Understanding Ethical Decision-Making Models

What do you do when you don't know what to do? This is where ethical decision-making models come in hand. There are many times when working with humans in the human service profession that situations will arise that are difficult to know what is the best course of action to take and how to decide what the best course of action to take. So this module will include information about understanding what are ethics, what is an example of an ethical decision-making model, and a brief discussion about how to apply the questions related to an ethical decision-making model or the steps in an ethical decision-making model. But before we dive into those definitions, I want you to think about a couple of things. The first is, what are ethics? What are morals? Do you consider yourself an ethical person? Do you consider yourself a moral person? What are the differences between the two? And finally, how comfortable are you in making hard decisions as a human services professional? I ask these questions when I do this presentation to live audiences frequently. Many times the audience feels like they are both ethical moral. We're going to discuss briefly what ethics and morals are, but I'd like to plant a seed in your mind that maybe we're not all as ethical as we think we are. Sometimes we don't even realize when ethical issues arise. One of my favorite examples is to ask people the following three questions. The first question is, is it okay to take 100 pencils if you worked in a school? Most people say no, it's not okay to take 100 pencils home from school. But then I ask the question, is it possible that over 10 years of working at a school, for 10 months a year, that you might take home one pencil every month, and therefore take 100 pencils home? The audience usually laughs and says, yes, that's possible. And so then I ask them, does that make them unethical? The second example or question I like to ask, Is it okay to take a pin from a bank? Depending on the audience the answers vary widely in the majority of the settings half of the people say yes It's fine to take the pin and the other half say no It's not fine to take the pin is one side more ethical than the other why do people answer differently and the final question? I like to ask is about concerts or sporting events. If is it okay to move down to a better seat at a sporting event or a concert? Again the answers are mixed. So does that mean that everyone who thought they were ethical at the beginning of the presentation is in fact not ethical? We're going to discuss these and a few more questions as we go through this presentation. First let's discuss ethics. versus morals. Ethics refer to the rules that a social system provides us with. They're given to us within a system and a large group of people try to attain or live by those ethical standards. Morals, however, are your own personal principles. So there's a big difference between the two. Morals are trying to decide what is right to do on a personal level. whereas ethics are trying to decide what to do and what is right to do on a professional or bigger level macro level what are ethics ethics versus law the law is the minimum standard we must adhere to in order to not be in trouble if you break the law there are consequences some of these consequences could be fines could be loss of license, could be jail time, and many many other things. However, what happens if you break an ethical standard? Most ethical standards are either tied to a specific profession, license, or certification. So many times the consequences are related to your license or certification. Do you know what the human services profession aspires towards? In general, laws are the basic minimum standards that you must adhere to, whereas ethics are what your profession aspire to as a whole. When was the last time you reviewed a code of ethics? In the textbook, in Chapter 4, there's a whole chapter about ethics, including the ethical codes. Your discussion board for Week 5 will also have some questions related to... multiculturalism, and ethics. It's important that you not only know what your ethical codes are as a human service professional, but that you review them on a regular basis. If you don't know what the ethics say, you can't aspire to adhere to them. So again, ethics are aspirations of the profession as a whole. You need to know that ethics exist for the human service professional and you need to review them on a regular basis. Now what does regular mean? It's different for different people, but in general I try to review my ethical codes on a regular basis, meaning every two to three months I read all the ethical codes for all the licenses and certifications that I have. Finally, you need to implement ethical behavior and document the outcomes and learn from each experience when you have an ethical dilemma. This is an example of an ethical decision-making model from the American Association of Christian Counselors and we're going to look at a little bit more closely. This ethical decision-making model consists of seven steps. We'll review the seven steps in more detail on the next slide. Step one, identify the problem. Many ethical decision-making models start with a problem. Some ethical decision-making models ask the person to have a gut feeling that something is off or weird, and then other problems arise because they're brought to our attention. Once we realize that there's a problem, we have to apply an established code of ethics. This is where the previous organizations that were discussed. and chapter four with an ethical code are very important. You need to take those codes and apply them to whatever situation, whatever problem you're having. Number three is determine the nature and the dimensions of the dilemma. When we're looking at the dimensions of the dilemma, there are several things to keep in mind. An example of a dimension might be the age of the person you're working with. If I have a kindergartner, who cheats on a test, I will treat them differently than if I have a junior who cheats on an advanced placement examination for college credit. So at that point, their developmental stage and their age influence the way I handle the same situation. Next, you generate potential courses of action. This is one of my favorite steps because you get to write down everything that you can think of. as potential courses of action on how to handle the problem. In the next step you consider all the potential courses of actions and you choose your course of action. Which one is going to be best for the client? Which one is going to be best for the person that you're working with? In this step many times I will use consultation and there's an entire separate PowerPoint on consultation that you'll see at a different point in the semester. Next, evaluate the selected course of action and then implement the course of action. And step eight that does not appear in the model, but I always add, is document, document, document. If you go before an employer, a licensing review board, or some other certification board, it will look so much better and you will look so much more professional if you demonstrate that you knew that there was a problem. you applied ethical codes, and you used an ethical decision-making model to determine how you were going to proceed. This model takes time, but I encourage you to be familiar with the model and to apply it when you come up with a situation where you're not sure what the best course of action would be.

The first is, what are ethics? What are morals? Do you consider yourself an ethical person? Do you consider yourself a moral person?

What are the differences between the two? And finally, how comfortable are you in making hard decisions as a human services professional? I ask these questions when I do this presentation to live audiences frequently.

Many times the audience feels like they are both ethical moral. We're going to discuss briefly what ethics and morals are, but I'd like to plant a seed in your mind that maybe we're not all as ethical as we think we are. Sometimes we don't even realize when ethical issues arise.

One of my favorite examples is to ask people the following three questions. The first question is, is it okay to take 100 pencils if you worked in a school? Most people say no, it's not okay to take 100 pencils home from school.

But then I ask the question, is it possible that over 10 years of working at a school, for 10 months a year, that you might take home one pencil every month, and therefore take 100 pencils home? The audience usually laughs and says, yes, that's possible. And so then I ask them, does that make them unethical? The second example or question I like to ask, Is it okay to take a pin from a bank? Depending on the audience the answers vary widely in the majority of the settings half of the people say yes It's fine to take the pin and the other half say no It's not fine to take the pin is one side more ethical than the other why do people answer differently and the final question?

I like to ask is about concerts or sporting events. If is it okay to move down to a better seat at a sporting event or a concert? Again the answers are mixed.

So does that mean that everyone who thought they were ethical at the beginning of the presentation is in fact not ethical? We're going to discuss these and a few more questions as we go through this presentation. First let's discuss ethics.

versus morals. Ethics refer to the rules that a social system provides us with. They're given to us within a system and a large group of people try to attain or live by those ethical standards.

Morals, however, are your own personal principles. So there's a big difference between the two. Morals are trying to decide what is right to do on a personal level. whereas ethics are trying to decide what to do and what is right to do on a professional or bigger level macro level what are ethics ethics versus law the law is the minimum standard we must adhere to in order to not be in trouble if you break the law there are consequences some of these consequences could be fines could be loss of license, could be jail time, and many many other things. However, what happens if you break an ethical standard?

Most ethical standards are either tied to a specific profession, license, or certification. So many times the consequences are related to your license or certification. Do you know what the human services profession aspires towards? In general, laws are the basic minimum standards that you must adhere to, whereas ethics are what your profession aspire to as a whole.

When was the last time you reviewed a code of ethics? In the textbook, in Chapter 4, there's a whole chapter about ethics, including the ethical codes. Your discussion board for Week 5 will also have some questions related to...

multiculturalism, and ethics. It's important that you not only know what your ethical codes are as a human service professional, but that you review them on a regular basis. If you don't know what the ethics say, you can't aspire to adhere to them. So again, ethics are aspirations of the profession as a whole. You need to know that ethics exist for the human service professional and you need to review them on a regular basis.

Now what does regular mean? It's different for different people, but in general I try to review my ethical codes on a regular basis, meaning every two to three months I read all the ethical codes for all the licenses and certifications that I have. Finally, you need to implement ethical behavior and document the outcomes and learn from each experience when you have an ethical dilemma. This is an example of an ethical decision-making model from the American Association of Christian Counselors and we're going to look at a little bit more closely. This ethical decision-making model consists of seven steps.

We'll review the seven steps in more detail on the next slide. Step one, identify the problem. Many ethical decision-making models start with a problem.

Some ethical decision-making models ask the person to have a gut feeling that something is off or weird, and then other problems arise because they're brought to our attention. Once we realize that there's a problem, we have to apply an established code of ethics. This is where the previous organizations that were discussed. and chapter four with an ethical code are very important. You need to take those codes and apply them to whatever situation, whatever problem you're having.

Number three is determine the nature and the dimensions of the dilemma. When we're looking at the dimensions of the dilemma, there are several things to keep in mind. An example of a dimension might be the age of the person you're working with.

If I have a kindergartner, who cheats on a test, I will treat them differently than if I have a junior who cheats on an advanced placement examination for college credit. So at that point, their developmental stage and their age influence the way I handle the same situation. Next, you generate potential courses of action. This is one of my favorite steps because you get to write down everything that you can think of.

as potential courses of action on how to handle the problem. In the next step you consider all the potential courses of actions and you choose your course of action. Which one is going to be best for the client? Which one is going to be best for the person that you're working with?

In this step many times I will use consultation and there's an entire separate PowerPoint on consultation that you'll see at a different point in the semester. Next, evaluate the selected course of action and then implement the course of action. And step eight that does not appear in the model, but I always add, is document, document, document.

If you go before an employer, a licensing review board, or some other certification board, it will look so much better and you will look so much more professional if you demonstrate that you knew that there was a problem. you applied ethical codes, and you used an ethical decision-making model to determine how you were going to proceed. This model takes time, but I encourage you to be familiar with the model and to apply it when you come up with a situation where you're not sure what the best course of action would be.

Transcript for:Understanding Ethical Decision-Making Models

Transcript for:
Understanding Ethical Decision-Making Models