M1 Category

Where do we develop our ethics? and from where?

The development of our ethic is something that takes place over the entirety of   our upbringing and can evolve as we grow. Through experiences and perceptions of the world and the events that unfold before us, we our surroundings and begin to create our own ideas and guidelines on how we will be living our lives. I would like to believe that most individuals are born with a healthy moral code, yet this code is heavily influenced by the individuals upbringing. Our role models are typically moral code carrying individuals that can influence others in expressing that moral code as well. A lot of people are influenced by their parents or caregivers, though there are cases where these people can give us insight on moral codes not being taught by them, but as we develop as a person/adult the ethics we learn does not mean its the ethics that are portrayed. Everyone has their own unique moral code and its through the events of life and how we interact with these events that can evolve our ethics and morality to better understand right and wrong.

How do we develop our ethics? I believe our understanding of right and wrong are influenced by those we look up to most, whether they are parents, teachers, childcare providers, or other role models. A family’s religious beliefs or political affiliation impact us from a young age as well. Ethics are developed over time through positive and negative reinforcement from those influencing us.

What are the primary resources for us to develop our ethical position? I believe a person’s religion provides a foundation of what is right and wrong. Experience and our conscience probably play the biggest roles in developing our ethical positions. Regardless of what parents, churches, or the law say is right or wrong, how an action makes us feel will tell us whether it is right or wrong. So, our ethical postion could change over time as we gain more life experience.

How do we develop our ethics?

What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

I think we develop our ethics through observation of others and questioning the values in which how we should behave in a certain way that is acceptable in todays society. Throughout everyone’s lives ethical values are developed within a moral standing of what is right and wrong, and in what ways can one determine if things that are right or wrong are necessarily good or bad. It’s ultimately up to an individual to determine their standpoint on what they chose to believe in and behave in a particular way. However there are things that exist to keep everyone within a standard that is considered good and those are law created by a country that everyone must abide by or faces consequences when not following them. Some of the primary sources I believe we develop our ethical position from are the people closest to us and who we decide to surround ourselves with, because an ethical position is ultimately  decided from the influence of society and the values and beliefs each of us carries as citizens of a country.

Ethics is a set of moral principle that governs someone’s behavior or actions. I believe we develop our ethics by who we surround ourselves with whether it be family, friends, teachers, government, religious groups or society. From the start our parents, teach us what they consider to be right and wrong and help mold what our morals and beliefs are. As we get older, different influence can change our ethical behavior. As we experience life events, hard decisions, or first hand experiences is when our true personal moral code is revealed.

I believe that they are a multitude of factors that help influence and shape a person’s ethical development. In general, ethics pertain to moral principles that govern a person’s behavior. For most individuals (myself included), ethical behavior and development is shaped at a young age during childhood upbringing. Whether we recognize or not, children learn from their parents actions & attitudes and as a result often exhibit the same behavior. Although childhood upbringing is the most predominant factor in the ethics an individual develops, other factors such as life experiences and religion play a big factor as well.

For myself personally, religion played a huge role in shaping my ethical behavior. I was exposed to religion at a very young age and grew up in a culture where Christianity was highly valued. Due to this early and constant exposure, I began to adopt values and beliefs that are practiced in Christianity.

Furthermore, our ethical development is still influenced as we grow older and go through life altering experiences, meet new people that are different from us, and travel to unfamiliar places.

In all, our ethical position is always changing and adapting to our environment and by those we love and surround ourselves with.

THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT:   Answer these questions with original thought and references to the text or outside resources.    How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

To develop our ethics, we must first have a firm foundation of personal beliefs as to what is right and wrong. While there are “universal” rights and wrongs such as murder, charity, theft, etc., there are numerous other rights and wrongs that are unique to every individual such as adhering to prayer, keeping/returning money found on the street, holding the elevator door, etc. By understanding our deepest beliefs and what we are unwilling to disregard we can then develop those ethics closest to our heart and mind. This development is not instantaneous nor is it easy/simple. It will require much thought and at times we may question that belief, but those that hold true will have become stronger, more complex and much more widely implemented and comfortable in our daily lives.

It can be said that a huge part of our ethical position/development comes from what is taught to us and demonstrated by our parents, but the text also goes on to explain that a large part of ethical position for the individual is how they see their moral decisions impact upon not only themselves, but upon society at large (Shaw, 45). These development/implementation sources are known also as “theories”. There are two large camps of thought, “consequential and non-consequential” (Shaw, 46). Essentially, the view of consequential beliefs lead to development of ethical position because if a consequence is good then the decision is good and therefore should be repeated or expanded. With non-consequential belief, the lines are a little more blurred, and because the consequences were good doesn’t necessarily mean the decision is good. Therefore much thought is given before decisions are made on moral grounds.

Reference

Shaw, W.  Business Ethics: A Textbook with Cases. [Chegg]. Retrieved from  https://ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9781305854963/

THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT:   Answer these questions with original thought and references to the text or outside resources.   How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

People develop their ethics by being able to empathize with others. If one is able to imagine a theoretical scenario that could take place given a certain decision, they may decide to choose one way or another depending on the outcome of the theoretical  scenario and how their decision may affect others. For example, one could find themselves in a position to make a life-altering controversial decision that would affect many people, and they aren’t sure how to make the right decision. This person could begin with thinking about how the decision would affect individuals in one way versus the other and they could base their decision on what they think is best for the majority of people as a whole.

The text explains that some people derive their ethical standards from religious standpoints and from ethical relativism, but I don’t think this is entirely true. These two sources are valid in many cases, but both sources lack the encompassing basis of worldwide ethics.  You can be a good person without being driven by religion and you can also be religious while not being a good person. Humanity has common ethical standards worldwide, regardless of religion or culture, more-so based on empathy for fellow man.

How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

The idea of ethics is interesting in the manner that they are a powerful source for us to help guide our actions in life. Our decisions can, and should be, influenced by this want to do the “right” thing. While an individual’s moral code is deeply personal, it seems as though they are developed by external factors. Our textbook makes it very clear; our upbringing and those who surround us at early ages are influential for the rest of our lives, including the point in which we start to decide what it means to be ethical for ourselves.

I believe in regards to ethics, both nature and nurture have a part to play in developing our ethical position. If we grow up in a religious family, that could impart a lot of ethical standards on us. If a child’s parents are involved in criminal activity, they may be less willing to teach their children the typical “right” and “wrong’s.” Then throughout that child’s life, they will eventually grow up, and get thrown into the real world where they will have plenty of opportunities to experience situations where it becomes obvious that there are a multitude of grey areas.  This  could be where nature comes into play. We recognize what our conscience is saying and might start questioning what we had believed to be morally responsibility in our former years. As humans, we have the capacity to never stop developing our values.

This week’s questions: How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

I believe that developing our ethics and our ethical position happens at a fairly young age for most people. Based on my own observations, I would say that most of the ethical development in a person occurs between the ages of 6 and 14 years old. These are the years when a person really begins to observe what goes on around them, when a child would ask a lot of questions, and when they would really start to understand the world around them.

Much of our ethical development comes from our parents. They are the people we look up to in every facet of our lives, but especially in our younger years. As children, when we see or hear about something from our parents that they really didn’t like, we ask them questions as children do, and we learn why they didn’t like whatever it is that bothered them. It’s through this kind of behavior that we develop much of our ethical position. If a parent is bothered by an ethics related decision, the young child will learn their parent’s ethical stance on the issue, and will (most likely) adopt the same stance.

Of course, there are other factors besides our parents. Other prominent figures in our lives also help develop our sense of ethics. Perhaps for one person it was their sixth-grade teacher, or for another it was their soccer coach. Maybe one child grew up with their uncle, and that uncle was a major ethical role model for them. But regardless of who any given person’s ethical role models were (besides their own parents, most people probably couldn’t tell you who their role models were), it’s some combination of the people around us that shape who we are and what we believe is right and what is wrong.

How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

William Shaw (2017) says that, “Many things influence what moral principles we accept: our early upbringing, the behavior of those around us, the explicit and implicit standards of our culture, our own experiences, and our critical reflections on those experiences.” I agree with Shaw that how and where we were raised formed the foundation of our ethics. At an early age, we grasp any knowledge we are able to understand and begin to formulate our ethical bases. This knowledge is fed through us by way of communication, behaviors, and observations. What our parents say is right and wrong becomes law, whether we refuse it at the time or not. We may pick up social behaviors out in public of how to behave and communicate with friends, schoolmates, and strangers. Lastly, we may observe ethical behaviors through books and movies that show a multitude of ethical and unethical situations. Our interpretation of these primary sources and what we choose to accept and adopt into our own beliefs become our ethical position.

Our ethical understanding is always changing and evolving. As we grow up, we experience new things that challenge our ethical views and force us to think about the harder topics. With our foundation built, we face the harder questions and scenarios that don’t have a simple black and white answer. We find ourselves caught in the middle or what is ethical and what benefits us. We begin to travel around and learn that different cultures and religions have different ethical beliefs. We begin to take classes that argue these positions and we continue to evolve our ethical position.

Citation: Shaw, William H. Business Ethics. 9th ed, Cengage Learning, 2017

Our ethics are influenced by a variety of elements and factors in our society. Our ethics define how we interact with people, how we act, and how we distinguish the right and wrong in our decisions and actions. We develop our ethics through a range of sources from which we learn or draw principles and rules that help us define the right from the wrong. For example, I developed my ethics from religious beliefs, childhood upbringing, and later life experiences. I lived in a very religious community in the Philippines where I learned Roman Catholic values such as honesty, respect, and selflessness. Growing up with people who have strong religious beliefs also influenced my ethics which helped me become the person I am today.

Of course one of the first sources of my ethics come from my parents. Their wisdom and life advice helped shape how I make my decisions and actions in my life. Their influence helped me develop a strong foundation of knowledge that helps me identify what is right and what is wrong. To me, life experiences go along with childhood upbringing because we learn from our experiences and it helps shapes our ethics. We are all familiar with the saying “learn from your mistakes’ which I bet some of us embedded in our ethical mindsets. Some of the experiences that changed my ethics are when I moved to the United States from the Philippines. Moving to a different place is a strong external factor to our ethics development because it dramatically changes how we act and behave in a different environment.

Overall, the reading was very descriptive and informative on how we can develop our ethics and what primary sources help influence our ethical position.

I believe that we develop our ethics from a multitude of sources. Our parents or guardians, our peers, our government, and our society as a whole. as we are being raised, our parents have a major influence on our sense of integrity, and what is acceptable behavior. Once we are old enough to start sensibly interacting with our peers, they have a great influence on our beliefs and actions. And then primarily, society tells us what is acceptable or not. Ultimately, I believe that most people make decisions based on how they will be viewed by others. As stated in our textbook, “an action that is illegal can be morally wrong.” In Germany, during the time of the Holocaust, it was illegal to harbor Jewish people for their safety, knowing what their ultimate outcome would probably be. That had an influence legally, as well as socially.

The questions for this assignment were basically How do we build our ethics and Where do we get our ethics from. Before we answer this question we need to learn what Ethics is. Ethics is described in the book the study of right and wrong, duty and obligation, individual personality, Moral norms and responsibility. From the definition we can say that Ethics is basically a persons judgement. How is that judgement formed though? Where does it stem from? Well, according to the book and my own personal thoughts, Ethics stems from a lot of different places for a lot of different reasons. This means to me that Ethics can be learned from anyone who you look up to and anything that has happened to you to make that “Ethical Judgement’. This is because Ethics are different not just in every person but in every culture. Some examples of Personal Ethics is one person may think it is Ok to fight someone if that someone had been mean to them for a long while but another person may think it is not ok to fight someone no matter what other people have done to them. Some people will think it is ok to fight someone just because another person looked at them wrong. These Personal Ethical Judgements I believe come from our own Moral upbringing, our own personal conscience and our own study of ethics from other people we admire and/or follow (our role models, our religious choices, etc.). Now an Example of Cultural Ethics is in America it is ok to call someone older than you “Hey You’ or “Man’ or “Dude’ but in other Countries if you called an older person “Dude’ they have every right to fight you in public and it is looked down on if you fight back. This is because in other countries the titles “Sir’ and/or “Ma’am’ are very “prized’, for lack of a better word, and show off a persons authority because in that country/those countries age is a huge thing to decide authority. With all of this information and situational examples I can now say that I fully believe Ethics are formed by not only your own Moral Upbringing and own Conscience but the Moral Ethics of the Place you are born in. I also believe, however, it is ultimately your decision to choose and to believe whichever Ethical or Moral Trait you want to because It is decided on the people around you and the place you live in that can judge your choices and possibly punish you for them but those things and/or people cannot stop your decision entirely. This is also why I believe Ethics can come from so many different places. The multiple choices one person has makes it difficult to tell that person what is right and wrong and what is law. To conclude this long ramble, Ethics of someone vary on how they are personally, how they see the world and if what they have learn stuck with them throughout their life.

We develop our ethics through years of reasoning and information passed down to us by our culture, religion, or elders or even peers. There are certain standards that are placed on societies, including laws and regulations, but as our book reminds us, things that are illegal may be morally right and vice versa. The way we decide what is subjectively right and wrong in the world largely relies on how we are raised and the values we have in our culture, but it may not objectively be correct in all persons perspectives. We go about our lives making decisions and, implicitly or explicitly, morals and ethics of our culture will invariably come in and influence the way we think and behave. The question of ethics is not a can/could question but rather a should question. Should you help a person who is stranded on the side of the road? Should you call your employee unprofessional pet names? Should you donate your hard earned money to a beggar on the side walk? Our reflections of our experiences along with the Golden Rule which is a recurring sentiment in many religions, allow us to place priority in treating others the way we would want to be treated. We also will likely be influenced by social appropriateness, or how we think we are seen in other’s eyes.

How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

Ethics is a set of moral standards or principles that govern the way we act or, a person’s behavior towards activities. I am a firm believer that we are a product of our own environment. I believe the first process in the development of our ethical standpoints stem from our childhood upbringing. Learning what was right and wrong at a young age instilled a set of ethics that our parents/family/teachers, etc. have hammered into us from birth, to today.

As we carry these early ethical viewpoints through life, certain sources may change our outlook of what once was. Religion, life changing experiences such as getting married, and loved ones all have an impact on what you view as right and wrong. My family was never religious, but I have many friends who share different views of what is right and wrong based on that religious standpoint.

How do we develop our ethics?

Most people develop their sense of ethics through their core moral beliefs. Those specific beliefs can be instilled by parents, religion, friends, and are primarily socially driven. I think most people will develop a core sense of moral beliefs during childhood development. These beliefs are primarily what gives people a sense of what is “right” and “wrong”. I think ethics is a branch of what society as a whole has deemed “right” and “wrong”. Different societies may have different values and core beliefs, as such their views of what is considered “right” and “wrong” may be drastically different from what another society deems as “right” and “wrong”, which would naturally lead to a different set of ethics.

What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

Societal pressure is definitely a large source of how people develop an ethical position. For example, many things society demeans unethical are also considered illegal. Things like theft, smuggling, and arson are clear cut things that many people would consider unethical. There are also some ambiguous issues such as abortion that clearly have people debating if the act of an abortion is “right” or “wrong”.

We can also develop an ethical position from views instilled by professional organizations. For example, the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons is an organization that establishes guides lines for doctors, physicians, and surgeons to follow and these individuals can establish a core set of values as doctors from these professional organizations.

How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

To answer the questions above, I believe from the time we were children we have been developing concepts of right and wrong which shaped our ethics. Our ethics are developed based on our family and teachers or whomever we were spending most time with during childhood. Other things like personal experiences, religion, and culture can influence the way we develop our ethics. In the text William H. Shaw states “many things influence what moral principles we accept: our early upbringing, the behavior of those around us, the explicit and implicit standards of our culture, our own experiences and our critical reflections on those experiences.’ During my youth, following the rules were very important to me. I have a memory as a child that I still remember do this day involving a personal and cultural experience. I was in the car with my mom and my sibling driving home. My sister refused to put her seat belt on, after a couple of minutes of my sister arguing with my mother about how she must wear a seat belt, my sister still refused. My mom then decided that if she wouldn’t listen to her then she would listen to the police. She started driving to the police station and I began to cry. I couldn’t understand why someone wouldn’t wear a seat belt when that’s what all of society does. We arrived at the police station and my mom told my sister to get out of the car and explain to the police why she wouldn’t wear her seat belt. Instead of my sister getting out of the car she began to realized the importance of a seat belt. She has worn it every day since. In this situation the term ethical relativism is relevant. Ethical relativism is the theory that what is right is determined by what culture or society says is right. Society and our culture say we must wear seat belts, or we will be punished with a costly ticket. However, in countries such as Afghanistan there is no law on wearing your seat belt at all. This example shows how different cultures and society shape us as citizens.

Here is a link of where i found out which countries do/don’t require a seat belt. I found it to be quite interesting!

https://chartsbin.com/view/2028

Citation:

Shaw, William H.  Business Ethics. 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2017

ChartsBin statistics collector team 2011,  Seat Belt Legislation, ChartsBin.com, viewed 24th May, 2019, <https://chartsbin.com/view/2028>.

How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

I believe that as individuals, we develop our ethics by who we are raised by specifically, our family circle. Their morals and values play a major role in what we believe our ethics are and what we believe is right and wrong. This leads me to the second question which asks what the primary sources are for us to develop our ethical position. Parents or individuals who you look up to as a child, are vital in shaping what your beliefs and morals are. For example, as a newborn, you have so much to learn about life itself and your parents or guardians are the people who teach you how to act and what ethics or beliefs work for them. Because you look up to them, most of the time you believe what they do simply because that it is how you were raised, and you trust what they tell you.

Along with the individuals in your life who you look up to, there are also laws that help form societal ethics. For example, as a child you are always taught to obey the law, and if you break a law, society views these acts as shameful or disobedient.  Jail time can also help develop our ethics as most people do not want to be isolated from the rest of society due to misbehavior. Along with this, there are also many negative repercussions from not obeying the law. For example, you may have trouble finding a job should you have a criminal record.   This could cause issues like stress caused by having to find a place to live and food to eat.   Therefore, developing good or bad ethical positions will shape who you are and what societal norms you choose to follow.

Overall, as our circle becomes bigger, and we have more life experiences our ethical position will continue to grow and therefore could ultimately change.

Sources:

https://www.irmi.com/articles/expert-commentary/where-our-ethics-come-from

How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

We develop our sense of ethics and moral standards over time and observance.   From the time of birth, throughout life, we observe others in effort to determine right from wrong, wrong to right.   Beginning influences perhaps includes parents, siblings, close relatives.   As we age though those influences can also include social, religious beliefs, cultural, laws, to name only a few.   However, the developmental stage is never ending it only continues, hopefully, to grow onto a higher level of morality.

Roger

Ethics are shaped through our early upbringing, behavior of those around us, cultural standards, experiences and our response to those experiences. The text mentions that the law, religion, and ethical relativism are also sources of ethics. Parental reinforcement on what is right and wrong and acceptable and unacceptable behavior during our early upbringing lays the foundation for how we go about living our lives as we grow up. The environment and how others around us behave have an impact on what we consider ethical through the daily choices that we make. Our culture contributes to the development of our ethics of what actions we think are justifiable. What may seem wrong in one culture may be justified in another. Laws can help us to decide what is bad and good behavior. Religion provides incentives to behave ethically and guidance on what is considered ethical.

The primary sources for us to develop our ethical position are the culture or environment around us and our experiences. Culture and environment exposes us to certain standards of life and when that is what we are surrounded by every day, those ethics become instilled in us as the ethics our parents instilled in us are. Through our life experiences, we reflect and can either decide we want to change the way we handled a situation or stick to what we thought was the ethical thing to do. As we experience life and are exposed to certain environments and cultures, we develop our own set of ethics.

How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

Our personal ethics develop from a number of sources. These include, but are not limited to culture, religion, and upbringing. Culture plays a significant part in the way we view our ethics in comparison to other cultures. While what we may believe is right and wrong, another culture may have a different outlook with their values. A culture’s common values can shape the way people develop their ethics. Religion is another source in the way certain groups of people develop their ethical positions. Christianity teaches to “love thy neighbor as thyself” which influences a person on the way they should live.

The most crucial source in the development of our ethical positions would be our upbringings. The impact of the lessons we learn in early childhood, especially from our parents, can often determine how we shape our ethics. However, this can be a double-edged sword as some parents have negative influences on their children which in turn leads to some controversial views on ethics. While these are just a few primary sources in the way our ethics are developed, they are some of the important sources to examine.

Each individual contains a different set of morals that began to take shape from their early individual upbringing that includes but is not limited to the individual’s race, religion, gender, sex, political stance, education, income, relationship status, etc. as these statuses change; so do their morals. When a group of individuals with similar morals are brought together to form a community; they make up our ethical viewpoint. The development of our ethics as a community is at a constant change
as the community’s morals also change. Given the following example: guns- primarily used for safety, was once a necessity when discovering the new world and the unknown dangers that lie amidst the exploration of what is now North America; it was not uncommon for the majority of individuals to share the same moral that guns were practically a necessity, therefore making it ethical for everyone to own a gun. Until recent events, the community has had a drastic sway of morals about owning guns, thus creating a change in the ethics of the community. I for one do not believe there is a “primary source” for the development of an individual’s ethical position — because there are countless sources to consider.

The primary source that we develop our ethics from is the people we hang out with. We develop them because we tend to conform to the norms of the crowd that we are around. During studies, if everyone else gives the same wrong answer before the naive person answers, the naive person will also answer incorrectly the majority of the time (Shaw 22). In addition, those who go to the same church receive teachings from the same religion. Those teachings often tell people how they should worship and have social relationships (Shaw 11). As a result, those people tend to develop similar ethics based off of those teachings.

Shaw, William H. Business Ethics. 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2017.

Our ethics are fundamental and unique qualities that have defined us since we were children. They’ve been ingrained and changed by those around us, such as our family, friends, and enemies. However, I believe that religion, government, and empathy are the underlying sculptors of our ethical position. Religion and government mold our perspective because they give us a higher power to answer to. They share similarities between each other; for example, most religions and governments forbid crimes against another human such as murder and stealing. From a very young age, no matter our religious stance or understanding of government, most of us have accepted these as wrong. How do we understand that these are wrong though? I think that has to do with our empathy.

Our moral code is constantly adapting to our understanding of the world around us. As we grow older, we bear witness to different experiences and remember their associated emotions; whether the experiences were good or bad. When we see somebody around us going through a similar experience, we remember those feelings. If we are stolen from, we remember the frustration and pain that follows. When we see another person going through that, we remember how we felt and shape our perspective of wrong vs right based on the empathy we have for them. Thus, our ethical position typically sides with our empathetic one.

How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

How we develop our ethics and the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position can go hand in hand. I believe our moral rules can be strongly influenced by the environment we grew up in as a young child.  

We develop ethics by watching what is going on around us, absorbing situations, and by experiencing situations first hand. Our conduct is determined by what we deem is right and wrong, fair or unfair, and just or unjust.  

When we are young our ethics can come from our parents or the adults we look up to most who are there to protect us and help us learn right from wrong. These moral rules can develop from our sources in our environment. Religions practices, cause and effect (consequences), and many more. As we grow and learn to think for ourselves our ethics can change or become more refined as we ask ourselves, How should I live my life?

How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

We begin learning and developing ethics from early childhood mostly from our parents. They are able to “shape our most fundamental attitudes about what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong'”(Head, 2006). We unknowingly learn these ethics as small children. Religion is also a major factor in our ethics. Since each religion as there own “code of ethics” it preaches, followers would view those ethics as very important uphold. We gain our professional code of ethics by vows we made   to professional organizations and employers.

Head, G. (2006). Where Our Ethics Come From | Expert Commentary | IRMI.com. Available at: https://www.irmi.com/articles/expert-commentary/where-our-ethics-come-from [Accessed 23 May 2019].

Development of our personal ethics begins right after birth, and starts to take shape by learning family customs and behavior. As we age, we are pressured to conform to certain social etiquette’s that are created by religious and legal platforms that form society. From these social norms, and reactions to life experiences, we develop a set of moral principles that guide us through many life situations. Our personal code of ethics spurs our judgement, self interest, and character. There are many influences that change and challenge of ethical behavior. Morals are based on how we view life, they are forever changing and adapting too perception of new experiences.

Development of ethics can be drawn for a number of sources:

Laws, which punish bad behavior.

Religion/philosophy, which provides a set of principals and governing moral code.

Ethical Relativism, which states that ethics are determined by social norms.

Conscience, an internal moral compass.

I believe the primary source of ethics are individual integrity and personal responsibilities from our life experiences. We develop our ethics as soon as we learn how our actions impact others. Our ethics evolve and truly take shape when we are presented with difficult situations, life-changing events, and complex decisions. If you tell yourself you believe something is right or wrong but are not able to follow through when your convictions are tested, your true ethics are being decided in those moments.