Human Services: Personal Values & Ethical Standards

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Dear Student,
The solution below is concise and comprehensive. The information provided provides definitions and discussions of the topics and problems presented in the problem to help you put together a paper that explores the development of ethics, personal values and moral principles. Please remember to cite when using this solution to avoid plagiarism. Good luck and thank you for using Brainmass.

Sincerely,
OTA 105878/Xenia Jones
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Defining Concepts

What are personal values? Your personal values are those things in your life that you consider to be important. We learn our values via socialization from the tutelage and example set by our parents, our elders, our teachers and the combination of the experience of our everyday reality. Personal values are not universal - they are very particular and subjective, varying from individual to individual but holding similarities according to our ethnicity, faith, race, politics, environment, social status and the quirks of our personalities. Our values, what we hold dear to us influence our thoughts, feelings and actions. In relation to work, values are what give purpose to a job in the eyes of the individual who does it. The effort, commitment and motivation that a person brings to a job are usually in direct proportion to the values that they perceive in it.

What is ethics? In a metaphysical sense, ethics seeks to answer the most fundamental questions about morality. Ethics is a seemingly simple but in actuality complex area of study in critical philosophy but for the purpose of this solution let us simplify ethics from a personal viewpoint to mean as such -

? Ethics is about right and wrong
? Ethics is about rights and duties
? Ethics is about good and bad
? Ethics is about what goodness itself is
? Ethics is about making moral choices
? Ethics is about the way to live a good life
? Ethics is about how people use the language of right and wrong

Ethics tackles some of the fundamental questions of human life:

? How should people live?
? What should people do in particular situations?

My Personal Values in Relation to my Career Path

"The Human Services profession is one which promotes improved service delivery systems by addressing not only the quality of direct services, but also by seeking to improve accessibility, accountability, and coordination among professionals and agencies in service delivery."
- NOHS, 2007

While personal values and ethics are subjective, professional moral & ethical values are set as standards that must be met by members of any profession convened and arrived at by key bodies of said profession and by particular social agencies to keep order, professionalism and high standards for the purpose of protecting the practitioner & those using ...