Ethics and Moral Development

• Explain what it means to be ethical as it relates to personal, academic, and professional growth.
• Provide at least one ethical dilemma you have encountered and describe how the issue was resolved.
• Describe how your general education courses influenced your ethical values.
• Explain why a college-educated person might have different duties to society than someone not as educated.
• Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly sources, and properly cite any references.
• Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length.

Required Resources

Articles

• Beed, T. (n.d.). Societal responsibilities of an educated person [PDF file]. Retrieved from http://www.newaccountantusa.com/newsFeat/wealthManagement/societalresponsibilities.pdf
• This article makes the case that those with advanced education bear the duty of helping the society advance to a more just, fair, and or equitable state. All of society depends upon its educated people, from doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc., and so those people ought to do their best to help build a better society.
• Bell, C. (2014, December). Critical evaluation of information sources. P. Frantz (Ed.). Retrieved from http://library.uoregon.edu/guides/findarticles/credibility.html
• This website provides information regarding the evaluation of information sources based on several criteria: Authority, Objectivity, Quality, Currency, and Relevance. Each of these factors help researchers decide whether the information in an article is worth considering. The site includes tables that illustrate comparative features of different kinds of sources and source materials.
• Cunningham, N. (n.d.). Choosing and narrowing a topic to write about (for research papers). Retrieved from http://www.sophia.org/tutorials/choosing-and-narrowing-a-topic-to-write-about-for
  • “The process described here simplifies choosing a topic for a research paper and narrowing it down. Those who go through the steps outlined by this process will be able to identify their topics more precisely while making their research efforts more efficient” (Cunningham, n.d., Objective].
• Gampel, E. H. (2010). A framework for reasoning about ethical issues. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/4323854/A_Framework_for_Reasoning_about_Ethical_Issues
• This essay offers a systematic framework for reasoning about ethical issues. After an introduction to ethics, the essay sets out the major principles that are important to ethical reflection, and then describes a five-step procedure for analyzing and resolving ethical issues that incorporates those principles. The procedure offers a principled alternative to the appeals to gut instinct, tradition, and politics that all too often characterize how people think and talk about ethics. In closing, the essay introduces the fields of moral theory and moral philosophy, areas for further study that can also improve ethical decision-making.” (Gampel, n.d., p.1)
• Jwood00. (2012, December 10). Responsibilities of an educated person [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://jwood00.hubpages.com/hub/Responsibilities-of-an-educated-person
• The author makes the case that an educated person’s responsibilities and duties extend beyond the family and work place and must be extended into a wider context that includes others in the world and into the future. These responsibilities grow from the wider and deeper breadth of knowledge that comes from a college education.
• McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E. (2010, July 20). Kohlberg’s three levels and six stages of moral reasoning. In McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E,Child Development and Education (2007 ed.) (p. 518). Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/kohlbergs-moral-reasoning/
• After obtaining hundreds of responses to moral dilemmas, one groundbreaking cognitive-developmental psychologist, Lawrence Kohlberg, proposed that the development of moral reasoning is characterized by a sequence of six stages grouped into three general levels of morality: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. The table below lists and describes Kohlberg’s three levels and six stages of moral reasoning.
• Newton, L. (1998). Doing good and avoiding evil. Retrieved from http://www.rit.edu/~w-ethics/resources/manuals/dgae1p7.html
• The author discusses the differences between good and evil principles and their relations to critical reasoning. The author then discusses the ways in which critical thinking may be used in resolving ethical dilemmas.
• The Blogxer. (2012, March 17). Responsibilities of an educated person [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://enlighten-me-not.blogspot.com/2012/03/responsibilities-of-educated-person.html
• The article provides the three main responsibilities that educated persons must take on. These responsibilities are an outgrowth of their education and can be the basis for helping make the world a better place for everyone.
• Yirinec, J. A. (n.d.). Incorporating evidence into a research paper [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://writingcommons.org/research/integrate-evidence/incorporate-evidence/392-incorporating-evidence-into-a-research-paper
• This article explains why evidence is necessary in support claims. The article further explains the research process and how it helps discover appropriate evidence that can be used in supporting claims, conclusions, and theses. The author explains ways in which to incorporate evidence into research papers either through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary.

eBook

• Bhargava, V. K. (2006). Introduction to global issues. In V. K. Bhargava (Ed.), Global issues for global citizens: An introduction to key development challenges (pp. 1-22). Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/detail.action?docID=10137781
• The full-text version of this article can be accessed through the ebrary database in the Ashford University Library. These few pages provide a brief summary of globalism, the globalist movement, and some of the major issues that result from an increasingly globalized society. Some of the more troublesome issues are especially highlighted.
• Widdows, H. (2011). What is global ethics? In Global ethics: An introduction (pp. 1-18). Durham, GBR: Acumen. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/detail.action?docID=10553876
• The full-text version of this article can be accessed through the ebrary database in the Ashford University Library. This article puts ethical theories into the context of an increasingly globalized society, global citizenship. In an increasingly global society, the narrow definitions of traditional ethics need to be examined in their relation to the greater, broader, and more complex modern context.

Websites

• Benedictine University Library. (2015, October 16). Incorporate sources into your research paper. Retrieved from http://researchguides.ben.edu/c.php?g=261722&p=1748596
• This website provides a video illustrating how you can effectively incorporate the sources you’ve gathered into your research paper. It also demonstrates how you can structure and analyze your sources, as well as use the sources to develop a good argument on the topic.
  Accessibility Statement does not exist.
  Privacy Policy
• Charles W. Chestnutt Library – Reference Department. (n.d.). Develop a research topic. Retrieved from http://library.uncfsu.edu/reference/intro-to-library-research/develop-a-research-topic
• This website provides information on how to choose a topic of interest, how to narrow down or broaden your topic, how to select keywords and search terms, and how to organize and track your sources.
  Accessibility Statement does not exist.
  Privacy Policy does not exist