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Don't miss Marion Marshall's latest blog in Psychology Today - Everyday Ethics.

Applying ethical principles to complex decision-making.

Ethics is a fundamental part of everyday living and should guide our decisions, behaviors, and interactions in both personal and professional settings. Ethics involves determining what is right and wrong and just or unjust in a variety of situations. Ethical behavior is essential for individual character development but also in fostering trust, fairness, and respect within society. Ethics is deeply embedded in our everyday lives, influencing the way we make choices as individuals, professionals, and members of communities.

Clarifying Ethics

There are some common misconceptions about ethics:

1. Ethics is not the same as feelings. While emotions can inform ethical decisions, they are not always a reliable guide. Ethical reasoning must go beyond emotional responses.
2. Ethics is not synonymous with religion. Although many religious traditions promote ethical values, ethics applies to both secular and religious contexts.
3. Ethics is not merely following the law. Laws often reflect ethical principles, but legal actions are not always ethical. History provides numerous examples where laws permitted and still permit unethical practices, such as segregation and discrimination.
4. Ethics is not dictated by cultural norms. While cultural values influence ethics, ethical behavior should not be determined solely by societal customs because cultures may harbor both ethical and unethical traditions.
5. Ethics is not science. Psychology can help us understand human behavior, but it does not dictate ethical choices. Even if something is scientifically possible, it does not mean that it is ethically justifiable.

Ethics and values are related but not identical. Values influence individual behavior and preferences (e.g., honesty, loyalty). Ethics establishes principles that guide societal norms, professions, and laws.

Problem-Solving in a Conversation

Sometimes problem-solving is best done via a direct conversation. Marshall and Graff in their book, Ethical Decision Making in Educational Therapy: A Practical Guide, detail how to apply Cheryl Keates’ "Five Cs of Effective Communication" in difficult conversations. They are: be clear, be concise, provide a compelling request, be curious, and finally, be compassionate. In being clear, you communicate about the issue without reacting emotionally. Speak as clearly and objectively as possible. In being concise, one makes a request that is direct and to the point. Reiterating the background context, or “story,” is usually not helpful. Provide a compelling request and emphasize that the request reinforces or maintains an important boundary; it is often best to offer the other person a solution. Demonstrate curiosity by listening to the other’s needs and being open to the other person’s issues and possible motives. This may take kind but firm negotiation. Being compassionate, you try to understand the other person by listening carefully. Try to put your assumptions aside and actually listen. Recognizing how the other feels may be critical to resolving the conflict and making tough decisions.

Using Ethical Lenses in Decision-Making

Not all issues can be solved through discussion. Ethicists have developed various frameworks, or ethical lenses, that assist in navigating ethical questions. Three are detailed here.

The Rights Lens

This perspective asserts that ethical actions are those that protect and respect the rights of individuals. It is rooted in the idea that human beings possess inherent dignity and have rights such as freedom of choice, the right to privacy, the right to be informed, and the right to fair treatment. In my field of educational therapy, informed consent is required before beginning an assessment. Our profession requires confidentiality – that personal information cannot be sought or released without prior written consent. As a consumer, think about the companies you deal with or your medical provider and how your rights are safeguarded.

The Justice Lens

The justice approach is based on fairness and equality. This perspective includes and differentiates between types of justice. Social justice attempts to ensure equity and fairness in society. Corrective justice attempts to address past injustices. Consider when a government makes a formal apology to a group of people for its past wrongful actions or when a government considers making a reparation payment to a group. Restorative justice is practiced by many schools instead of the usual disciplinary approach where rule-breaking results in a punitive consequence. This approach has produced better outcomes than exclusionary discipline measures which do not equip students with important conflict-resolution skills and/or address the underlying behavioral issues.

The Virtue Lens

The virtue lens is grounded in character development. It asks whether an action aligns with personal virtues such as honesty, integrity, compassion, and courage. A virtuous leader acts with integrity even when faced with difficult choices, inspiring ethical behavior in others. There is a commonly quoted statement by C.S. Lewis – “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”

Applying an Ethical Decision-Making Framework

Applying ethical principles utilizes a structured decision-making approach that gives one time to think through all aspects of the issue by untangling the emotional aspects and checking for one’s personal biases and blind spots. The use of an Ethical Decision-Making Model also allows one to consider all possible outcomes and encourages creativity in problem-solving. While specific to ethical decision-making, the steps may be applied to any thorny and complex issue you face.

The steps are:

1. Identify the Issue(s). Think clearly about it. What kind of issue is it?
2. Gather Facts. What are the relevant facts and missing information?
3. Evaluate Options Using Ethical Lenses. Try using one or all in weighing which action(s) to take.
4. Choose an Action and Test It. Would you be comfortable publicly defending your decision? And, would someone you respect approve of your action?
5. Implement and Reflect. How did the decision impact others? Reflect on what lessons can be learned to guide your problem-solving in the future.

Understanding Situational Ethics

Situational ethics holds that decisions depend on specific contexts rather than fixed rules. For example, most consider lying to be unethical, but in certain circumstances, it might be justified. Actions involving lying taken in a war may seem justifiable.

Once I was leading a search for a new faculty member in my university department. We had all agreed in advance upon the rules for our conduct to make it a fair and impartial search. We agreed that each would attend the presentation by every candidate. One person violated the agreement by not attending most of the presentations. Yet, when it came time to rate the candidates, they rated the person they knew previously significantly higher than all the others. When questioned, they stated they knew which candidate would be best for the department so their ranking and conduct were justified in their mind.

Bringing It All Together

Everyday ethics requires critical thinking, difficult conversations, and sometimes the application of ethical frameworks to navigate professional or personal dilemmas. You can make a principled choice that upholds justice, respects rights, promotes the common good, demonstrates care for others, and embodies your personal integrity. Ethical decision-making is not adherence to a rigid set of rules. Cultivating ethical thinking requires self-awareness and taking responsible actions in a complex world. Writing this blog in the current national landscape where name-calling, overt meanness, a blatant disregard for facts, disdain for the common good, and rampant injustice for many groups and individuals has been very painful. I deeply fear that as a democratic nation we have lost our ethical bearings. I think of Martin Luther King saying “The time is always right to do what is right.”

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Marion Marshall, MS, is a Board-Certified Educational Therapist (BCET), a Fellow of Educational Therapy (FAET), and a faculty member of Notre Dame de Namur University’s Educational Therapy graduate program.