Values and Ethics Reflection

Values and Ethics Reflection

Submit your values and ethics reflection paper by the end of Module 9. The objective of this assignment is for you to relate the material from the textbook readings
and course discussions to the experiences in your life so that you can assess its meaning. Read the assignment guidelines carefully.

Please read all instructions in ATTACHMENT
Use;
Rosenstand, N. (2013) The Moral Of the Story. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies Values and Ethics/Personal Reflection on Values and Ethics

Assignment Guidelines
Erik Erikson, one of the most influential psychoanalysts of the 20th century, proposed an eightstage
theory of growth as a model for how we live, think, learn and change throughout our
lifetimes. What we value, our character and psyche are determined as a result of the
developmental tasks we face in each stage. For more information on his stages see:
http://swppr.org/Textbook/Ch%209%20Erikson.pdf
Erikson’s last stage is sometimes referred to as late adulthood, maturity, or old age (Erikson’s
term is Ego Integrity vs. Despair), and begins around the age of 60 or when we typically retire.
According to his theory, during this final stage of life we take a deep inventory of our lives and
our sense of usefulness. The basic question most people grapple with at this stage is: did our
life have meaning? However, we do not need to wait until the latter part of our life to answer this
question. We can do it now!
Some people become preoccupied with the past, their failures, regrets, and the bad decisions
they made, knowing they do not have the time or the vigor to reverse how they lived and treated
others. Sometimes this results in people becoming depressed, vindictive, resentful and spiteful
in old age. They often wish that they had lived a life that was different, more positive and had
deeper meaning. Conversely, others look back and accept the choices they made, realizing they
did their best given the choices they had and the circumstances they faced. If you were dying
now, into which category would you place yourself?
While most of us are not dying, we do know that we are not guaranteed a tomorrow. In fact, we
cannot even be sure we will live through the day. Yet, in the face of the one certainty in life we
all share—that everything outside of the imminent moments in which we live and breathe—
Western society continues to deny the presence and possibilities of death. This is true even
when we are directly confronted with it—witness, for example, the lengths to which we will go to
live longer even when those measures vastly deteriorate the quality of our lives. Rather, as the
essential, defining element of life itself, death should be embraced as a means of learning how
to live a full and truly meaningful life. So, perhaps now is a good time to reflect and take an
inventory of how we have lived.
Our personal values, morals and ethical code serve as a basis for distinguishing between right
and wrong, and thereby have a direct effect upon our thoughts, behavior and emotions. Of
course our family, upbringing, peers, and education play a critical role in the development of our
core values and ethics as well, but as you learned in this course, there are many other variables
that shape our character and values.
The objective of this assignment is for you to relate the material from the textbook
readings and course discussions to the experiences in your life so that you can assess
its meaning. As we reflect on acknowledging our mortality, can we start to bring a greater
meaning to our lives while still living? We can if we are honest with ourselves and take the time
to do so.
So, how do we go about determining what our values and ethics are? Perhaps the best
approach is to start with developing a statement that encompasses an overall picture of your
values and ethics. This opening part of your paper needs to be general in nature and should
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reflect your beliefs, and not necessarily a statement of fact. Are your values based on family,
health, achievements, wealth, job success, happiness, faith, love, or anything else that you hold
in great esteem, that perhaps you would be willing to even die for? Think of your value
statement as what defines you as a person. You took a similar inventory in Module 2, so your
answer might be similar. However, after reading the material in this course, you may have
changed your perspectives on some of these items. If so, explain. Certainly, you now have a
theoretical framework in which to place these values, so make sure you add that information.
Once you determine what you value, then you can transition to formulating a personal ethics
statement. How have your values informed your decisions and shaped the way you live? This
part of the paper would include your personal view of ethics. In addition, consider how this code
was instilled in you from the time you were born until now. What personality traits do you
consider to be closely related to ethical and unethical behavior? Why? How do you see your
development according to Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
(http://web.missouri.edu/~segerti/capstone/kohlberg.pdf)?
The next step in the process is to think about your values and ethics from the different ethical
perspectives covered in the course. This will require you to think critically, synthesize and apply
theory to your life. You might try to address as many ethical theories as possible, but you can
also focus on just applying one or two if that is what you prefer to do. For example, you could
use a deontological perspective to represent how a duty/rule-based approach was used by your
parents, family, faith or religion (how were the principles of respect of others, honesty, hardwork,
success, altruism, morality, excellence or the opposites, etc. taught as morally wrong or
right regardless of the outcomes achieve?). Or maybe you would like to apply a utilitarian
approach in which an assessment of the overall outcomes of consequences (greatest benefit
and overall happiness vs. greatest harm and unhappiness) was used mainly to determine right
and wrong? You could also take consider the influence of egoism, personhood and rights or
virtue-based ethics on other aspects or issues in your life. In this section, make sure you use
the text as evidence.
In your concluding paragraph describe the person you are today and maybe address the person
you want to become. Are they the same person or different? As a result of this reflection, do you
have areas in your life that you want to change or work on? What would you most like to change
about yourself? Can you do it? If you were dying right now, what is the most important thing you
might say to your best friend about life and how to live it? You may want to consider the
chapters on virtue theory. Which of these virtues is most important to you? Why? How might
you work on developing it?
Again, the overriding theme of this paper is to critically think about the meaning of your life
relative to your self-interests, personal values and code of ethics. This is an about you and for
you, but it will be heavily informed by the readings and discussions from this course.
Your paper must have an APA-formatted title page. The paper should be at least 1500 words in
length (not including the cover page and references). It should be grammatically sound and free
of spelling errors. You must integrate the ethical theories discussed in the readings and
class as they relate goal of this assignment. Be sure to include in-text citations and a
reference page for this material. Outside sources are not required, but any use of such
material should be cited.
This paper will be submitted in Module 9, but begin this process early so you can address any
concerns with your instructor.

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