Personal Ethics

Personal Ethics

In today's world, individuals can make a single decision that can have a profoundly positive or negative affect on their family, their employer, coworkers, a nation, and even on the entire world. The life we lead reflects the strength of a single trait: our personal character. Personal ethics are different for each person but for the most part, people want to be known as a good person, someone who can be trusted, and he or she are concerned about his or her relationships and personal reputations. As we go through this paper, we will focus on answering what are ethics, what are your ethics, where do your ethics come from, and how do you manifest your ethics?

What are ethics?

Let us start off with the definition of ethics. Ethics can be defined with more than one meaning. In philosophy, ethics is the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and duties that a particular society requires of its members. A second definition or meaning of ethics is motivation-based on ideas of right and wrong. The legal dictionary defines ethics as "The principles of conduct governing an individual or a profession see also ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct in the important laws section" (http://www.answers.com). It has been said that values, morals, and ethics are inextricably tied together. Values are what we learn from childhood; the 'stuff' we absorb from our parents and immediate surroundings. Morals are the intrinsic beliefs developed from the value systems of how we 'should' behave in any given situation. Ethics, on the other hand, are how we behave in the face of difficult situations (Bottorff, 2005).

What are your ethics?

Now that we have defined ethics, we will take a look at what our ethics are. In reality, our ethical behavior is at its best when intents, means, and ends, individually and collectively pursue a greater good. For me personally, my ethics would be based on my behavior, how I handle situations, can I be trusted, am I reliable and responsible? Does my behavior show that my decisions are based on a greater good? Since I understand the fact that doing good is far better than doing something bad, ethical thinking allows me to make decisions that will be right. Hopefully, this behavior will present or leave a positive impression. For example, by displaying a positive attitude, showing a willingness to help out, making sure my work is completed accurately and in a timely manner, rather than producing work that is inaccurate and late, will let others know that they can trust me, and count on me to be there to help out, on both a personal and professional level.

Where do your ethics come from?

Ethics has developed as people have reflected on the intentions and consequences of their acts. From this reflection on the nature of human behavior, theories of conscience have developed, giving direction to much ethical thinking. Each individual has a different ethical background that is taught to them by his or her parents, teachers, mentors, religious beliefs, his or her own personal beliefs and we as a society