Value Statement
I appreciate being loyal, fair and demonstrating respect for others as it enhances my growth and development as a person who is reliable and of integrity. I am also an open-minded person who recognizes honesty as a vital strength in my life.
My values and ethics are based on the recognition of the vital role played by family, love and happiness in enhancing social order and tranquility in society. The values and ethics reduce the likelihood of transgressing against my friends and acquaintances or breaking the law thereby making me a valuable individual in society.
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The origin of the values is from the teachings and guidance I get from my parents and teachers. My parents and teachers implore on me to think proactively by evaluating the consequences of an action before performance. In the family, honesty and fairness were evident from the subdivision of duties in the home to getting parental attention and advice on the need to demonstrate integrity and reliability in life. Also in school, the teachers emphasized on the benefits of being reliable and consistent in behavior thereby sensitizing me from an early age on the need to embrace integrity, honesty and respect for others.
My ethical beliefs are honesty, integrity, and respect for other people. I was once in a hypermarket doing shopping and the teller gave me more change after I had paid for the few commodities I had picked. After reaching home, I realized the balance the teller gave me was more by over seven dollars as I had paid in cash. I felt under obligation to go back to the retailer and return the excess money as the teller would incur shortages at the end of her shift that she would pay. I felt compelled and immediately went back to the hypermarket and the teller was extremely pleased with my action. The act demonstrated my adherence to the ethical beliefs of integrity and acting honestly where doing the correct thing and acting responsibly is a duty regardless of whether I get credit for it.
Roots of my Ethical Beliefs
My ethical beliefs originated from my childhood experiences where during my teenage years, one of my friends used to castigate me for not engaging in immoral behaviors like smoking and using drugs. Every time this friend, who was also a neighbor, implored on me to join his company and engage in the acts, I felt I would betray the trust and respect that my parents had on me and the strict upbringing they had offered. I would recall the prompts from my mum where she emphasized that if I misbehaved, the behaviors would catch up with me and ruin my life. Later, when we became young adults, my friend was deeply engaged in the use of drugs and had started using hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. As we speak, he is serving a long-term jail sentence after he was apprehended by the authorities.
The experiences of my friend greatly influenced my ethical values where it dawned on me that engaging in delinquent acts and betraying the trust and belief that parents and guardians have on you are counterproductive as they lead to self destruction and a life time of misery and hopelessness. These experiences made me aver to embrace the ethical beliefs of honesty, integrity and respect for other people where my actions are guided by doing what is right rather than what suits the circumstances.
Explaining my Ethical Perspective
My ethical perspective is utilitarianism. I am motivated to engage in actions that result in the highest forms of happiness or benefits to the biggest number of people. The perspective ensures I engage in proactive thinking where I evaluate my actions beforehand and engage in actions that bring benefits and happiness to the highest number of people (Millar, Starmans, Fugelsang & Friedman, 2015). The perspective ensures that the personal engagements are evaluated on the basis of their ability to have positive impacts on society and making the majority happy. It implies that I am flexible and rather than being guided by self-interests, I adopt a divergent approach to issues where the impacts of the actions on others is a vital motivation. My ethical perspective deviates from the deontological perspective that is rule-based. Despite the prevalence of rules and norms in society, not every issue can be guided by rules as sometimes morals conflict and I believe that playing an active role in promoting the interests and wellbeing of others is vital in one’s life.
Why and How I have Adopted this Perspective
The adoption of this perspective is traceable to my upbringing where I was taught the need to act in a selfless and altruistic manner towards others. I was also taught the dangers of being self-centered and egocentric as it makes one selfish. Through these early experiences and teachings, it became clear that personal actions and behaviors impact on a large number of people not just the individual. The reason for embracing this perspective is due to its value in making one relevant to other people, especially those that are integral to one’s life like family relatives, close friends and associates in different communities like the home, school and at the workplace. The perspective ensures I maintain my friends and close associates.
Why and how this Framework was taught to me
My parents brought us up in a community setting where my cousins lived within the same compound. The utilitarian perspective was used in most of the decision-making activities where the bigger children were urged to adhere to morals to avoid making their younger counterparts imitate bad behaviors. We were also taught the need of sharing things like food with others and most of the activities like parties, going for picnics and celebrations were organized in a communal manner amongst households rather than unilaterally based on an individual household. It dawned on me that individual thoughts and actions should be based on the consequences they have on others and the best decisions are those that make the most people happy. Our parents believed the joy of their children should be enjoyed with children from the other households to enhance integration and collegial relationships.
The framework is vital as it ensures individuals are sensitive towards the impacts of their actions and behaviors on others. Such sensitivity is crucial in reducing tensions and feelings of disenfranchisement amongst other individuals like close relatives and neighbors due to the actions of one individual. Also, most of the decisions one makes in contemporary situations revolves around making faster evaluations on the gains and harms that a decision has on an individual and others.
Ethical Framework I draw on Most as an Adult and Why
I draw mostly on the utilitarian ethical framework. The framework enhances the adaptation of an individual to most social, cultural and political settings. There are no normative regulations or rules that one has to adhere to other than recognizing the benefits and harms of an action and seeking to maximize the benefits and reduce the harms. Most of the situations in nature involve interacting with different individuals with differing beliefs and norms as the world in increasingly becoming diverse. The utilitarian framework ensures one demonstrates sensitivity towards such individuals by engaging in acts that make the majority benefit or happy. The framework, therefore, limits any conflicts or tensions that can impede peaceful coexistence and engagement in diverse environments and settings.
Utilitarianism is also crucial in ensuring respects to the points of view of others. The goal of maximizing happiness to the majority implores on the individual to listen to the views and opinions of others before deciding the best course of action. The framework, therefore, is integrated with the ethical value of respecting others and ensuring individual acts are guided by collaborative decision-making and mutual respect. As an adult, such behavior is highly applauded by others and reduces any forms of resentment and anger towards the actions of an individual.
My appreciation of the values of integrity and altruism implores on me to engage in acts where I demonstrate empathy and compassion towards others. The utilitarian framework promotes my ability to prioritize the interests of others, especially those that are in need. The framework makes me motivate my friends and colleagues to engage in acts of charity where we visit and donate foodstuffs and clothing to the homeless and the indigent in society. I strongly believe that such acts enhance the level of happiness to the majority and the consequences are unimaginable as such homeless people suffer lesser risks of contracting illnesses when they are properly clothed and fed.
Description of the person I am today
I am an affable, congenial and hospitable person, especially when in the company of those that understand me. I also abhor lies and treating others as a means to an end and the culture of exploitation. However, I sometimes get angry due to my short temper. I aspire to become a more accommodative person and be a role model to the children and youth in my community by demonstrating the benefits of being morally upright.
References
Millar, C., Starmans, C., Fugelsang, J. & Friedman, O. (2015). It's personal: The effect of personal value on utilitarian moral judgments. Judgment & Decision Making, 11 (4): 326-331.
