CHAPTER THREE

ETHICS IN HUMAN RELATIONS

What is Ethics?

Ethics are basic concepts, fundamental principles of right conduct and code of morals of decent human conduct. Ethics is concerned with distinguishing between decent and evil, right and wrong actions and between virtuous and non-virtuous characteristics of people.

Ethics in Human relations

Ethics in human relationsship can be defined as the fundamental principle of right conduct and code of morals of decent human conduct out lining the do’s and don’ts, right and wrong, virtuous and non-virtuous characteristics in the ways in which people relate to each other in different phases of life so as to have a peaceful and worthy co-existence. Ethics in human relationship in the society as it keeps in one’s mind the norms and values of the society, makes comprehending of why people behave the way they do possible and eradicate unacceptable acts.

Below are some of the accepted ethics/morals of the society necessary for maintaining a decent and peaceful relationship with people. They are: Humility, Dignity, Generosity, Justice, Respect, Faithfulness, Patience, Loyalty, Accountability, Responsibility, Self-esteem, Pride, Courage, Trust, Integrity, Self-control

Humility

It is the quality of being humble. It came from a Latin word “humils” which means or literally means “low”. It signifies lowliness or submissiveness. It is the quality or condition of being humble, modest, opinion of estimate of one’s own worth.

It can also be seen as the quality of not seeing or thinking you are better than other people. It is also the attribute of having a modest or low view of one’s importance. It is a quality by which a person considering his own defects has a humble opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God’s sake.

Dignity

It can be defined as a state of being honourable, a quality of a person being elevated. Respect is a view point of dignity. It is the quality of state of being worth of esteem or respect to inherit nobility and worth.

Dignity is a calm serious and controlled behaviour. It is the state of being worth of honour or respect. Dignity is a composed and serious manner or style.

Generosity

This is the virtue of not being tied down by concerns about ones possessions. It leads to charity and forgiveness. It is a quality that is a lot like unselfishness. Someone showing generosity is happy to give to or share time. It could be sometimes used in the meaning of charity, the virtue of giving without expecting anything in return. It can involve offering time, assets or talents to aid someone in need. In terms of natural disaster, relief efforts are frequently provided, voluntarily by individuals or groups acting unilaterally in making gifts of time, resources, decent, money etc.

It can also be spending time money or labour for other without being rewarded in return. Although the term generosity often goes hand-in-hand with charity, many people in the public’s eye want recognition for their decent deeds. Donations are needed to support organizations and committees; however, generosity should not be limited to times of great need such as natural distress and extreme situations.

It is not solely based on one’s economic states, but instead includes the individuals’ pure intentions of looking out for society’s common decent and giving from the heart generosity should reflect the individual’s passion to help others.

Justice

Justice is a concept whose content several times has been subject to a philosophical as well as legal treatment. There is no universal definition of the term. In its most basic form, justice is the systematized administration of punishment and reward. Further to this, one can say that justice excludes randomness. The concept of justice is based on numerous fields and many differing viewpoints and perspectives including the concepts of moral correctness based on law, equity, ethics, rationality, religion and fairness. Often the general discussion of justice is divided into the societal justice as found in philosophy, theology and religion and procedural justice as found in the study and application of the law.

Respect

Respect is a way of treating or thinking about some thing or someone. It is esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability or something. Respect is also known as a positive feeling of admiration or defense for a person or other entity (such as a nation or religion) and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem.

Faithfulness

It is the concept of unfailingly remaining loyal (in terms of words, actions in relation to human or things and putting that loyalty into consistent practice regardless of any unforeseen circumstances.

Faithfulness is also known as steadfastness, constancy or allegiance. It is carefulness in keeping what we are entrusted with.

Faithfulness also mean being faithful, loyal, constant, staunch, steadfast, being firm in adherence to whatever one owes allegiance. Faithfulness implies unswerving adherence to a person or thing or to the oath or promise by which a tie was contracted. Faithfulness is commitment to someone or something.

Patience

This is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on negative annoyance/anger.

In human relations, there is need to exhibit forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with long-term difficulties. An adage says “The patient dog eats the fattest bone.

As an individual you should be patient enough to accept and adapt with any form of human personality that comes your way. Patience is moral rule that should guide you at associating or interacting with people in the society. Patience rises the prestige of an individual.

Loyalty

Loyalty is regarded as faithfulness and a devotion to a person, country, group or cause. It is a vital ethical rule of relationship with people in the society.

Loyalty gives rise to reliance from both internal and external body. When an individual is loyal, an organization or body can entrust anything to him/her it thus activates the integrity of that individual. For instance: loyalty in business can form a chain of success in which the clients will by referred to the loyal man for business transaction. It is a decent thing to be loyal.

Responsibility

Responsibility as an ethic in human relations, we first look at the meaning of ethical responsibility. Ethical responsibility is the duty to follow a moral correct path. In your life, you might feel the greatest sense of ethical responsibility is to your family and close friends.

Accountability

Accountability is the cornerstone of the human rights framework. The latter is essentially a system of norms and practices that govern the relationship between individual and the state or those in authority. Human right standards set out the rights and freedoms to which all are entitled by virtue of being human and are the corresponding duties of those who exercise authority or forms of power.

Accountability form a human rights perspective refers to the relationship of government policymakers and other duty bearers to the rights holders affected by their decisions and actions. Accountability has a corrective function, making it possible to address individual or collective grievances and sanction wrongdoing by the individuals and institutions responsibility.

Pride

Pride is an inwardly directed emotion that carries two meaning. Firstly, it’s with a connotation that’s negative. It refers to an inflated sense of one’s personal status or accomplishment (Hubris). Positively it’s satisfied sense of attachment toward one’s own or another choice and action or towards a group of people. It’s a product of praise, independent self-reflection and a fulfilling feeling of belonging.

It’s a complex secondary emotion which requires the development of a sense of self and the mastery of relevant conceptual distinction (e.g. it’s distinct from happiness and joy) through language-based interaction with others.

Pride is also seen as love of one’s own excellence it’s a specific feeling through which egoism manifest, its disagreement with the truth. Its opposite is humility/quilt. Pride is either a virtue, but religiously it’s a sin, because it leads to vanity and causes vain glory.

Self-Esteem

This is a reflection of a person’s overall subjective emotional evaluation of his or her own worth. It’s a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude towards self. It encompasses belief (e.g. I am worth, I am competent) and emotions such as triumph, pride, shame, despair.

It’s what we think about the self, it’s a positive or negative evaluation of self as in how we feel about it. It’s attractive as a social psychological construct because researchers have conceptualized it as an influential predictor of certain outcome such as academic achievement, happiness, satisfaction in marriage and relationships and communal behaviour.

It can apply specifically to a particular dimension e.g. “I believe I am a decent writer and feel happy about that” or a global extent I believe am a bad person and feel bad about myself.

Psychologist see self-esteem as an enduring personally characteristics (traits). Its synonyms include self-worth, self-regard, self-respect and self-integrity.

Courage

Courage can be said to be the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation. It is also called bravery and bravado. Courage can be classified into 2: Physical and moral.

Physical courage is the courage or bravery in the face of physical pain, hardship, death or threat of death. Moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, discouragement or personal loss.

There are six (6) major attribute of courage which are:

1.     Feeling fear yet choosing to act

A proverb says “fear and courage are brothers”.

“I learn that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear - Nelson Mandala.

2.     Following your heart

“Passion is what drives us crazy, what makes us do extraordinary things, to discover, to challenge ourselves. Passion is and should be the heart of courage.

3.     Preserving in the face of adversity

“Most of our obstacles would melt away if instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them. - Orison Swett Marden

4.     Standing up for your right

“Speak your mind even if your voice shake:  - Maggie Kuhn

“Sometimes standing against evil is more important than defeating it. The greatest heroes stand because it is right to do so, not because they believe they will walk away with their lives. Such selfless courage is a victory in itself    - N.D, et.al.

5.     Expanding your horizons; letting go of the familiar

Man cannot discover oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore - Lord Chesterfield.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.       - Anais Nin

6.     Facing suffering with dignity or faith

A man of courage is also full of faith

“Until the day of his death no man can be sure of his courage”. - Jean Anoulh.

Trust

Trust is the reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surely of a person or thing.

According to Merriam Webster, “a hope is more than resolve, and it is based on trust in a divine faithfulness that operates not only within history but also beyond history.         -John Polking Home.

Integrity

The word integrity evolved from the Latin adjective meaning whole or complete. It is the inner sense of “wholeness” deriving from qualities such as honesty and consistency of “character”. As such, one may judge that other “have integrity” to the extent that the act according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. It is generally a personal choice to uphold oneself to consistent moral and ethical standard. In ethics, integrity is regarded by many people as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one’s actions. It stands in opposition to hypocrisy; in that judging with the standards of integrity involves regarding internal consistency apparently conflicting values should account for the discrepancy or alter their beliefs.

In aspect of human relations ethics, an individual is said to possess the virtue of integrity if the individual’s actions are based upon an internally consistent framework of principles. These principles should uniformly adhere to sound logical axioms or postulates. One can describe a person as having ethical integrity to the extent that the individual’s actions, beliefs, methods, measures and principles all derive from a single core group of values. An individual must thus be flexible and willing to adjust these values in order to maintain consistency when these values are challenged; such as when an expected test result fails to be congruent with all observed outcomes. Because such flexibility is a form is accountability, it is regarded as a moral responsibility as well as a virtue.

Self-Control

Self-control is the ability to control one’s emotions, behaviour and desires in the face of external demands, to function in society. In psychology, it is sometimes called self-regulation. Self-control is essential in behaviour to achieve goals and to avoid impulses and/or emotions that could prove to be negative or destructive.

In behavioural analysis, self-control represents the locus of two conflicting contingencies of reinforcement, which then make a controlling response reinforcing when it causes changes in the controlled response.

Self-control is like a muscle. In the short term, over use of self-control will lead to depletion. However, in the long-term, the use of self-control can strengthen and improve over time.

Gossiping

Gossip is an idle talk or rumour especially about the personal or private affairs of others. It has been found to be an important means by which people can monitor cooperative reputations and so maintain widespread indirect reciprocity) i.e. I help you and somebody else helps me)

According to Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary biologist, gossip is aiding social bonding in large groups. With the advent of internet, gossiping is now been widespread on an instant basis from one place in the world to another.

Gossiping can also be referred to as spreading of dirt and misinformation as (for instance) through excited discussions of scandals.

Disadvantages of Gossiping

§  Reinforce or punish the lack morality and accountability.

§  Reveal passive aggression, isolating and harming others.

§  Can serve as a process of social grooming.

§  Tips to Handle it

§  Rise above the gossip

§  Comprehend what causes or fuels the gossip.

§  Do not participate in gossip/Allow the gossip to go array on its own.

§  If it persists, gather facts and seek help.

Truthfulness

It refers to a facet or aspect of moral character and it connotes or suggests positive and virtuous attribute, habits or characters such as; Integrity, Honesty, Straight forwardness etc.

Along with the absence of lying, cheating, theft etc. furthermore, truthfulness may means being trustworthy, loyal, fair and sincere or fidelity.

Truthfulness can also be likened to “Honesty” and it’s a valued attribute of many ethnic and religious cultures; as cited by Benjamin Franklin “Honesty is the best policy”.

However, it has been noted that too much truthfulness or honesty might be seen as undisciplined openness. For instance, individuals may be perceived as being too truthful or honest if they honestly express negative opinions of others, either without having been asked their opinion, or having been asked in a circumstance where the response would be trivial.

References

Baldner, K. (1990). “Realism and Respect,” Between the Species, 6: 1–8.

Balint, P., (2006). “Respect Relations in Diverse Societies,” Res Publica, 12: 35–57

Galanti, Geri-Ann (2004). Caring for patients from different cultures. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8122-1857-2.

Kathane, Raj (June 2004). "BMJ Careers: Adapting to British culture". BMJ Careers 328 (7454): 273. Sommers-Flanagaan &Sommers Flanagan. (2009). Clinical Interviewing. Wiley.

Lohaus, A.; Keller, H.; Voelker, S. (2001). "Relationships between eye contact, maternal sensitivity, and infant crying". International Journal of Behavioural Development 25 (6): 542–548. doi:10.1080/01650250042000528