Ethics of Counseling Final Assignment!
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University of Iowa *
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Philosophy
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Jan 9, 2024
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My Personal Code Final Assignment Introduction I believe that a person’s ethical code can be made up of many things. For me personally, it was definitely made up by my culture, my experiences, and my parents. My parents grew up in India, and moved here before I was born. Being born in America while being raised by Indian parents made things hard culture wise, and ethics wise. For example, Indian ethics preach about the importance of competition; everyone must always be competing with each other, whether it’s for a grade, for a promotion, for friends, for a husband or wife, or even for food (Kishan, E., de los Angeles Delgado Alvarez, M., & Allen, J., 2023)
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. Everything is about competition –
nobody should be better than you, and you always must be the best. Indian ethics also preaches about helping yourself as opposed to others. I was always told to be a doctor; not because I would be helping others, but because I would be making a lot of money, which would help me later in life. American ethics preaches helping others, which was a huge culture shock when I first started going to school. When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up and told everyone I wanted to be a doctor, I was applauded by my peers for my willingness to help others. This eventually led to imposter syndrome setting in –
I had been taught to go into the field for wrong reasons, which made me feel bad about myself. I eventually learned to assimilate myself in America, and align more with their ethical and cultural values, which I found myself identifying more with than with my Indian side. After understanding that I identified more with my American side regarding ethics and values, I started learning from my peers and teachers to make sure that my values were exactly what I wanted them to be. I spoke with many of my guidance counselors growing up regarding ethical decisions, and always looked towards making the one that I felt was right in my heart. I learned more about the America culture and value system through textbooks, lectures, and face to face experiences with people
that taught me everything I know and work with today. I decided that my most ethical decision would be to have no maleficence towards anyone, which is highlighted by the American Counseling Association as ethical practice (Cottone, R. R., & Tarvydas, V. M. (2016))
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, and to help anyone that I could within my means to be an ethical person. The person that had the biggest impact on framing my current values, morals, and ethics would be my high school English teacher, Mr. Hucke. Mr. Hucke was a role model for me who worked very hard to make sure every student was comfortable, happy, and safe. He always valued the students’ opinions and made sure every voice was heard. I eventually had a discussion with him regarding ethics and ethical decision making, where he told me about his own philosophy on ethical matters and how to deal with things in life. A lot of that is ingrained into me today still, and I live by it, which leads me to my ethical principles. What is my ethical code? My ethical code consists of four main principles: 1.
Help others within your means. 2.
Try hard to make decisions that benefit everyone, not just yourself. 3.
Don’t lie to anyone if it can be avoided. 4.
Don’t steal from others. These principles have helped me be an ethical person this far in my life. For helping others within my means, this means that I help others but not at the expense of myself. For example, if I see someone on the street asking for $10, but that is all the money I have left for food for the day, I would be reluctant to give them the money, as it would be detrimental for me. However, if I saw someone on the street asking for $10, and I had $100 for the day, I would be happy to give them $10, because it wouldn’t be too much a loss for me. Similarly, I would be more inclined to offer someone assistance with homework if I had the time as opposed to if I needed the time to myself.
For me, this is helping others within my means. This ethical principle is positive, as it is geared towards making everyone happy and assisting others when I can, which causes something good (
Howard, R. & Korver, C.
(2020, March 14))
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. The test for rationalization (Cottone, R. R., & Tarvydas, V. M. (2016))
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that I chose for this was the Role-Model test; would I expect my children to use this principle in their lives, or other people who look up to me? I believe that the answer to this is yes. This would help the people who look up to me live ethical lives, and I would be proud if they used this ethical principle in their daily lives, as I believe it would make the world a better place. I believe that this ethical principle most reflects Bentham’s principle of ethics being good
(
Howard, R. & Korver, C.
(2020, March 14))
3
for most of the population. This ethical value has some prudentialism to it, as it gives me the ability to say no if the need be, but it also allows me to help others within my means when I can. I don’t really think there is a situation where I would not be inclined to use this ethical principle, as it is very open towards me. “Within my means” can mean different things on different days based on my responsibilities and capabilities. I can say no if I need to, which leaves the principle very open, which makes it unlikely that I will ever need to violate it. I would apply Kant’s decision
-making model, which states that if something is done with positive intentions, the action is ethical irrespective of the consequences (Coletti, B. (2018, November 16))
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. With this model, since the assistance I do give would be with positive intentions, the principle is considered ethical. For my second principle, try hard to make decisions that benefit everyone, not just yourself, I make sure to make decisions that benefit everyone. For example, if I am given the choice to have a buffet for myself or to share it with multiple people, I will choose to share it with multiple people. Similarly, if someone wants me to not report another employee at work, but most other employees want this specific employee to be reported, I would go forward with reporting them. This would be seen as positive ethics (
Howard, R. & Korver, C.
(2020, March 14))
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, as it is geared towards causing good and helping others. The test for rationalization (Cottone, R. R., & Tarvydas, V. M. (2016))
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that I chose to
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analyze this principle with is the Front-Page test. The Front-Page test asks whether the ethical principle would be viewed the same way if it was reported on a major news site, or a local newspaper. I believe that this would be received well by readers of the paper, as it is a very peaceful ethical principle that revolves around helping others and making the world a better place, which makes it a good ethical principle. My principle reflects once again on Bentham’s principle of doing what’s best for the maj
ority, as it says to make decisions that will benefit everyone. In my previous example with the reporting of the employee at work, if I were to not report the employee, the employee themself would benefit, but the others who wanted the employee reported would not benefit. However, if I were to report the employee, the people who want her reported would benefit, while the employee themself would not benefit from getting reported. This demonstrates Bentham’s principle well; it shows that
the majority can benefit from a decision as opposed to only one person benefitting from a decision. There are very few situations that I can think of where this ethical principle would need to be violated, but one major one is a big ethical dilemma that is very common: the train tracks dilemma (D'Olimpio, L. (2016, June 2))
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. Would I save one person as opposed to saving five people? According to Bentham’s principle, I should save five people as opposed to one, since it would lead to more people being happy. However, what if the one person was a family member, and the five people were strangers? In that situation, I would be more inclined to help my family as opposed to the five strangers, which may not be the most ethical decision, but it would be the one that I would make. I would apply Kant’s decision-making model to this ethical principle as well, which would show that my ethical principle has positive intentions for everyone around me, which would lead to it being an ethical decision and principle. The third ethical principle I live by is to not lie to anyone when it can be avoided. For example, in a situation where it can be avoided to lie is something as simple as “do you want to go somewhere.” As an introvert, sometimes I get overwhelmed by the idea of going out, and as many others can possibly relate, I agree to plans with no intention of going, which leads to me lying to the person and cancelling
at the last minute. Instead of doing that, with my ethical principle I just started saying no and taking the risk of disappointing people, as I would rather be honest and disappoint them now as opposed to lying and disappointing them later. This could be seen as both positive and negative ethics; sometimes being honest can lead to negative results, which leads the principle to be seen as negative ethics. However, Kant’s principle of ethics says that intentions matter the most; if you perform an action with positive intentions, it is considered positive ethics. I would classify this ethical principle as positive ethics, as it can lead to positive results alongside negative results but is done with positive intentions. The test for rationalization (Cottone, R. R., & Tarvydas, V. M. (2016))
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that I chose to analyze this ethical principle with is the mother’s test, which asks the very simple
question of “what would your mother think?” I think that my mother would approve of this ethical principle, as she always preached the importance of honesty in life, and she also lived a very honest life. This principle also reflects Bentham’s ethics as it helps the majority of the population in the long run when honesty comes into play. There are some situations where I may feel inclined to lie. For example, if I mess up at work, I may see someone else getting blamed and want to let it happen as opposed to stepping up and being honest, which is a form of lying. Another time where it may be a hard decision to tell the truth or not may be in day-to-day life, such as when my fiancé gets a haircut and asks how he looks. Sometimes he looks terrible with it, and I may be inclined to tell him he looks great. However, that could lead to him repeatedly getting the same ugly haircut, so it is better to be honest and tell him how it looks/how I feel. I applied incrementalism (
INCREMENTALISM
. (2023))
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to this ethical principle; I slowly lowered my standards for what was a lie at first. I rationalized that by saying I would go out, I was preventing people from getting their feelings hurt, and maybe in the end I would want to go out, even if I didn’t
feel like it right now! This cycle continued until I noted that I was observing big lies as small ones and rationalizing them to myself. I eventually broke free of the cycle by nitpicking at myself about what a lie is until I was making my hardest effort to be an honest person and living as honestly as possible.
The fourth and final ethical principle that I live by is to not steal from others. Stealing could be something as big as stealing physically from a store, or something as small as time theft from my place of employment (Warren (Tulipano), R. (2022, December 15))
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. This principle is best explained by Bentham, who says that actions should have the best impact on everyone. The rationalization that I would use for this principle is the Biased-Language test, which asks if we would feel the same way about our values if we used unemotional, value-
less language to support it. I would phrase this as “do not take things that do not belong to you” as value less, unemotional language, and I believe it conveys the same point; that things should not be stolen. This is a positive ethical principle, as it leads to a positive outcome; that people aren’t being stolen from and people are overall happier. There are some situations that I may consider not following this ethical principle, such as doing homework at work during down time where there is not much to do, and I feel bored. Although I may feel like doing this, it is a form of time theft, which is stealing time from the company that is not authorized to be used for anything other than work. Since I would be getting paid for that time, it is a form of stealing from the company. The way I mitigate this is by simply asking my supervisor if he or she is okay with me doing homework or other activities during the working hours. If they approve, I will go ahead and do my homework. If not, I ask them for a task to occupy my time with that is beneficial for the workplace. The test for rationalization (Cottone, R. R., & Tarvydas, V. M. (2016))
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that I would perform for this ethical value is the Loved-One Test. If I would hold my loved ones to the same standard, it is an ethical principle. Since I would hold my loved ones to the same standard of this ethical value, I would consider it ethical. The ethical principle that I would apply to this is behavioral ethics. Through behavioral ethics, we can see that the reason I feel inclined to steal time at work is due to boredom, not having anything to do, and sometimes because of having a deadline due that is causing me stress. If I were to choose the ethical route, which I do, I would ask my supervisor and then see what I was allowed to do. This is ethical
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because it benefits the greatest number of people; it helps the company and my patients, alongside making sure that I’m not stealing
. Conclusion In conclusion, a lot of my core ethical values and beliefs were shaped by my upbringing and culture. I was raised in America as a child of Indian parents, so there was a lot of cultural conflict to navigate which could lead to hard situations at time. I was able to eventually figure out my ethical compass by speaking with my teacher Mr. Hucke, who helped shape me into the person I am today and is someone I aspire to be like every day. My main ethical values that I live by are help others within your means, try hard to make decisions that benefit everyone, not just yourself, don’t lie to anyone if it can be avoided, and don’t steal from others.
These values all showed themselves to have positive ethics, as they resulted in positive endings when performed. Analyzing these ethical principles through different lenses showed that they had good intentions and results, and when implemented would lead to Bentham’s principle of ethics, which states that people should make ethical decisions on what would best affect the most people. Although there may be some conflicts with being an ethical person due to prudentialism, self-serving biases, and wanting the best for us, with some effort, education and hard work it becomes easier to practice living an ethical, honest life, which I always try to do. For nursing, ethics are an extremely necessary item in everyday life for work. My code would change a little bit for my current professional environment –
since I currently work in a psychiatric unit, it can be hard to tell some patients the truth about things and sometimes we are told to lie to patients to keep the working environment safe and healthy. That is the only thing in my ethical code that would/will change for my working environment. I would make sure not to steal from patients, steal time from work, help others within my means, and do the best I can to make decisions that will benefit everyone, not just myself. It can be hard making ethical decisions in nursing, because
often times you are not the one making decisions, the doctors are, and sometimes those decisions are not ethical. I believe that since the doctors have the most training, it is most ethical to listen to them and do what they want as long as it is not at the expense of the patient. Sources:
1.) Kishan, E., de los Angeles Delgado Alvarez, M., & Allen, J. (Presenters). (2023). The Ethics of Competition in Education and Competitive Exams
[Transcript]. Reading presented at King's Interhigh, 10 Orange St, London
WC2H 7DQ, United Kingdom.
2.) Cottone, R. R., & Tarvydas, V. M. (2016). Ethics and decision making in
counseling and psychotherapy
(4th ed.). Springer Publishing Company. 3.) Howard, R. & Korver, C.
(2020, March 14). "Ethics for the Real World". Harvard Business Press 4.) Coletti, B. (2018, November 16). Doing The Right Thing: How to Make Ethical
Decisions
. Kith. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://kith.co/ blog/making-ethical-decisions/ #:~:text=Importantly%2C%20Kantinan%20thinking%20judges%20morality,be%20amoral%20i n%20Kant's%20view.
5.) D'Olimpio, L. (2016, June 2). The trolley dilemma: would you kill one person to
save five?
The Conversation. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://theconversation.com/ the-trolley-dilemma-would-you-kill-one-person-to-save-five-57111 6.) INCREMENTALISM
. (2023). Ethics Unwrapped. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/video/incrementalism 7.) Warren (Tulipano), R. (2022, December 15). 8 Examples of Time Theft (And What To
Do About It)
. GenTwenty. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://gentwenty.com/time-theft-workplace/
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