Introduction

Ethic is the act and the behaviour of a person, the study of a proper thought
and on how to conduct or on how we should behave. Ethics can also be defined as
the disciplines of morally acceptable conduct of individuals, which also includes
moral duty and social obligations to other individuals and to the society. It is also a
theory or a systematic study of moral values that assists individuals in deciding
whether an act is moral or immoral, right or wrong, good or bad and thus ethics are
said to be more relative and not absolute. It also serves as a guide in choosing the
right course of action when we are confronted with ethical issues that can be
personal, varies, complex, uncertain occurrences, mixed consequences. A persons
decision when dealing with what is right and wrong behaviours depends fully on the
persons personal belief and view of ethics. Behaving ethically is when a person is
doing something daily if she or he believes that the action done is the right action. A
person needs to practice and apply moral reasoning in everyday life because it is
critical in order to achieve mutual trust, fairness, balance, justice, liberty, and
integrity, and transparency, harmony between individuals or groups. The common
views can be grounded in the circle of natural law, religious belief, family or parental
influence, peer influences, educational background, life experiences, cultural and
societal expectations, and personal values and morals. Ethics can be personal.
There are many factors that influence the ethics of an individual. The main influences
are on the moral development of an individual and is on the values held as well as
ones personality. In addition the other influences also play roles as the factors such
as the family influences, peer influences, life experiences and the situational factors.
Everyone has different foundation on which they build their moral code. Family
members especially mother and father can expose a child to an emotional and
behaviour influence. Individuals ethics are also influenced by peers are work and at
school whom they interact daily. Value transfer and counter transfer happens
between individuals and peers. In my personal opinion, I feel that the factor that
counts the most in influencing the ethics of a person is the beliefs and values hold by
someone, the family background and the upbringing and the educational background
together with the life experiences.

Belief and Values

As a teacher, it is my utmost belief that the belief and the values carried by
someone play the biggest role in moulding the ethic of the person. As human beings,
we all have our own values, beliefs and attitudes that we have developed throughout
the course of our lives. Our family, friends, community and the experiences we have
had all contribute to our sense of who we are and how we view the world. As
community services workers, we are often working with people who are vulnerable
and/or who may live a lifestyle that mainstream society views as being different or
unacceptable. If, as community services workers, we are to provide a service that
meets the needs of our target groups and helps them to feel empowered, we need to
be aware of our own personal values, beliefs and attitudes and be prepared to adopt
the professional values of our industryand not impose our own ideas on our
clients.
Values are principles, standards or qualities that an individual or group of people
hold in high regard. These values guide the way we live our lives and the decisions
we make. A value may be defined as something that we hold dear, those things and
qualities which we consider to be of worth. A value is commonly formed by a
particular belief that is related to the worth of an idea or type of behaviour. Some
people may see great value in saving the worlds rainforests. However a person who
relies on the logging of a forest for their job may not place the same value on the
forest as a person who wants to save it. Values can influence many of the judgments
we make as well as have an impact on the support we give clients. It is important
that we do not influence clients decisions based on our values. We should always
work from the basis of supporting the clients values. A belief is an internal feeling
that something is true, even though that belief may be unproven or irrational;
A value is a measure of the worth or importance a person attaches to
something; our values are often reflected in the way we live our lives.
(Anderson & De Silva, 2009). In my personal opinion, these factors are the most
influencing factors because they affect how one will actually behave and when one
behave it shows their ethics and mannerism. Being a teacher, I have faced a lot of
situation where I realise that a belief and values learnt by student plays a role in

developing their ethics. For example, there was once when my students did not
finish their homework and behaving badly in the classroom, I advised them and
scolded them. As a punishment, I also choose to keep quiet in the entire teaching
process. I realise, there are two types of pupils in my classroom. One group is the
one that beliefs that religion teaches them to respect teacher and they should ask
sorry. In addition, they also are brought up with good values whereby their parents
always ask them to ask sorry to the elders and admit the mistake if they did anything
wrong. On the other hand, at the same time, there was another group of pupils who
did not take this matter seriously and choose to ignore the whole incident. These
group are the one who do not have a strong value nor belief in understanding the
seriousness of the situation. Even though, I choose not to blame the others, I still feel
that the value and the belief held by them is the one that create the ethics. Second
example, in my life experience, I realise that those who have a stronger values have
better ethics and manners. As a human being, among the circle of my friends, I find
that those who have belief and good values have better ethics than those who do not
have belief and values. For an example, I have this friend who believes that animals
have the same right as humans and at the same time she values the meaning of live.
Thus, this friend always help any animals she seen on the road either it is injured or
if it is homeless.

At the same time, she also respect people and shows same

amount of care towards humans. On contrary, I have seen people who do no value
the life of animals and this people tend to torture the animals and also basically have
low ethic practised.

During another encounter to strengthen that the value and

beliefs plays a big role in ones favour to apply ethics. During my last vacation to
Bali, I met a few families and we had some good chatting and discussions. As I was
talking to one of the family, I saw a boy who was showing tantrum to his parents,
what surprises me was that the parents choose to advise him and when he could not
accept it, they ignored him and that makes him realise his mistake. When asked
about this to them, they told me that it is important to instil good values in the life of a
child at the early stage as this will help to mould his character. Thus, I could not
agree more on the fact that the values and beliefs carried by a person can influence
and work as one of the main factors for expanding the ethics and manners of a
person.

Family background and Upbringing

Parent and family life educators face difficult ethical issues on a daily basis.
These issues may include observing parenting practices that may be harmful to
children, responding to parent remarks about their partners, or sharing information
about a family with a professional in another agency. Some of these situations may
be resolved by reviewing general principles of good practice with a colleague, while
others may reveal a true ethical dilemma. Parent and family life educators are
working with complex family systems, diverse belief and value systems, and a
variety of social institutions and agencies. Many face these issues in relative
isolation and with limited guidance from an emerging field. This document was
developed to offer a thoughtful and balanced approach to understanding ethical
principles and a concrete process for using them to address difficult ethical issues
and dilemmas. Parent and family life educators bear the primary responsibility
to initiate a relationship built on trust, caring, and understanding (Alden,
Cassidy, Cooke and Palm, 2009). In my personal opinion, I am brought up with good
family background where by my parents value the good upbringing. My sibling and I
were taught good ethics and speak good mannerism. We were taught to respect the
eldest and follow the good culture and customs. As a result, we have good ethics
and we are all in good state now and living a standard life. Not only we have good
ethics, people also respect us for the ethics that we practised. In addition, among my
pupils, I realise that the good students who are well-mannered and have good ethics
are from those with good family background. These students are usually being
brought up in a good manner and they therefore perform good ethics and they know
how to behave with someone in the classroom. On contrary, the pupils who are not
from the good family background do not pay much attention on the ethics and
mannerism. This may be because they are more concentrated on the necessity of
life and thus the ethics and manners are not regarded as the important aspect in
their life. Another example that happened in my life is when I visited a few villages
when I was studying. It was the anak angkat programme held by my college at that

time. My foster parents that time was Pakcik Abdullah b Ghani known as Pak Lah
and his wife was more known as Mak Ina. They are not very well to do, however, to
my surprise the children were all well behaved and they have good manners and
apply good ethics. This is because of their upbringing. Throughout my stay there, I
enjoyed myself very much and they were like part of my family. During my stay there,
I realised that the family background and the good upbringing plays an important role
in moulding the ethics of the family.
Educational Background and Life Experiences
The educational background of a person comprises of the studies that one
learns and the knowledge comprehended. The academic background of a person is
very important because Academic background knowledge affects more than
just school learning. (Marzano, 2010). In addition to that, the life experience is
also important because many learn from experience and thus the experience
together with the knowledge earned plays a big role in ones life in building the
ethics. The law of morality is seemed to be fading among the people in the current
generation. It is undeniable that in schools and through education, moral is being
taught and being establish among the children and these later helps them to build
good ethics. In addition to that, the life experience of a person will also be helpful in
moulding the ethics and character of a person. The educational background will
teach someone about humanism and also about the moral of life. However, there are
some people who do not have good academic background but the life experiences
faced by them taught them on the value of life. As an example, before enrolling into
the teaching profession, there was a need for everyone to undergo an interview, this
interview is so important and the first impression counted so much for the
interviewer. This is because they believe that the way we bring ourselves shows our
ethics and manners. The interviewer told me that he was impressed with the way I
greet and the manners that I showed that he insisted on praising me by saying that I
have good ethics. This is an example of lesson learnt by me because these ethics
and manners are taught by the knowledge earned and known by me. Thus, this
piece of knowledge known by me has been very handy in helping me to enrol and
pass the interview. Another example that shows me that the educational background
and the life experience shows great ethics is when I brought my cousin to get
enrolled into her college. I met someone there who was really low profile yet full with

knowledge and after chatting for sometimes and exchanging some opinions and
laughter, I came to know he was a well-known businessman. When I asked him on
his low profile attitude and telling him how impressed I am to know he was, he
answered me that, my life experience told me to always be low profile and
learn that everything comes from Him and he has the power to take away
everything that is yours in a second. This sentence was carved into my heart
that I learnt that day that life experience will also be part of the factors that create a
persons ethics. The third example, in my life I realise that the person who has more
knowledge learns better ethics and learn to be more professional, they know how to
bring themselves and also on how to behave with different type of people. For
example, I have friends from different circle who have different background. During a
conversation with all my old friend, one of my friend was boasting about the richness
of his husband as well as the money that they were holding. Sorry to say that this
friend of mine is not that well educated and she married at an early stage with a rich
man. After she talked about herself, she turned and asked each of us how are we
doing and what are we earning. She was shocked to learn that one of my friend who
was sitting and listening quietly to all her stories all the while was actually earning six
digit per month. When I approached my friend later on and praised her for her
manners, she answered me that, the more educated a person is, the more humble
they will be because they know the value of life and they will be more ethical and
have better manners.
Conclusion
Based on all the elaboration above, it is wise to explain and define that even
though everyone has ethics, some will have better ethics than others. These good
ethics will also determine the manners they have and also the values that they bring.
Ethics and morality plays a high role in explaining the attitudes and behaviour of a
person. Ethic is totally another matter. With ethics, you are free to choose your
personal philosophy of conduct to guide your life. You are not dependent on the
judgment of society or religion based in fear when making your ethical decisions.
For example, I believe in telling the truth not because God may curse me, but
because it is the right and best thing to do based on my personal ethics. I believe in
being 100% faithful to myself, in order to live a better life. I believe in keeping the
laws of the land, however, I am also not solely living my life based on the rules of

society and religion, but also based on a pragmatic and ethical way of living. I dont
steal because I follow my ethics and at the same time I do not want to go to jail. I
dont steal because I have decided not to steal based on my ethics. At the same
time, I have the freedom to choose and if I am smart, I will choose personal ethics
that will enrich my life and the lives of others. In addition to that, I strongly stand
upon my point that the belief, values, family background and upbringing as well as
the educational background and the life experiences. Not only solely based on my
personal experiences that these factors plays a role, but also in the current issue and
trend that is going on. Many youngsters nowadays losing their ethics and living an
unethical way of life due to losing good values and also not having the belief of good
terms. The number of dropouts are also increasing and thus these group of people
who are having less education can fall into the category of jumping into unethical
way of life. The family background and the upbringing is also important because the
upbringing can bring a person to a better stage and help people in creating a better
ethical person. In conclusion, it is always important for one to have ethics and moral
values as they are the important and crucial to our live and it determines the ethical
way of living and the morality practised. Thus, a human should always ensure that
the ethics, manners and morality should be practised and at the same time being
shared with others for a quality life in future.

References
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Conclusion
It is important for