Ethics and Values

Ethics are an important mental device. They are a form for people to self-govern their thoughts and actions. I guess that, in some forms, governments try to set up a general system of ethics, but it is really up to people to form their own ideals for their personal situations. People, in their early stages of life, begin to form ideas on what the think is right and wrong. This can be seen in respect to Erik Erikson's analysis of the developemental stages of of humans. From the ages four- six, a person deals with initiative vs. guilt. Guilt makes one feel that they have done something unethical, and this action finds its way into a "no-zone" of wrong actions. People soon begin to value their choices and try to better themselves for the sake of their own well-being or society on a whole.

Ethical values can be set by traditions passed down from generation to generation. Parenting can play a key role in the ethics of the next generation. If a parent is protective of their child, this child will most likely develop strong ethics. However, overprotective parents can lead to anxiety issues in the children. Contrarily, lax and irresponsible care of youngsters can lead to a complete lack of ethics. These unethical individuals will not value anything and eventually accomplish nothing meaningful in their life.

Even more contrarily, some children may learn their ethics from the things that their parents do wrong. For example, someone's parent may use harsh language very much in everyday speech. The child may see their parent as a monster and a fool and try with all their might to be the exact opposite of this aspect of their parent's life. However, this sort of teaching needs a foil. One of the parents must retain the "right" way of doing things as an example of how to be. One parent or other individual as an example of the "wrong" way is just enough to show the child exactly how not to act. I know that being told how not to do things is always a helpful device that teachers can offer me.