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Joey Niccum
Mr. Buescher
10/27/12
6th Period
Service Learning
Code of Ethics
In modern day society, the world is broken up into different countries, states,
territories, counties, cities, and villages. Each are separated by there different cods
of ethics, or beliefs rather. The world is constantly separated by different sets of
morals. Each person has their own code of ethics, whether they choose to create
their own or follow another’s everybody’s code of ethics differs. Personally, I choose
to live by my own code of ethics on a daily level. Similar to “the six stages of moral
development,” mine consist of four different stages. First, the value of a human life
out-weighs any other factor that may otherwise become a factor in a dilemma or a
decision. Second, one should do their best to live out the Ten Commandments in the
“Bible.” Third, actions should be beneficial for loved ones. Finally, if the other three
do not apply then actions should be made to better one’s self. These ethics apply to
my decision-making skills, and help lead me through the day.
How do ethics and morals relate to us? Like the domino effect, our morals
and ethical codes affect the big picture. Ultimately our code of ethics takes a domino
affect in our lives. Once we have them, they carve our future. They are the guidelines
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of our decision-making skills, which in return shape our future. Thus, the direction
one decides to go in life has to deal with our code of ethics. Developing good morals,
or the right morals has to deal with each person; the development of our morals
often comes from influences in our lives. Influences such as loved ones, celebrities,
hometowns heroes, or simply a favorite cartoon character help shape our morals as
an adolescent. For instance, if we look at myself, I was grown up in a Christian
household for all of my life. Whether it be attending church on Sundays, or listening
to Christian radio on my way to school, there has never been a lack of Christianity in
my life. Thus, influences like these help shape one’s morals. Another influence in my
life that helped shape my code of ethics, as silly as it may seem, is D.C. comic book
hero Batman. Batman’s heroic acts to save human lives without taking another’s has
influenced me to value human life deeply. Whether it be a large influence such as
religion, or a minor influence of your favorite super hero, influences in peoples’ lives
help shape their ethics and morals.
Code of ethics, often times not only shapes our lives, but society as well.
Today’s society is often run based of production. Each common and large-scale
community always looks for and ways to improve production. Often times, reduce of
havoc in a city is a simple way to improve production; people often strive for the
“good boy” type image to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, in todays law-based
society, gaining such an image may go against one’s code of ethics. It is up to us to
decide whether to strive for a appealing image to society or to follow our own ethics.
How does this relate to production? Civic virtue. Civic virtue is the cultivation of
habits of personal living that are claimed to be important to the success of the
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community. If everyone were to attain a “good boy/girl” attitude and image, than
the production of this country would be phenomenal. However, the difficulties of
achieving complete civic virtue all falls back onto our codes of ethics. For we must
all be on the same page when it comes to ethics morals and values if we were to fully
achieve civic virtue. We can only wish to achieve true civic virtue, until everyone
buys into one code of ethics, a true productive society can only be dreamt of.
Complexities of different code of ethics vary for each person. Often times
different complexities of code of ethics have direct relation with Kohlberg’s stages of
moral development. The stages of moral development are six universally accepted
stages that each person may fall under. Stages zero through six describe the
different stages in which people can be categorized for their moral development.
Each person may vary, and one may raise or lower from level to level as he or she
mature or become more immature. These stages are important and relate to
people’s code of ethics because it is able to identify the way people comprehend and
they way they process information. Ways to identify where people stand in the six
stages of moral development is to put people in extreme mental dilemmas. A
known dilemma created by the creator of the six stages of development is the Heinz
dilemma. In short, this dilemma has one decide whether a loving husband should
steal for his wife. Each choice seems right, however, if we look at the reasoning for
each person’s decision, their true stage of moral development shines through their
answer. Personally, I stand under stage four, authority and social-order maintaining
orientation. Due to my response to not steal the drugs, because of mostly legal
reasoning, I most definitely fall under this category. I am not ashamed, nor
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disappointed of my results, this is an honest analysis of myself, I have no intention of
breaking any type of law, therefore, I lye in stage four.
Ethics, morals, and values have been one of the most unique units covered
throughout my high school career in any of my classes. This unit, has had me assess
myself in ways that I never thought I would in high school. Learning what stage of
moral development I am in, makes me wonder about my maturity, and about
whether or not my ethical code matches my stage of moral development.
Nonetheless, this particular unit has taught me to reevaluate my major decisions in
life, and I have been finding myself reflecting on the Kohlberg’s stages of moral
development, striving to make decisions that fall under upper stages. In conclusion,
this unit has affected my life in so many different ways, it has made me question my
maturity, strive to reach higher levels of moral development, has helped me simply
reflect on my life, and has helped me identify my own code of ethics.