Ethics invoke well-grounded principles of right and wrong. It defines what people ought to do, mainly in terms of respecting and serving others, showing justice, displaying honesty and building community. Finally ethics means, as individuals we are continually striving to shape our lives, our workplace, and our community by advocating those specific virtues of honesty, compassion and loyalty and living up to standards that are admirable and solidly placed (Velasquez, Andre, Shank & Meyer, 2008).
Ethics in Research Psychology
When research psychologists formulate exciting new research projects, it is easy to be swept away by the thrill of new knowledge. There may be the temptation to employ methods that could become ethically muddy and ambiguous. The psychologist whose research is designed and conducted involving human or animal particip...
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...udy of Obedience". Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67 (4): 371–378
Milgram, Stanley. (1974), Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View. Harpercollins
Resnik, D.B. 2010. What is ethics in research & why is it important? National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Retrieved March 14th, 2011, from http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis.cfm
Shaffer, David., & Kipp, Katherine. (2007). Developmental psychology: childhood and adolescence (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Velasquez, Manuel., Andre, Claire., Shank, Thomas., & Meyer, Michael J. (2008). What is ethics? Santa Clara University, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Retrieved March 14th, 2011, from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html
Zimbardo, P.G. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. New York: Random House
The word “Ethics” has its root in the Greek word ‘ethos’, which means character, spirit and attitude of a group of people or culture. Ethics is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as: a system of moral principles, by which human actions may be judged good or bad or right or wrong, and the rules of conduct recognized in respect of a particular class of human actions.
Zimbardo, Philip G. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. New York: Random House, 2007. Print.
Ethics refers to a system of moral standards that guide the decision for human conduct of what is right and wrong based on everyday life situations, usually in terms rights, obligations, benefits, fairness, or virtue. Ethics is used as a formal guideline for conducting business in order to minimize pain to the greater number of people as a whole. The principles of ethics come from the knowledge and understanding of the word of God, the Bible. It tells us how we ought to think and behave toward one another considering first, how we want to be treated. For instance, we have the right to freedom of speech as long as we don’t insult the integrity of others. In addition, God gives us examples for how make right decisions and warns of those to avoid. Knowing this, that if we have love in our hearts first, for our heavenly father then we’ll have compassion for our fellow mankind to behave ethically.
Francis Bacon helped to pioneer the new science steering people away from Aristotelian teachings. He helped to bring the scientific method to a place of learning from observation and experimentation. He felt that science should be judged by the usefulness of the results (Greenwood, 2009). Bacon projected that many great things might come out of this empirical approach, but what has ensued in the centuries that followed, Bacon and others might not have predicted.
Ethics is the standard that are set by a person or organizations based from their beliefs, the values they hold, moral rules they have that helps them make the right or wrong decision, how to act when confronted with a moral dilemma. Setting an ethical standard and a set of rules is critical to having healthy employees, customers, and ultimately a healthy organization.
Ethics: while defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as “the discipline dealing with what is good or bad [through] moral duty”, this concise phrase does not seem to encompass the word’s full connotation. The way ‘ethics’ is defined in the dictionary alludes that there is a black-and-white answer to whether an action, belief, or opinion is ethical. Unfortunately, when applying this term to real life, decisions are almost never as clear cut as right or wrong. Why then, are we so quick to judge things as right or wrong, good or bad, ethical or unethical?
Philips, Trevor. "Human Self-Interest Will Ensure That Animal Experimentation Continues." The Independent (25 Apr. 1998). Rpt. in Animal Experimentation. Ed. Cindy Mur. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 21 Apr. 2011.
Ethics are the set beliefs and values of an individual which they apply to circumstances relating to morality. To act in an ‘ethical’ manner, an individual must display integrity by doing what they believe to be right.
Ethics refers to the values and customs of a community at a particular point in time. At present, the term ethics is guided by the moral principles that guide our everyday actions. These moral principles guide the researcher into deciding what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The foundation of medical ethics is governed by two philosophical frameworks that are deontology, and utilitarianism. However ultimately the ethics committees need to balance the risks, and benefits for the participants and the community associated with the particular research proposal. This balance is quite important as the well being of participants is at risk.7
Ethics deals with actions with adequate standard of attitudes, behavior that is pleasing to the people or organizations. Every job has a code of ethical conduct that is supposed to be is followed. It is very necessary to understand that ethical rules must apply and obey with basis of what is right and wrong which is written in the law. That is why there are professions that have organizations or associations which have the method of ethical conducts or standard.
Ethics is the core foundation of communities. Foundational ethical values are “the ability to evaluate a situation and determine whether or not a particular behavior prohibited in the community,” (University of Phoenix, 2014, para. 1). There’s a multitude of variations in which define ethics, all of which arrive at similar, if not identical connotation. For example, ethics is defined as “being a person of integrity, acting with courage, or serving justice,” (Ethics Game Ethical Lens Inventory, 2015). According to The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy Third Edition (n.d.), of which describes ethics as the branch of philosophy that deals with morality. Ethics concerns with distinguishing between good and evil in the world, between right and wrong human actions, and between virtuous and non-virtuous characteristics of
Shaffer, D., Kipp, K., Wood, E., & Willoughby, T. (2010). Developmental psychology childhood and adolescence. (3rd ed.). USA: Thomson Wadsworth
[1] Ethics is defined as “the code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviour of a person or a group with respect to what is right or wrong” (Samson and Daft, 2005, p.158)
Natural sciences are sciences whose methodology is based on the observation of the physical world. Unlike ethics it is a highly empirical discipline. The basic and perhaps only way used to produce knowledge in the scientific world is through inductive reasoning, as the methodology that is usually followed by scientists involves conducting several experiments and making observations, based on which they make logical conclusions. Ethical judgements hinder the methods of acquiring knowledge through scientific development. Several methods require the interaction with animals, which could end up being harmful for them. Moral codes and values oppose to such situations and therefore encourage us to raise concerns every time there is a potential for scientific research involving animal experimentation. As I learned in my IB Biology course, Xenotransplantation, the transplantation of organs from animals,...
Ethics are moral principles or values that govern the conduct of an individual or a group.It is not a burden to bear, but a prudent and effective guide which furthers life and success. Ethics are important not only in business but in academics and society as well because it is an essential part of the foundation on which a civilized society is built.