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Professional Ethics and Values

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Professional Values and Ethics
S. Michelle Gudger, Donna Verstraete, Jared Snow, Todd White
GEN-200
August 29, 2011
Jeni Smith

Professional Values and Ethics
The dictionary defines ethics as: the study of standards of conduct and moral judgment; moral philosophy ("Define ethics," 2011). Philosophers who think about ethics usually try to live by an ethical code, while the people who set up a code of ethics often study and think while they are doing so ("Define ethics," 2011). According to this definition, ethics can be one of two things: it can be a code that you follow and live by, or it can be something that you study and think about. Of course in our daily life it has a chance of being both. Ethics is not an easy word to define. Almost everyone wants to live an ethical life, but knowing what that means is not as simple as it sounds. Being that life is not that simple sometimes people come across what writers would call “ethical dilemma”. When a situation comes up and two ideas might seem ethical, it might be hard to choose which answer is correct. Some “ethical dilemmas” may have little consequences: for example, is it right to tell a lie when someone asks “does this dress make my butt look to big or was my steak to tough? The dilemma is what to do, lie or risk hurting the persons feeling? There is no easy answer to these questions because it depends on your definition of ethics! In sociology, the definition for values is believed to help ease the conflict between individual and collective interests. Values serve an important function by enabling individuals to work together to realize collectively desirable goals (Karp, 2001). Sociologists, Smith and Schwartz believe there are five features to define values: some examples of the five are beliefs, desirable goals, and values are ordered by importance relative to one another. Individuals can characterize

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