Module 3 Flashcards
Values and Ethics
When we talk about values
we are referring to the customs, standards of conduct, and principles considered desirable by a culture, a group or people, or an individual
Knowing your own value system:
helps you to ‘own’ your beliefs and being consciously aware of your values helps you to limit the likelihood of judging your clients when their values differ from your own. Being non-judgmental and suspending judgment is not easy and some would say that it’s not even possible. If we can’t help but judge, then how do we avoid allowing our judgements to negatively impact on our clients? The answer to this lies in critical reflection and supervision. Understanding ourselves helps us to avoid the pitfalls of being overly judgemental. It’s also important to note that our values may change, as we understand ourselves better.
Strengths Perspective
This holds that individuals will do better in the long run when they are helped to identify recognise and use the strengths and resources available in themselves and their environment. Identification of strengths is seen as a large part of the solution to problems people experience. Informing this perspective are the values of positive change and choice.
Human Rights based approach
It holds that individuals have inherent worth and rights to self-determination. Valuing humanity is central to this approach
Social justice
holds that fairness in the distribution of social resources, rights, opportunities and duties (equity, rights, access, participation). Social justice informs many of the approaches to practice in our professions.
Empowerment
This is the “process by which individuals, groups and communities increase their personal, interpersonal, and political power in order to improve situations. It is a collaborative process that assumes competence given opportunity and resources. It requires clients to change and define their own goals, and the means to achieve them.
ethics
we are referring to the exploration of what is right or wrong and the resulting actions that we take based on our principles. Understanding ethics requires that we explore the moral principles that underpin behaviour
Meta ethics
refers to the broader philosophical questions about whether certain phenomena exist, for example, truth and justice.
ethical theories
he process of applying moral philosophy to make sense of our world can be made easier by drawing on ‘ethical theories’. The existence of documents debating and discussing ethics from many ancient cultures attests to the fascination that people have always had with grappling with ethical issues. Ethical theory provides us with a way of considering the big questions that have long captured our attention.
ethical issues
Legal or technical matters that operate within a particular social context
ethical problems
Arise when a social worker see that a situation involves a difficult moral decision, but course of action is clear
ethical dilemmas
workers are faced with a choice between two alternatives, but the right choice is unclear
Power in human services
Ways of exercising power in your future professional life:
- Legitimate power – rules, employed role
- Expert power – professional legitimacy
- Reward power – capacity to distribute resources
- Referent power – status, personal qualities
- Coercive power – physical force, legal means
The influence of moral philosophy on practice
- One of the central questions to plague human service
workers is how best to understand the nature of
humanity, human behaviour and interactions between
people. - In other words, why are we, as humans, the way we are
and why do we do the things we do? - Philosophy has given depth to the understanding of
human experience. - Concepts of freedom and autonomy are important to
human service practice. - More recently, Western bias has been balanced by
different cultural worldviews.
Moral Philosophy. Western Paradigm:
Humans are free and autonomous individuals.
Human rationality, individual liberty and freedom (liberal democracy)
