Crack Grade B 1

ETHICS

SYLLABUS:

Ethics and Human Interface: Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in-
human actions; dimensions of ethics; ethics - in private and public relationships.
Human Values - lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and
administrators; role of family society and educational institutions in inculcating values.

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CHAPTER 1: ROLE OF FAMILY, SOCIETY AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN

INCULCATING VALUES

“You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them”.

-Desmond Tutu

Introduction:

The term 'Ethics' comes from the Greek word 'ethos', which means 'character.

The basic difference between values and ethics is that “Ethics” is the system of moral
principles and “Values” are stimuli for thinking.

“VALUES”: Values are the standards and beliefs that we live by, and they play an
important role in helping us understand ourselves, the people around us, our culture,
and the society we live in.

Value refer to a person’s principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgement of what

is important in life. Ethics is a set of rules, almost similar to values but tend to be
codified into a recognized system or set of rules which are clearly adopted by a group of
people. To behave ethically is to behave in a manner, acceptable to society.

Value deals with right conduct and good life, in the sense that a highly valuable action
may be regarded as ethically “good” and an action of low value may be regarded as
“bad”.

 The process of acquiring values begins at birth. Values develop through life and
evolve from life experiences. They are formed by combining: Intellect, Will,
Emotions, and Spiritual needs.

 Values have 7 criteria:

1. A value must be chosen freely.
2. A value must be chosen from alternatives.
3. A value must be chosen after considering the consequences.
4. A value must be performed.
5. A value becomes a pattern of life.
6. A value is cherished.
7. A value is publicly affirmed.

 Value inculcation is building of values in our inner core. This is a process that
happens unconsciously since we start learning.

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Q. The rules of Ethics are also called as _____________?

1. Law

2. Responsibility

3. Rules

4. Thoughts.

Answer: 1 Law

Rules of ethics are also called as “Moral Law”.

PROCESS OF VALUE INCULCATION:

Lawrence Kohlberg formulated a theory asserting that individuals progress through six
distinct stages of moral reasoning from infancy to adulthood.

He grouped these stages into three broad categories of moral reasoning, pre-
conventional, conventional and post- conventional. Each level is associated with
increasingly complex stages of moral development.

Kohlberg suggested that people move through these stages in a fixed order and that
moral understanding is linked to cognitive development.

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STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Kohlberg’s levels of moral development are as follows:

Pre- conventional Level: Children accept the authority of others. If an action leads to
reward, it should be good and if an action leads to punishment, it must be bad. There is
also a sense in which decisions concerning what is good are defined in terms of what is
good for us.

Conventional Level: Children believe that social rules and the expectations of others
determine what is acceptable or unacceptable behaviour. A social system that stresses
the responsibility of relationships and social order is seen as desirable and must
influence our views of right and wrong.

Post- Conventional Level: Here, individual’s understanding of universal ethical

principles decide what is right or what is wrong. What is considered morally acceptable
in any given situation is determined by what is the response most in keeping with these
principles.

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To explain this, Lawrence Kohlberg quoted an example popularly called as Heinz’s

Dilemma.

The Story of Heinz

A story of a middle- aged ordinary middle- class man, called “Heinz” is considered as an
example.

His wife suffers from a dreadful disease. Doctors said that a special drug which was
recently invented by a BIG pharma company can only save his wife and is available at
the BIG pharma stores for cost of 2,000 Dollars. Heinz borrowed the money from his
friends and relatives and could finally arrange 1,000 Dollars.

Though Heinz pleaded a lot, the greedy drug- seller refused to sell the drug at a low cost.
Now, Heinz had no other option but to steal the drug from the shop to save the life of his
wife.

Now, to solve this Heinz’s dilemma, the thinker has three options:

1. Heinz should not steal the drug because it is the disobedience of law.

2. Heinz can steal the drug but should be punished by the law.

3. Heinz can steal the drug and no law should punish him.

 Option 1: Heinz should not steal the drug because it is the disobedience of law.

In this option Heinz can not save his wife. His wife would die and drug- seller would
become richer. Though the law was obeyed, no moral justice was done.

This is known as “Pre- conventional” level of Moral thinking.

Here, he is avoiding punishment and there is self- interest that actions are seen in terms
of punishment rather than moral value.

 Option 2: Heinz can steal the drug but should be punished by the law.

In this Heinz could save his wife but he will be kept in prison. Though he took a moral
decision, he had to undergo the punishment.

This is a “Conventional” level of thinking.

 Option 3: Heinz can steal the drug and no law should punish him.

This decision can save his wife and both of them can live happily. This thinking is based
on the thought that the rigidity in law should be rejected and justice should be done on
moral grounds.

This is a “Post- conventional” level of Moral thinking.

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“There is no such thing as self- made man. We are made up of thousands of others”

 George Mathew Adams

Obligation To Family

1. TRUST AND RESPECT

Trust represents the relationship between people. Trust means believing, that the
person who is trusted will do what is expected. It starts at the family and grows to
others. According to psychoanalyst- Erik Erikson development of basic trust is the
first state psychological development occurring during the first two years of life.
Trust is integral to the idea of social influence.

2. RESPECT:
Respect is a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity. Respect can be
a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected. Respect
can be both given and/or received. Respect is often thought of as earned or built
over time. Often, continued caring interactions are required to maintain or
increase feelings of respect among individuals.

3. CODES OF CONDUCT:
Many companies have adopted formal ethical codes of conduct. These codes are
generally broad-based statements of a company's responsibilities to its employees,
its customers, its suppliers, and the communities in which the company operates.
Codes rarely spell out specific do's and don'ts or suggest proper behavior in a
specific situation.

Disciplinary codes allow the profession to define a standard of conduct and ensure
that individual practitioners meet this standard, by disciplining them from the
professional body if they do not practice accordingly.

For example, a lay member of the public should not be, held responsible for failing
to act to save a car crash victim because they could not give an appropriate
emergency treatment. This is because they do not have the relevant knowledge
and experience. In contrast/a fully trained doctor (with the correct equipment)
would be capable of making the correct diagnosis and carrying out appropriate
procedures. Failure of a doctor to help in such a situation would generally be
regarded as negligent and unethical.

4. CITIZEN’S CHARTER:
These are basically the commitment of organizations and government to empower
citizens when it comes to public services. For ex: In Europe people are
compensated if the train gets delayed.

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5. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE:
Emotional Intelligence refers to how well people work with others. The more aware
you are your emotions and other emotions, the better you can react & respond. It
is basically our ability to understand other human beings, including what
motivates them and how we can work with them.
The first use of the term "emotional intelligence" is usually attributed to Wayne
Payne's doctoral thesis, A Study of Emotion: Developing Emotional
Intelligence from 1985.

ROLE OF FAMILY:

Family is the biggest support system for all its members. American celebrity Kim
Kardashian had said this aptly. “At the end of the day, life is about being happy being
who you are. It is the responsibility of the family to inculcate the right values in the
children from an early age because they continue to follow them for the rest of their life.

The following methods are helpful in cultivating the right value in a child:

1. Inspiration: The parents must truly act as role models for their children because
children learn more by observing them than from their words. Parents must not lie
before their children nor should they fight with each other before them. When
parents fight and shout at each other in a fit of anger, they tend to lose their
temper and utter such words, which can harm the self- esteem and values of their
children.
2. Appreciation: Parents, must appreciate their children, whenever they do some
good work. They must appreciate them before others so that the children develop a
positive self- image about themselves. Once a child develops a positive self- image,
he would like to maintain this by doing good work all the time. If the family
members fail to appreciate children when they are doing something good, they
would lose motivation to be a good child and might fall on the wrong path.

Example:

One day, Thomas Edison came home and gave a paper to his mother. His mother’s eyes
were filled with tears as she read this letter out loud to her child. The letter read: “Your
son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers
for training him. Please teach him yourself”.

After many years, Edison’s mother died.

One day, while he was going over old family things, he saw a folded paper. The paper
read: “Your son is addled (mentally ill). We won’t let him come to school anymore”.

Edison cried for hours and then he wrote in his diary: “Thomas Alva Edison was an
addled child that, by a hero mother, became the genius of the country”.
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3. Punishment: A child should know the difference between right and wrong from an
early age. The younger the child, easier it is to mould him/her to absorb the right
values. When children have grown, their ideas get frozen and it becomes difficult
to change their fundamental values. Mother is a child’s first teacher who teaches
him human values. If she fails in her duties to inculcate the right values in her
children, the results could be disastrous.
Also, if children are not punished for doing something wrong, they are encouraged
to do such acts more and more in life.

4. Love: There is nothing as powerful as love in inculcating the right values in

human beings. Victor Hugo, a French poet, novelist and dramatist, had said this
wisely, “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for
ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves”.

5. Understanding: One of the major mistakes parents make while bringing up their
children is to force them to become like them. They believe that what has worked
for them should also work for their children. They fail to take into account the
change in time, the existence of new opportunities and the differences in their
aptitude and that of their children. It is common to see parents forcing their will
on their children to make them fit into their own concept of what is right for them.

6. Support: Human children are quite weak at the time of birth. They can not stand
and walk for several months. They simply cannot survive without the help and
support of their parents. Parents often take care of their children until they are
adults and become emotionally and financially independent.

However, parents often refuse to help their children if they do not obey them or
fulfil their aspirations. When children perform poorly, parents often reprimand
them in public and sometimes humiliate them at every available opportunity, as
they feel disappointed due to the child’s poor performance. However, when parents
stand by their children in their good and bad times, the bond becomes stronger
and the children easily follow the advice and teachings of their parents.

Individual And Society:

Man is a social animal. Man cannot live without society. The relationship between
individual and society is also evolved in relation to family, societies, civilizations,
cultures and states.

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 Theories Of Society:

1. Social Contract Theory: According to the social contract theory all men are born free
and equal. Society came into existence because of the agreement entered into by the
individuals. The classical representatives of this school of thought are Thomas
Hobbes, John Locke and Rousseau.

Thomas Hobbes: In his opinion man in nature was in continuous conflict with his
neighbours on account of sharing essential commodities and pleasures in the world.
Since the conditions in the state of nature were intolerable, men longed for peace,
and the people entered into a kind of: social contract to ensure for themselves
security and certainty of life and property.

John Locke: believed that man in the state of nature was enjoying an ideal liberty
free from all sorts of rules and regulations. The state of nature was a state of peace,
goodwill, mutual assistance and preservation. But there was no recognized system of
law and justice. Hence his peaceful life was often upset by the corruption and
viciousness of degenerate men. In order to escape from the corruption and
viciousness of degenerate men, and to gain certainty and security men made a
contract to enter into civil society or the state. This contract Locke called social
contract.

Rousseau: Man is independent, self- sufficient, healthy, fearless and good. He knew
neither right or wrong and was free from all notions of virtue and vice. But these
conditions did not last long. Population increased and idealistic happiness
disappeared. Families were established, institution of property emerged and human
equality was ended. Man began to think in terms of mine and yours.

2. Organismic Theory: According to this theory individuals are seen as dynamic systems
with interconnected physical, cognitive, emotional and social aspects.
It is the holistic theory of personality by Kurt Goldstein (1879-1965). This theory
views the individual as a totality and emphasizes the integration of personality.
Although its roots go back to Aristotle, the modem formulation stems largely from
two sources: the Gestalt approach in general and, more specifically, a study of
brain-injured soldiers during World War I.
Gestalt psychology holds that the mind has a basic tendency to organize experience
into patterns and configurations, and Goldstein applied this principle to the study
of personality when he found that the symptoms of brain damaged individuals
could be understood only when they were viewed as a manifestation of the
organism as a whole, and not as products of a particular lesion or illness.

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More is to be gained from an intensive, holistic study of a single individual than from
any statistical study of groups.

A) According to Sir Henry Maine contract is not the beginning of society but the end
of it. By gathering together into bands and communities, humans seek to gain
strength and to address their vulnerabilities which, in turn, create the potential to
develop into more complex and evolving civilisations.
Hence, true social justice is attained only through the harmonious co-operative
effort of the citizens who, in their own self-interest, accept the current norms of
morality as the price of membership in the community.

B) According to Peter Berger society not only controls our movements but shapes
our identity, our thought and our emotions. The structures of society become the
structures of our own consciousness. Society does not stop at the surface of our
skins. We are entrapped by our own social nature.

C) Durkheim says that society confronts us as an objective fact. Society is external to

ourselves. It encompasses our entire life. The institutions of society pattern our
actions and even shape our expectations.

The society as well as individuals is dynamic. Men are normally engaged in

endless endeavor to enhance their statuses in society, move from lower position to
higher position, secure superior job from an inferior one. Thus, people in society
continue to move up and down the status scale. This movement is called social
mobility.

STAGES OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS:

One of the most influential models of relationship development was proposed by

psychologist George Levinger. According to his model, the natural development of a
relationship follows five stages: -

1. Acquaintance and Acquaintanceship: - An acquaintance is someone you know a

little about, but they are not your best friend or close relative. Becoming
acquainted depends on various factors like close proximity, previous experience on
relations.
2. Build Up: - At this stage people begin to trust and care about each other.
3. Continuation: This stage is generally a long, and relative stable period.
Nevertheless, continued growth and development will occur during this time.
4. Deterioration: - Not all relationships deteriorate, but those that do tend to show
signs of trouble, Loss of trust and betrayals may take place as the downward
spiral continues, eventually ending the relationship.
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5. Termination: - The final stage marks the end of the relationship either by not
talking or caring or death etc.

Role Of Society

Society plays an extremely important role in the formation of the moral values of its
members. We may consider that the society is an extension of the family. We often
conform to the dictates of the society because we want to get along with it rather than
confront it. Hence, if a moral society is created, moral citizens would naturally grow in
such a society.

The behaviour of people is deeply influenced by the behaviour of their neighbours,

classmates, peers, colleagues, media, movies, television, etc. People closely observe what
others are doing as they want to follow the society in order to get its approval. This is
evident from the following:

1. Young people often start smoking or drinking under peer pressure.

2. Honest citizens often become corrupt when they join a corrupt government
organization.
3. Decent people start throwing garbage in public places when they see others doing
the same.
4. Many people get into immoral activities in a society when those doing it are not
punished.

When you live in a multi- cultural urban society, you are likely to develop tolerance and
broad mindedness. On the contrary, living in ghettos (part of a city, especially a slum
area, occupied by a minority group or groups) often inculcates narrowness and
retrograde values.

It is, therefore, important that society encourage moral behaviour in its members rather
than appreciating immoral acts to make people more moral.

Role Of Educational Institutions in Inculcating Values

Nowadays, most people spend almost two decades of their life studying in schools and
colleges. They are admitted in schools as early as three- years old and often continue to
study until they are around twenty- one to twenty- five years of age. They learn many
values from their teachers. If the teachers don’t have moral values, they can not teach
children the lessons of morality. The following story may throw some light on the failure
of our education system in inculcating the right values in students.

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Example: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was very shy during his childhood. One day,
the inspector of schools, Mr Giles, came to Mohan’s school. He read out five English
words to the class and asked the boys to write them down.

Mohan wrote only four words correctly but he could not spell the fifth word “Kettle”.

Seeing Mohan’s hesitation, the teacher signalled from back of the inspector that he
should copy the word from his neighbour’s slate. But Mohan ignored his signs. The
other boys wrote all the five words correctly; Mohan wrote only four.

After the inspector left, the teacher scolded him. “I told you to copy from your neighbour,
“He said angrily, “Couldn’t you even do that correctly? Everyone laughed.

As he went home that evening, Mohan was happy. He knew he had done the right thing.
What made him sad was that his teacher had asked him to cheat.

Conclusion:

 Mohan was fortunate that the right values were inculcated in him by his family,
which enabled him not to follow the wrong directions of his teacher.

Schools use four chief methods in an approach called comprehensive moral education.

1. Inculcation: Is an effort to teach children the values that educators believe lead to
moral behaviour. These values include honesty, compassion, justice and respect
for others. One such way of teaching such standards is to provide appropriate
praise and punishment. Another means is to have teachers reflect the desired
values in their own behaviour.

2. Value Clarification: Helps students develop their own values and moral
standards by teaching them a decision-making process. The learning procedure
stress setting goals, choosing thoughtfully from alternatives and acting on one’s
own conviction.

3. Moral Development: Highlight moral and ethical principles and their application.

4. Value analysis: Includes analysis of issues and situations involving values.

The following values must be cultivated in the students by their teachers:

1. Accountability:
The students must be trained to be accountable for their actions. They must stop
blaming others for their failures and desist from the tendency to find scapegoats

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for their failures. They must learn to take credit for their achievements and also
accept blame for their failures.

2. Integrity:
The teachers must become the role model for their students. They must be
truthful, sincere, punctual and professional in their conduct. The children must
look at their teachers as their role model to become an ideal citizen. They must be
taught that honesty is the best policy for life and they must live a life of integrity
by conviction rather than by compulsion or due to the fear of punishment.

3. Cooperation:
In modern times, there is too much emphasis on competition. Children are often
forced to stand first in class and outperform others to win in every sphere.
However, in the real world, you can not excel only due to the spirit of competition
unless you also know how to cooperate with each other and work in a team.

4. Appreciation:
Most people in modern times are good at criticising others for their mistakes
rather than appreciating the good work for people. Dale Carnegie has rightly said,
“Any fool can criticize, complain and condemn- and most fools do. But it takes
character and self- control to be understanding and forgiving. “He, therefore,
advises us to be “hearty in our appreciation and lavish in our praise”. Teachers
must teach children to appreciate the good work of other people rather than
criticising them.

5. Discipline:
People often fall for immoral ways of life because immoral actions provide instant
gratification. In order to follow the moral path, you must be disciplined. School is
the best place to cultivate discipline in the students. Teachers must cultivate the
habit of punctuality, maintaining silence and decorum in the class. Such small
acts gradually make a student withstand temptation and follow the moral path.

“MARSHMALLOW EXPERIMENT”

This experiment was conducted by Stanford Psychologist Walter Mischel and his
colleagues in 1990. In this study, children of ages four-to- five were offered a deal.

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 You can either eat one marshmallow immediately or

 You can wait until the experimenter returned and get two marshmallows.

Some kids did wait for the two marshmallows but others could not wait that long and
decided to eat only one marshmallow.

After many years, the psychologists followed up with the children as adolescents and
they found evidence that the kids who had held out for the second marshmallow were-

A) More well- adjusted

B) Dis better on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)
C) Had a lower Body Mass Index (BMI)

Conclusion:

It was thus concluded that a child who was able to practice delayed gratification was
likely to reap a range of benefits down the line. Self- discipline helps a person to control
the lure of instant gratification, which in turn provides the person long- term benefits.

Classroom Teaching of Moral Values

Moral values can be inculcated by the teachers during classroom in the following ways:

(i) Values must be taught in the form of experiences, case studies and situations
in which students can consider and reflect upon the moral values and translate
this reflection into action.
(ii) Teacher should involve students in active games in the classroom to inculcate
the values of fair play, honesty, courage and cooperation through interaction
with peers having diverse cultural, ethnic and personality traits.
(iii) Students must be encouraged to develop the spirit of rational enquiry and self-
discovery.
(iv) Students must be taught how to focus their attention and actively listen while
sitting in the class.
(v) Teachers must promote reflective learning in students. Reflective learning
involves students thinking about what they have read, done, or learned,
relating the lesson at hand to their own attitudes and behaviour before
criticising others.

CONCLUSION:

 Cultivation of good human values is the responsibility of the family, society and
the educational institutions. If they play their part and inculcate the rights values

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in the young mind of the children, we can create an ethical and moral society
where people help each other rather than trying to pull down each other
 In is in such societies that everyone can live happily with each other in the spirit
of love and cooperation.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Q. The word “Society” is primarily used in the context of human- ___________

relationship.

1. Human

2. Nature

3. Both

4. None

Answer: Human

Q.

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