Personal Code of Ethics

Morals, values, and ethics are one of the most important characteristics of a person. These features define who we are and what we believe in. Many different factors come in to play when determining a person`s morals, values, and ethics; childhood upbringing, later life experiences, family, friends, culture, religious beliefs, race, discussions with others, and many others that have an affect a person’s beliefs (Head, 2006). There are times when a person`s beliefs do not agree with someone else’s, which does not mean that one of these people is wrong, it means that we, as individuals, do not all think the same. As a whole, most people have a good sense of right and wrong, which is to say that for the most part most people have good morals, values, and ethics. My personal code of ethics started from my birth and continues on through the past four and a half decades. The major contributors to my code of ethics are my parents, grandparents, sisters, friends, teachers and later life experiences. My parents taught me right from wrong, while my grandparents reinforced their rules. My sisters, although they tried to steer me into mischief sometimes, never tried to teach me bad behaviors. My friends were strong contributors during the teenage years, although we did find our own mischief, it was never against our morals, values, or ethics. I believe we were regular teenagers doing normal things to keep busy (nobody ever ended up in jail because of our doings). My teachers, from grammar school through high school have all been positive influences in my life, trying to point me in the right direction and giving me strong, sound advice. My later life experiences taught me some hard lessons; to trust what I can see, not always what I hear, there are evil people in this world that only want to hurt people both mentally and physically, to depend on myself because when it comes down to it, I am really all I have (besides my children, family, and friends), and to pick myself

References: American College of Health Care, (2010). Code of Ethics, Retrieved from http://www.achca.org/joomla/index.php/membership/code-of-ethics American Correctional Association Code of Ethics, (2008) Retrieved from http://www.aca.org/pastpresentfuture/ethics.asp Braiker, Harriet, (2002), The Disease To Please, Retrieved from http://www.diseasetoplease.com/DiseasetoPlease.htm Head, George, (2006). Where Our Ethics Come From, Retrieved from http://www.irmi.com/expert/articles/2006/head03.aspx Thomson/Wadsworth, (2005). Ethics in Crime and Justice, Chapter 2, Determining Moral Behavior. Axia College Material Thomson/Wadsworth, (2005). Ethics in Crime and Justice, Chapter 12. Ethics for Correctional Officers, Axia College Material Vasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, T., Meyer, M., (1996). Santa Clara University, Thinking Ethically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making, Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/thinking.html Wikipedia, (2010). Consequentialism, Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism#Utilitarianism