Deontological System of Ethics - Essay Example

Reflective Journals

Reflective Journal 1:

My ethical process reflects the deontological system of ethics which posits that the ethical decision is made by assessing the ethical worth of a decision based on the extent to which it shows and adheres to the universal ethical principles. I believe that the universal principles that guide the conduct of all human beings create an obligation for people to behave ethically, not with the intention of deriving maximum benefits of deriving desirable consequences, but because it is the right thing to do in accordance with the universal ethical principles. My social and religious background has played a major role in shaping my inclination to the deontological point of view. Since I was born and raised in Iran, in an Islamic society, and in a Muslim family, we were told from childhood, in society and school, to be a “good person” and the definition of being a good person was simple: don’t lie, don’t hurt others, and care about people around you. As such, these beliefs were key to giving me in every decision I make.

When I think of an ethical dilemma that I faced in my personal life recently, I have to think hard enough to recall one since ethics are highly prominent in my life and they guide all the decisions that I take. Since my ethical decision involved people I cared about especially my best friend, I thought of their rights and responsibilities especially to the extent to which their contribution to the dilemma was right or wrong. However, I did not think of nor consider the consequences that my decision would have on them and make it the basis for considering alternative courses of action. Before making the decisions, I considered alternative courses of action to ensure that my decision maximized the benefits to all the people involved. My decision originated from my intuition when I decided to confront my friend about persistent taking of bribery from the place of work. I figured if I do not do it, the case may end up with the police, attracting hefty penalties. I was very comfortable with my decision then and I still I’m. In the future, I would act the same way to prevent my friend from going astray.

Reflective Journal 2:

So far, most of the experiences I have had when dealing with professionals from different fields such as teachers, doctors, psychologists, drivers, and lawyers among others have been good except for some few. My mother and my father are professionals and interacting with them has exposed me to many positive experiences. However, there are some experiences I have encountered where a professional does not act like one with regards to respect for the job, demonstration of competence and communication skills. Interacting with professionals have shaped my mentality of what a profession is, and some of the thoughts that come to mind include competence, respect, dignity and selfless.

When I see a professional acting contrary to what is expected of them, I do not change my perception of the professionalism of members of that field because I know that there are people, who, despite being exposed to the rightful way of doing things, still choose the wrong way and they become deviant. Such people are evident everywhere. Thus, such people have an influence whatsoever on my perception of a profession. In this case, I cannot distance myself from the consideration of, for instance, a psychology professional and choose to instead focus on what the psychologists do such as psychotherapy.

It is prudent to admit that the many positive experiences I have had with professionals has shaped a positive perception and association of the concept, especially the idealised concept of being a profession. Although there are few people who exemplify the ideal status of a profession, I would like to become an ideal professional in the future and become a source of reference from where young people can draw their inspiration. I would do my best to ensure that I do not harm my colleagues or my patients at any time. Rather, I would like to foster collaboration and consultation with others when faced with a potentially risky situation.

Reflective Journal 3:

So far I have not had a serious experience with the law, and I have not observed any of my close friends or families conflict with the law. I have learned to do the right thing all the time from my family values and norms, and being law-abiding is one of the many aspects in the society that I respect very much. However, there are some times when my friends and I have found ourselves breaking the law, although some are trivial law breaking actions such as not following the traffic rules when it comes to overdriving at night. Nevertheless, I’m a law-abiding person.

I think that the Canadian law enforcement is not very strict or too lenient as it allows for conviction of all forms of crimes without ambiguity or gaps. I do not support John Mortimer’s view that there should be fewer laws to prevent conviction of many criminals in the country. If that was to be the case, many forms of crimes would be committed but the law would not be exhaustive enough to give redress to the aggrieved parties. Currently, there are just enough laws that allow all forms of crimes that are punishable by different means to be included in the judicial system without ambiguity.

In the light of the approach used in finding the truth for conviction of criminals, I have to admit that there are issues that may render innocent people or people who have committed trivial offences go to jail, when a warning would have been a better solution to the problem. I think that the law can be very complex and rigid, and confuses the entire process rather than making it easy in solving all the legal problems people encounter. I believe that the problem is not in the number of laws, but the enforcement of the law in ensuring fairness and justice for all those affected by a decision.

Reflective Journal 4:

The ethical case studies I have been exposed to reveal a series of ethical dilemmas that demonstrate incongruence between intuition and what the psychologists publicly attest to. In some cases, the family is exposed to grave danger but is unable to come to terms with separating as members want to stay together. This shows a major dilemma in either considering the danger the family is exposed to or ensuring that the family stays strong and united. Another conflict that cannot be noted between the intuition and what I’m allowed to publicly avow can be demonstrated in the cases where I give a promise not to reveal what I know through a confession. Despite such knowledge being essential to averting any form of danger, it becomes a major dilemma to make the decision without harming either sides of the issue. This can be a serious case when a wrong person is convicted for a crime he/she did not commit, but later I hear a confession that the crime was committed by another person but, with claims that the convicted person deserved to go to prison because he/she has also committed many crimes and got away with them.

The trends in these cases is the manner in which I can sometimes be compelled to remain silent due to the confessions made by other people or the wishes they express about issues or events in their lives. Making a decision of whether to do the right thing according to the intuition or the intuitive ethical self of the psychologist or respect he wishes of the clients becomes a major ethical problem. There is a serious case of conflict between my intuition and what I publically avow as well as with the rules and obligation of the profession. This shows that I have to improve on my analytical ethical self and reconcile it with the experiential reasoning to help in solving such dilemmas.

Reflective Journal 5:

There are some situations I could think of when I was not disclosing to others or when I convinced someone to do something that I knew they did not really want to do. These situations are significant in demonstrating the importance of consent in psychology. There are situations when I find that giving a person all the information would be key to making the most informed decision regarding a certain issue especially where that person is required to provide permission for such a decision to be effected. In some cases, I have found myself using the information to persuade a person to do something when it is clear they did not wish to do such a thing. In the light of my actions in such situations, I feel that I acted contrary to the requirements of the Code of Ethics that ensures the dignity of the persons upon which the consent is obtained.

When I took such decisions, I was concerned about the welfare of the people I was dealing with and did so to ensure that they made the best decisions in the light of the prevailing issues and they got the best help for the problems faced. I do not feel guilty about it, even though I know everyone is entitled to an informed consent and they should have the opportunity to decide for themselves under their free will. It is sometimes sad that some people may lack the sufficient information and courage to make decision during hard times, leading them to making grave mistakes that they would come to regret later. By guiding such people make the right decision, such mistakes are avoided, making it the best thing in such situations. The uniqueness of professional circumstances with regards to disclosures and consent is that the client is protected by the Code of Ethics that guides the conduct of the professionals in ensuring effective disclosures and consent.

Reflective Journal 6:

The importance of confidentiality in professional psychological relationship can’t be compromised. Gossiping is one social aspect that can compromise confidentiality of a person, which might lower the self-esteem of the affected person. There are various instances when I have participated in gossip and in most of the instances, the gossip was concerned about the questioning of the various form of leadership, whether in a school or national level. My main motivation for engaging in such social discussions is to make my contribution to enhancement of peace and cohesion in the society in context. However, there is a form of gossip that I perceive to be harmful to me and to other such as sharing information that was meant to be confidential. This is something that disturbs my conscience and makes me feel that I may lose the trust of the people I’m discussing with others, which is contrary to me expectations.

According to my moral principles, I choose to help others when I have the opportunity. Gossip can help in such situations as engaging in it allows me to make sure that the people get enough services from their leaders, even when the leaders don’t want me to disclose information that would help people. In my experience, I have found that when gossip is disseminated for negative purpose, the subject becomes humiliated and his or her self-esteem is lowered. Gossip in most cases contravenes the confidentiality of an individual that is the center of gossip. I feel that confidentiality of information should be enhanced to prevent some people from suffering from unnecessary disclosures. This is in accordance with my ethical morals that I have learnt from my parents as I learned that my duty is to help the clients in all manner possible and within my resources. I feel that it is my duty and obligation to make sure that the information that other people discloses to me is not disclosed to protect them from any form of negative implication.

Reflective Journal 7:

Psychologists are supposed to be fully trained and enhance their professionalism from time to time whether through on-job or off-job training. I am in the process of becoming a professional psychologist and this processes is my duty and responsibility to enhance professional competence. Having professional competence will enable the clients and the people that I interact with to trust me more since I have demonstrated that I’m highly competent on matters of ethics, knowledge, and skills required to solve their problems. It is very important to consider ethics in a competence plan. There are three primary elements that are considered to comprise of competence, and they include knowledge, skills and judgment. The field of psychology is changing in different forms, and the circumstances that were learnt in previous years have changed, therefore, it is the responsibility of the professional psychologist to keep up with the changing times. To enhance my knowledge, I will make sure that I have access to the latest articles and journals that are periodically published, and this will ensure that I am updated with developing trends.

After I complete my university degree, I will not stop looking for any knowledge that is related to this professional. I will ensure that I continuously upgrade my knowledge and skills. Skills are acquired through experience hence, it will be my responsibility to make sure that all the experiences gained in the course of my career are well documented. Each case that I handle will be a learning process, and the next similar case will be an improvement of the previous similar case. It will also be very important to attend some seminars and conferences that are mean to ensure development of professional psychologists practice. In relation to judgment it will be very critical to always apply moral and ethical values. Despite the fact that I am not currently registered to practice, morality is guides me when making judgment when I register to practice.

Reflective Journal 8:

There are some relationships that I have experienced in life that made me feel exploited and not respected. One of the most impactful relationship is when I was in high school and the physics teacher required us to come with a project that would be showcased during the prize giving day. The teacher stated that we could collaborate with our friends in making the project, and this is what prompted me to join hands with a long term group partner to make the project. However, when my friend didn’t participate as expected in working towards the completion of the project as I has expected that we would engage and contribute equally until a successful completion of the project. However, when the project was completed, he submitted it to the teacher and claimed to be the sole owner of the project, which was recognized as the best physics project by the teacher. I felt that this was betrayal of the highest order and I could not understand why my friend did this to me yet we had promised each other to take all the credit if the project won the ultimate prize. After that incident, I always had the fear of experiencing similar situation in the group projects and that made me to have difficulties trusting my partners.

The past friendships will be very vital in making sure that I act better in the future, especially with regard to avoiding any form of friendships that may harm me unexpectedly. When I make promises, I will ensure that I do not breach the trust of my friends as I would not expect anyone to do to me the same thing. The friendship that I had with my friend was broken and it even became difficult to meet eye to eye, therefore it will be very vital to maintain professional boundaries minimize instances where my profession can be jeopardized.

Reflective Journal 9:

There is no doubt in my mind that I purposely chose to pursue professional psychology is because I want to be of service to other persons. I was also motivated to pursue this course as I wanted to play a role in restoring hope and self-confidence among people affected by various issues, and this can be mainly achieved through therapy and counseling. If there was an opportunity to choose between two employment opportunities, one that allows me to be of great service to others at a reduced income, and another that provides great income at a reduced service, I will choose the former. This is because I cannot go against my moral principles, which are to help others and to do to them what I would expect of them.

There is an aspect of fulfilment that I experience when I help a person who needs emotional support, it is very disheartening and disillusioning to see people suffering due to emotionally related problems. Therefore, I can say that my personal sense of social justice is strong and can’t be compromised with anything and in particular material things such as money. My moral and ethical principles can be asserted to be the most influential factors that makes me to be an advocate of social justice.

The fact that I grew up seeing my father participate in charities and try to help people that are in great need is what has really shaped my urge to be strong advocate of social justice. Money is good and is very crucial, but it becomes very useless if one has all the money in this world yet he or she is not happy. Helping people that are hurt emotionally or mentally is very fulfilling since that person is able to resume to his or her daily activity normally with hope and confidence. Therefore, I always choose a job that has the greatest opportunity of helping people regardless of the compensation.

Reflective Journal 10:

My thoughts as a researcher is that I should prioritize ethical consideration in any form of research. The Code of Ethics in any form of research should be taken into great consideration. The values of the research can be shared but only by consideration of the concept of confidentiality. In this case, the research should not disclose some information that is meant to be confidential. For instance, a researcher is required to be ethical and never share the personal details of the participants to a third party of use it for any other purpose other than for purposes of the current research. It is unethical to share such details since the respondents give the details with the confidence that they are supposed to be used for the purpose of that research only. I hold researchers to an equal ethical standards than practitioners since they should not be unethical under any circumstances. It is very difficult to conduct a research that I am neutral or I don’t have any vested interest, since I will not engage properly in the research. I would consider a research that I have proper understanding of the statement of the problem, and the ethical concerns that should be considered.

Ethics in research is very important since as it plays a key role in ensuring that research achieves credibility and validity. The importance of adhering to ethical norm in research is to make sure that aims of the research such as truth, knowledge, and minimization of errors are promoted. For instance, when ethics are considered and are adhered in a research, there will be minimal instances of misrepresentation of the research data and error, which will enhance validity and credibility of the research. Therefore, whenever I am considering to carry out any form of research I will prioritize ethics to enhance my accountability and credibility of the research.