The Ethics Position Questionnaire

Question

Shyamal Bikash Chakma · Accepted Answer

Scores of my Moral Development and Ethical Parameters

Moral development is concerned with the formation, evolution, and comprehension of morality from childhood to maturity. Morality changes over time and is impacted by a person's life experience and conduct when confronted with moral challenges at various stages of cognitive and physical development. Morality is concerned with an individual's developing sense of what is good and wrong; as a result, young children have distinct moral judgment and character from adults. Morality is frequently used as a substitute for "righteousness" or "godliness." It may also refer to a distinct code of ethics drawn from someone's culture, faith, or personal belief that governs one's actions, behaviors, and ideas (Kohlberg & Hersh, 1977).

The level of evolution and development of moralities are segregated into six stages of Moral Development as defined by Kohlberg’s theory. As a college graduate student, I am in the learning phase of morality and have certain issues while making certain ethical decisions. One measuring myself at Kohlberg’s stages of Moral development, I found myself at Stage 3: Conventional-Mutual Interpersonal Expectations, Relationships & Conformity. As I am learning the new norms in society, the rules to be followed are social norms and emerging relationships as I get acquainted with new friends, introduced to family members, college friends, etc. I also took four surveys which includes questionnaires pertaining to Empathy, Machiavellianism, Locus of control, and my ethical positions.

After the survey, my scores were 59 out of 80 on the Empathy test, 47 out of 100 on the Machiavellianism test, on the test of locus of control, I scored 76/100, while on ethical positions my scores pertaining to Idealism and Relativism were 77 out of 90 and 60 out of 90 respectively. When I compared them to my classmates, I found that the average was 50.9, 49.7, 69.6, 66.1, and 51 for Empathy, Machiavellianism, Locus of control, Idealism, and Relativism respectively. So, I can see my Empathy score is relatively less when compared to the average score of the class, however, in terms of locus of control, my scores fall in the category of Internal locus of control for personality. However, in terms of my ethical positions, my idealism and relativism scores are better than the average scores of the class.

My Ethical Dilemma Case during my College Life

While learning Ethics and Morality in the course, I can recall one incidence of college life which involves decision-making in an Ethical dilemma. I was holding the position of General Secretary of my boarding hostel in the Hostel Management Committee. One fine day, one of my friends was caught drinking alcohol and taking drugs on the hostel campus and creating a ruckus on Campus. He was caught and reported to the chairman of the Hostel Welfare Board, I was called into a meeting of the Disciplinary Committee for making the final decision on the punishments which includes a monetary fine and suspension from hostel stay. The friend approached me to favor him and do needful to rescue him as he was from a poor background this course of action may impact his academic life and it may also have repercussions for his relations with him. In this case, I found myself in an ethical dilemma between empathizing with a friend and following rules and regulations.

In the above case of my college life, I had three options to follow, firstly, I can simply go with rules and regulations and vote in favor of the Disciplinary Committee. The second option, I have to favor the friend and falsify the report by presenting fake evidence and witness. Additionally, I also have the third option to escape from the meeting and let the Disciplinary Committee decides the fate of the student, in this option I may not get a stain on my relationship. However, as per my level of moral development and wisdom at the time, I found favoring the first option was more prudent and feasible with certain modifications. I had discretion over the final decision as General Secretary of the residing hostel, so I decided to put a nominal fine of US$10 which was much less than recommended US$50 and I persuaded the Disciplinary Committee to change the manner of punishment of suspension to half-semester into a compulsory fitness training for 1 month.

My decisions were based on certain thoughts which I believed in those days. I thought that putting a fine of US$50 would be a hefty burden on the student, especially with a poor background. The mistakes he committed can be an outflow of a bad company, which can be corrected if he is counseled well and his energy of youth is channelized in a proper productive direction. My rationale for changing the form of punishment of suspension was based on the fact that suspension can force him further trap instead of reformation, but putting him in a compulsory fitness schedule will reduce his cravings for intoxicants and drugs, which will ultimately lead to the personal benefit student. I was of the opinion that punitive actions should not be aimed at penalization, instead, they should focus on transformation and reformation.

Answers to Ethical Dilemmas from the book of Collins, D., & Kanashiro, P. (2021)

Case 1: The Escaped Prisoner

Summary: After a year in jail, an individual escaped and assumed the name, Thompson. He worked hard for 8 years and accumulated enough money to buy his own business. He was fair to his clients, paid his staff well, and donated the majority of his income to charity. Then one day, Ms. Jones, an old neighbor, identified him.

Answer:  In the above case, I believe that Ms. Jones should not report to the police. Although my friends in class were of a different opinion, more than 60% percent favored the option to report to the Police, ignoring his present contribution to society, and his willingness to improve and get rid of bad old habits of criminal activities. My decision was based on the fact that in the last 8 years, he had not committed a single crime, instead, he supported his staff, donated a lot to charity, worked honestly, and never bothered anyone. I believe that everyone has the birth-right to get themselves back on track. Thomson had already spent 10 years in jail, but as he illegally escaped from jail, he is the culprit in the eye of the law of the land, but his escape has not troubled anyone and he is putting all efforts to be a good human being by contributing to the wellness of society.

Case 2: The Doctor's Dilemma (last scenario)

Summary: A terminally ill woman asked her doctor to give her enough morphine to kill her. She had terminal cancer and only had roughly six months left to live. She was insane with agony, but when she was calm, she would ask the Doctor for the drugs to be given to kill her.

Answer:  In this case, I am not able to exactly decide what to do exactly whether to abide by her decision. My classmates are also varying in decision with 50:50 for administrating drugs to kill her and 50% not in favor to abide by the willingness of the women. My decision is based on the fact that killing her manually by a Doctor will go against the professional morality of a doctor and the will of nature, while also doubting technological advancements in health care services. Instead, I think Doctors can support her by taking them to the best medical facilities and seeking financial support from Governments. However, the pain of women is so high, that his life is becoming hell and more painful than death. But considering my opinion of prospects and morality, I am unable to decide.

Case 3: The newspaper

Summary: Rami wanted to speak out against military build-up and some of the school's rules, such as the rule forbidding long hair through a mimeographed newspaper for students. The principal had not expected the paper to receive much attention. Students were so excited by the paper that they began to organize protests against the government. The principal was asked forcefully by the student to stop the publication.

Answer: The newspaper has instilled a sense of revolutionary attitude among the student and they agitated in retaliation for the military build-up, and school rules of prohibitions of long hair. I believe as principal, she should stop the publication of the paper because havoc in society hampers the academic life of the students, and dishonor the reputation of the school. So, as a Principal of an academy, his allegiance is toward school authority and the well-being of the student.

Integrated Personal Reflection

After undergoing three case studies of the Ethical Dilemma, I found myself that the decision I can make it, but not sure about the ethical level. So, I believe I lack certain philosophical perspectives and moral standards which need to be improved with practice on development plans based on established ethical standards. I took the survey and test of Kohlberg’s 6 stages of Moral development and found my areas to be improved. I believe that I am still at stage 3: Conventional-Mutual Interpersonal Expectations, Relationships & Conformity and they are impacting my moral rationale decision.

Development Plan

My area of development is needed in Stage 4: Conventional-Social System and Conscience Maintenance. My development plan is to learn about more Social Systems, which I think, can be attained by incorporating different social backgrounds in my readings, additionally, I need to interact with people following different social and cultural norms. Spiritualism can help me. All these goals I have planned to achieve all SMART Goals and maintained the learning objectives. My goals are specific- to learn about social systems, cultures, and norms of different backgrounds, It is measurable in terms of my interaction with how many types of people I meet, further, this work is assigned by me, it is realistic, however, time management needs to be done management by objectives. I am hopeful that these learnings will enhance my moral rationality to taking decisions in future ethical dilemmas of my life.

The Ethics Position Questionnaire

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