Ability To Evaluate Factors Of Family, Peer, And Life Influences On An Individual's Ethical Behavior

Family Influences

Discuss about the Ability to Evaluate the Factors of Family Influences, Peer Influences and Life Influences.

Ethics refers to those individual ideas and principles which forms a behaviour that helps in knowing the difference between right and wrong (Bond, 2015). They are a necessity for leading life. They are the righteous conduct of individuals which make them an ethical personality. There are factors which form the ethical behaviour in an individual and therefore; influence their decision making (Newman & Newman, 2014). The factors are family influences, peer influences, situational influences, life influences and personal values and morals. The combinations of these factors are cause for forming behaviour of an individual. Apart from this, these factors also provide a structure to the long run behaviour formation of an individual. The below report will discuss family influences, peer influences and life influences that helps in posing an individual’s ethical behaviour. Apart from this, the report will focus on the rule of law which helps as a guide for moral choice and the final conclusion.

The very first factor that has been chosen for the discussion is the family influence which depicts the behaviour from the day when a child is born in a family. It is because family are the people who have a very strong influence on any individual. The influence of family starts from the childhood days of an individual. It includes the habits, attitudes and behaviour of parents which is by default learned by an individual as a child. What parents do is automatically followed and imitated by children. Therefore; it is important that how parents act and reacts in front of their children as it will build a foundation for their children (Scales, Potthast & Oravecz, 2010). This can be understood by the following examples.

In my childhood days, I was always asked to greet elders and guests coming around as in return I was given candies by my father. This event use to take place when there were guests in the house or whenever we use to visit somebody. This behaviour of my father of rewarding me with candies when I use to greet elders respectfully, has built this as a long lasting habit in me of greeting elders till date. Now, this practice led by my father has taught me to greet people irrespective of their age. Therefore; it has developed a high ethical standard in me for the rest of my life (Ballard & Taylor, 2011).

Examples

In my school days, once I had a fight with one of my classmate for which my parents were called to school for demonstrating the event. After the whole matter, I was taken back home but both of them did not talk to me and told me that it was the last time that they accompanied me for handling such nuisance in my school. During all this I got the point of their anger and ignorance. My apology made them turn back to me and make me understand that fighting with people is a very low ethical behaviour which will represent the family values in front of others. After that day, it made me realise my mistake and helped me in developing an ethical behaviour of not getting into trouble and fights (Nohr, 2007).

Punctuality is one habit which I have developed over the period of time from my parents. It started since the days, when they use to drop and pick me from school each day adhering to the time. They also followed the same in their own lives; this was the ethical behaviour which I observed and learnt from them which has helped me in conducting myself ethically high at places whether it is home or workplace (Kubacki, 2014).        

Peers include the society as a whole to which an individual is exposed. Peers include friends and social network in which an individual spend one’s time interacting with them other than the family. The influence of peers starts from the teenage phase of an individual when a person is exposed to more people in result of which it builds their high or low ethical behaviour. Mostly the peers are similar to age, interests and backgrounds with whom an individual is highly compatible in sharing time and thoughts with (Bryant & Peck, 2006). It can be illustrated from the examples given below:

In my school days I was a very introvert kind of a person who never felt like expressing my views or opinions in front of others. Then there was a inter school fest which was organised for five days in which I got selected for debate because of my writing skills but the only hurdle was my fear of speaking in front of others. This fear got off during those memorable six days when I was with people of my age and immense talent. There were meetings and outings or us in which I got a chance to interact with people and express myself. Finally, on the last day I delivered my part with full confidence and won the competition. It was not only winning that made me feel contended from within moreover; now I am a person full of life and confidence (Gerrig, et al, 2015).

Peer Influences

Optimism is a good habit which helps a person in personal and professional life which I was deprived of. One of friend has changed my vision of looking at things differently i.e. positively. What I learnt from my friend is that irrespective of so many problems in life he never gave up and is always positively motivated to do something worth in life while on the other hand, I use to complain for very minute things. In addition to this, this evolved a high ethical standard of having a positive idea towards leading life (Smetana, 2010).

When I was in my high school, I had new friends group. They use to hangout every day, exploring new places all the time. They use to pick me up for accompanying them. My new group had a habit of speaking bad and foul language to each other and make funny jokes of people moving around. This was a low ethical standard behaviour which I inculcated from my peer group (Gerrig, et al, 2015).      

Life influences are basically the past events that happened in one’s life which gave the individual some or the other unforgettable memories and experiences. Such events and experiences of one’s life help in forming behaviour of an individual. Experiences include all the good days and bad days happening in an individual’s life. Memorable days of wedding, birth whereas hard days of demise, accidents etc. All these play an important role in shaping one’s personality and ethical behaviour. Apart from this, one becomes mature, sensible and committed towards responsibilities and commitments (Fromm, 2013).

My father use to go for drinks and parties with his group of friends. This habit of his developed and increased over the period of time. After parties, he always used to drive home in drunken state which was not at all good for him and family. One bad day, as usual he was returning back home and met with an accident. His car got into other person’s car but luckily he was in senses called up at home; he was taken to hospital quickly and was treated by the doctors as nothing severe happened to him. That was the day when I developed a high ethical standard of never drink and drive as it is not only harmful for an individual but also for the people who are related to the one (Sigelman & Rider, 2011).

Examples

My mother is the person who has evolved the habit of following justice at all times in me. It developed because of one event which took place in my family when my brother took away high amount of money from my father’s account by plagiarising his signature. The fraud was open in front of everybody when I my father’s account details in the month end. Each one in the family got annoyed with my brother and finally it took my mother to punish him by taking help of legal bodies. She informed the police about the whole event after which my brother was fined and had to spend a day in jail which explained the high ethical standard set by my mother for each one in the family. This has helped me developing a high ethical standard when it comes to justice irrespective of any family member (McShane & Glinow, 2011). 

In my college days, when I came into contact with my new friends group I got into a habit of smoking. The reason behind why I gave up smoking when one of my friends was caught with heart disease. After this, I realised the importance and value of life. This has developed a high ethical standard in me (Sigelman & Rider, 2011).

Rule of law refers to those rules and regulations which are formulated to manage and control the society (Hart, Raz, Bulloch & Green, 2012). Rule of law is pervasive as it is important to make changes in the society for the betterment of the society. Rule of order is significant as it maintains the ethical law and order in the society on whole. Rule of law gives an understanding to people of social values. It depends on individual to choose rule of law by thinking of their good and bad effects which will affect the society. In order to make the right choice individual should have a proper knowledge of the law. Therefore; the rule of law helps in developing ethical behaviour among people present in organisations and society at large which will act as guidance for making the right choice between right and wrong (Oxford University Press, 2010). This can be explained through the examples below:

In my high school days, during the periodical exams one of friend told me about his intention of entering into the examination cell and getting the copying the exam paper. I did not give any reaction but I was aware that this is against the rule of law. I wanted to save my friend from the consequences and also wanted him to make out the right difference between what is right and what is wrong. Therefore; I warned him that if he does anything I would report to the principal and examination in charge and explained him that this would never take him high in career and his own eyes. Finally he dropped the idea and was able to take the right ethical decision (Keehn, 2013).

Life Influences

During my college days, during the college trip my friends decided to party at night and would bring alcohol to make it more adventurous. I was also convinced but in the small corner of my heart I was aware that this is against the rule of law. Therefore; I went to the trip organiser and the principal, confronted myself and promised to never do such acts which hinders my personality. It also gave a lesson to my friends and we all decided to never does anything against the law (Hart, Raz, Bulloch & Green, 2012).

During my teens, I stole money from the house for helping my friend in need. After the incident I never found peace as I was feeling guilty of doing it in a wrong manner. I was aware that irrespective of the right intention I was at fault because of the wrong means. I went to my parents narrated the whole incident and apologised. Finally, they forgave me and asked me to share problems with them rather than handling on my own. It was behaviour against the rule of law (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Conclusion

Ethics are the moral study which forms an individual’s code of conduct. It is an individual’s personal belief about right and wrong. There are factor which affects the individual behaviour and sets ethical standards of them. The above discussion has studied three factors that are family influences, peer influences and life influences. Family factor plays the most significant role in setting ethical standards. Peers are another most social group influence the decision making and ethical standard of individuals. Life influences influence by way of experiences that are witnessed by individuals. The rule of law has demonstrated the importance in individual’s life as it is based on positive or negative attitudes of individuals. The more the positive attitude the higher the ethical standards whereas the more the negative attitude the lower the ethical standards.   

References

Ballard, S, M & Taylor, A, C. (2011). Family Life Education with Diverse Populations. SAGE.

Bond, T. (2015). Standards and Ethics for Counselling in Action. SAGE. 

Bryant, C, D & Peck, D, L. (2006). 21st Century Sociology: A Reference Handbook, Volume 2. SAGE. 

Fromm, E. (2013). Man for himself: An inquiry into the psychology of ethics (Vol. 102). Routledge.

Gerrig, et al,. (2015). Psychology and Life. Pearson Higher Education AU. 

Hart, H. L. A., Raz, J., Bulloch, P. A., & Green, L. (2012). The concept of law. Oxford University Press.

Keehn, J, D. (2013). The Ethics of Psychological Research. Elsevier.

Kubacki, K. (2014). Ideas in Marketing: Finding the New and Polishing the Old: Proceedings of the 2013 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference. Springer. 

McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. (2011). M: Organizational behavior. Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Newman, B, M & Philip R. Newman, P, R. (2014). Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach. Cengage Learning.

Nohr, T, Y. (2007). Ethics for Massage Therapists. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 

Oxford University Press. (2010). Situational Action Theory: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide. Oxford University Press.

Scales, S, Potthast, A & Oravecz, L. (2010). The Ethics of the Family. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.   

Sigelman,C, K & Rider, E, A. 2011. Life-Span Human Development. Cengage Learning. 

Smetana, J, G. 2010. Adolescents, Families, and Social Development: How Teens Construct Their Worlds. John Wiley & Sons.