Showing papers on "Professional ethics published in 1986"

The Moral Foundation of Nursing.

Abstract: The authors argue that the moral predicament facing nurses is their not being free to be moral because they are deprived of the free exercise of moral agency. Two occurrences are needed for nurses to be free to be moral: (1) the emergence of a strong sense of professional autonomy for nurses and (2) a shift in the locus of accountability from other health care professionals to the patient. The direction urged is to view nursing ethics as reform ethics.

Teaching Professional Ethics

Abstract: Soltis discusses the importance of teach ing professional ethics in teacher educa tion programs. Formal ethical codes, such as the one established by the NEA, provide a foundation for ethical deci ...

Aesthetic Components of Management Ethics

Abstract: Traditionally, the place of ethics in business practices has been to supply a decision procedure or some formal normative orientation. This paper asserts that the role of ethics is much larger than that, going beyond “knowing that” to include “knowing how” as an important epistemological extension to traditional ethical theory. Ethics thus becomes, in part, a form of art, giving added credibility to the commonly heard phrase “the art of managing.”

The experimental psychologist in court: The ethics of expert testimony.

Abstract: This special issue comprises articles by psychologists, legal scholars, and ethicists on the ethics of expert testimony by experimental psychologists. In it the major ethical questions facing the prospective expert witness are clarified, and alternative positions on these issues are defined and debated. Fundamentals of moral reasoning are discussed, and the realities of interaction with a judicial system that subjects the psychologist to a variety of pressures and limitations are made apparent. The aim is not to offer final answers to complex ethical questions, but rather to provide a framework within which the questions can be considered by the individual psychologist.

Professional ethics: The separatist thesis

Abstract: Two of the features that are held to define a professional person are that he or she works at a high level of expertise and that he or she uses this expertise to provide valued services to other persons. A central problem of professional ethics arises from the connection between these features. The professional's expertise stands to his provision of valued services in the relation of means to end. The problem raised by this relation is: does the professional's end of providing valued services justify his using any means positively related to his expertise? Or are there moral limits to the expert means that the professional may use to attain the valued end that constitutes his service to his client?

Ethics in Planning

Abstract: Some planners limit discussions of ethics to simple, though important, questions about the propriety of their daily activities This approach to ethics restricts discussion of professional ethics to the propriety of everyday social and professional relationships It ignores the broader ethical content of planning practice, methods, and policies While narrow definitions of ethical behavior can easily preoccupy public officials and professional associations, they divert attention from more profound moral issues Martin Wachs argues that ethical issues are implicit in nearly all planning decisions For illustrative and educational reasons, it is useful to divide ethics in planning into four distinct categories The first category includes the moral implications of bureaucratic practices and rules of behavior regarding clients and supervisors The second category includes ethical judgments which planners make in exercising their "administrative discretion" More complex, and represented by a third category, are the moral implications of methods and the ethical content of criteria built into planning techniques and models The final type represents the basic choices which society makes-those inherent in the consideration of major policy alternatives Ethics in Planning contains a variety of representative papers to capture the current state of thinking This book will be important as a text for survey classes in professional ethics given by university planning programs It should also supplement short courses in planning ethics for practicing professionals and provide source materials for discussions of planning ethics sponsored by local chapters of the American Planning Association and similar organizations It gathers together exemplary and critical works, thus it will also interest individual planners in a field that only continues to grow in recognition and importance

Whistleblowing : Ethical and Legal Issues in Expressing Dissent

Abstract: The Module Series in Applied Ethics was produced by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions in under a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation. This series is intended for use in a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs in such areas as science and/or technology public policy, and professional ethics courses in engineering, business, and computer science.

Nursing fundamentals texts: where's the ethics?

Abstract: A primary source of information on professional ethics for nursing students is the nursing fundamentals text used in the initial courses. This study systematically evaluated nursing fundamentals texts for their coverage of ethically relevant content. Forty-two nursing fundamentals texts published from 1965 to 1985 were evaluated for: inclusion of a professional code of ethics; interpretive statements, discussion and examples; and guidelines for ethical decision making. Forty-five percent of the texts contained no content on ethics, with the remainder varying in their depth of coverage. Analysis revealed a moderate correlation (r = 0.59) between the year of publication and the average number of pages accorded content on ethics in that year. The results reflect a gradual, although irregular, trend toward inclusion of greater amounts of content on ethics. Recommendations were proposed that would facilitate the inclusion of content on ethics into nursing curricula. These included: greater communication between faculty and text publishers regarding the importance of content on ethics, inclusion of ethics as a curricular thread, small-group workshops to increase faculty sensitivity to the need for preparation in ethical decision making, and an elective course in nursing ethics.

Cognitive Psychologists as Expert Witnesses A Problem in Professional Ethics

Abstract: The first part of this paper defines a central problem for professional ethics: whether agents in professional roles are to act on their own moral perceptions or rather defer to those with special authority to make decisions within particular institutional settings. Specifically, should the psychologist decide for himself whether and how to testify as an expert witness, or should he allow the judge and lawyer to settle these questions for him? I argue that he must decide for himself and attempt to control the nature of his testimony. Given this preliminary conclusion, the second part of the paper argues on direct moral grounds first for a general presumption in favor of psychologists' testimony on the accuracy of eyewitnesses. Such testimony fits the legal criterion of reasonable doubt, if the psychologists' information is more accurate than that of the average juror and lawyer. Second, it is argued that the expert witness must resist intense adversarial pressures and present his testimony as impartially and objectively as possible.

Professional ethics, the university, and the journalist

Abstract: This paper was first presented as a plenary lecture to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in August, 1985. The author, who is the Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at Southern Methodist University, discusses the intellectual, moral, and organizational marks of the professional that led reformers at the beginning of the twentieth century to locate professional training in the university. That discussion is followed by consideration of the moral consequences of university education for professionals, and how journalists and all other professionals are, at base, teachers. The third part of the paper reflects upon the peculiarities of journalism as aprofession, and concludes with considerations of the special mission of journalism.