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To deal withethical relationships, you need to find the answers to these questions:

WHAT are the OBJECTIVES of this module? At the end of this module, you will:
1. Understand and apply different ethical considerations in family, community andgovernmental relationships.  2. Use the Social Accountability Model in variousethical cases.

THOUHT QUESTIONS:

What are the major problems in ethics inconnection with your family life. 
What are the major problems in ethics in connection with your accountability? 
How would you respond to an ethical case? 

1.1 MARRIAGE

What is your lifestyle? What ethical problems arise inthis area? Remember to use all available resources as you consider the variousethical alternatives.

M1. Marriage  The Marriage Toolbox  
M2. Single, or anyone not married.

1.2 COMMITMENT

Are you set in the above way, or are you searching,changing, etc?

C1. Committed to one life partner, or to living withoutlive partner.
C2. Honestly seeking to find a life partner.
C3. Living without commitment in this area, promiscuous.

1.3 VARIATIONS

What are the ethical issues in the following lifestylevariations?

V1. Living honestly in marriage with a person of theopposite gender.
V2. Living sexually with another person.
V3. Just doing what seems to come naturally.
V4. Moral situations are not constant, the keep changing with various societies.
V5. In considering alternatives, include principles, standards and consequences.

"What is usually the right thing to do inrelationships?" Ethical decision-making starts with theidentification of the problem. In our study of ethical issues, we will often present theopinions of four characters, namely Small Pinker and Small Browner, and  Big Pinkerand Big Browner. Later you will learn who these characters really are. Here are their fouranswers. Do some sound better thanothers?            

"Whatever makes ME happy is right!"...................................."Whatever WORKS isright!"

"Whatever is helpful to OTHERS is right!".............................. "Whatever is FAIR isright!"   

Explain some of the various approaches to social ethics.

ERIC_NO: ED419197, Using Professional Ethics to Strengthen Family/SchoolPartnerships: Practical Suggestions., by Wright, Doris J., 1998
ABSTRACT: Professional ethics are designed to set minimum standards of practice andservice for school psychologists. Ways in which professional ethics standards ofschool psychology can be used to build and strengthen work relationships withparents, legal guardians, and other family members are described here.Suggestions for how school psychologists can expand their roles with parents andfamilies are highlighted. Some of the guidelines for school psychologistsinclude: (1) view the entire family as your client; (2) expand your definitionsof informed consent and confidentiality; (3) teach advocacy skills to parents,legal guardians, and to other family members; and (4) develop a tripartiteteacher-family-psychologist consultation relationship. Some guidelines forparents are: (1) learn the importance of confidentiality and informed consent;(2) seek the support of other parents who utilize similar psychologicalservices; (3) come prepared with a list of questions to ask school psychologistsand other personnel; (4) ask for an advocate for yourself and for your children;(5) ask for a consultation with the school psychologist; and (6) understand theethical practices of school psychologists. Parents should ask to see a copy ofthe National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) "Principles ofProfessional Ethics" and should talk with the school psychologists aboutwhat constitutes good ethical conduct and professional practice.  

 2.1 HELP and CARE

Help	Honesty
Fairness	Freedom

Where there is a NEED, how do you decide what type of help, if any, you shouldgive?

Help1: Give personal help, by the Good Samaritan model.
Help2: Recommend help from a nonprofit volunteer organization.
Help3: Refer for governmental help, by the Plato/Marx model.
Help4: Refrain from help, in cases where help would do harm, by the Libertarian model.

2.2POVERTY

How can the poor be helped? 

2.3OBLIGATIONS

What obligations do you have to others?

ERIC_NO: ED268587, Whose Ethics in the Classroom? On the Politics of Ethics. By Sproule, J. Michael,1985
ABSTRACT: The issue of whose "facts" and whose perspective will controlclassroom discussions of social questions tends to surface in one of tworelated ways: (1) in connection with efforts to mandate the content of theinstructional matter, and (2) in connection with attacks on teachers whoseinstructional material contains facts or evaluations offensive to a powerfulsocial group or interest. A historical survey of the political monitoring ofthose who would give instruction concerning the ethics of social action, withfocus on the ethics of communication, indicates a rediscovery after World WarI of the importance of the ethical communication practices in democraticpolitics. The popularity of critical propaganda studies in colleges anduniversities during the mid-1930s was a short-lived phenomenon, however, andin the increasingly tense political atmosphere of 1939 to 1941,opponents of education who probed social ethicsoften branded ethical analysis as part of a conspiracy to undermine dominantAmerican institutions. In the 1940s and 1950s, forces opposed to criticalsocial analysis levied charges against educators and textbooks. The place ofethics in present day classrooms is, at best, ambiguous. While the upheavalsof the 1960s and 1970s created a renewed acceptance of inquiries into thenature of modern society, the politics of recent years has seen theanti-critical trends continue, although now in the form of pressure from avariety of social groups harboring strong political opinions about what shouldand should not be taught.

3.1DEMOCRACY

What are the relationships in a democracy?    
Ethics does not control a democracy, the various ethics groups andcommittees are there only for advice. In a democracy, we try to learn muchfrom history and let history influence our ethical decision-making.

3.2PUNISHMENT

How does society punish people who disobey laws? 

3.3DISCRIMINATION

What is discrimination?  Rev - U.S.Employment Discrimination Law

4.1PUBLIC TRUST

Trust is based on the four ethical imperative, namely help, fairness, honestyand freedom. Among these, honesty is central.

4.2POLITICS

The election process is in the background or all political decisions. One partyseeks to gain an advantage over the other. This involves much secrecy and puts a strain onthe four ethical imperatives.

4.3GOVERNMENT

The government is charged with operating on the basis of the four ethicalimperatives. It finds it difficult to do so. Thus public accountability is required.

4.4SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY MODEL

Accountability considerations start with the individual who is accountable tohis/her family, and to a lesser degree to his/her friends, supervisor, and law enforcementofficers. All the above are also accountable to him or her.

Acting on the basis of mutual trust and interests.
Avoiding deceptions and predominant self-interests.

Being answerable to your family members, supervisors, and law enforcementofficials.
Your family members, employers and legislators being answerable to you.

Social Positives: consideration, leadership, responsibility, fairness.
Social Negatives: arrogance, lavishness, irresponsibility, conflicts-of-interests.

Examining the level of AGREEMENT between the two parties,the individual and the answerable:

Agree1: total agreement that the case is helpful, fair, honest and free.

Agree2: some agreement that the case may be helpful, fair, honest and free.

Agree3/disagree: some agreement that the case is unhelpful, unfair, dishonestor oppressive.

and

The case is considered in light of the four ethical imperatives:

Help	Honesty
Fairness	Freedom

Helpful       Maybe helpful     Unhelpful   

Fair          Maybe fair          Unfair        

Honest     Maybe honest     Dishonest 

  Free         Maybe free       Oppressive

4.5 Howwould you deal with a case like this?

"Your boss assigns you a project that you know will not work. Will you doit anyway and sign off on it?"

 T F  1. This is an ethical issue.

 T  F  2. This is an issue of right vs. right.

 T  F  3. This is clearly an issue of Care-orientation.

 T  F  4. You may get fired if you refuse to do theproject.

ERIC_NO: ED414787, Accountability and External EthicalConstraints in Academia, by LeBlanc, H. Paul, III, 1996
ABSTRACT: This paper provides a critique of the culture of self-regulation inhigher education, in the context of recent public concerns aboutaccountability in higher education. It discusses the role of theprofessor within academe, the role of tenure in protecting academicfreedom, and the need to address issues of faculty accountability. Itthen examines institutional accountability, citing the economist AdamSmith's concept of the need for external ethical constraint, andfocusing on the special burden of accountability and self-regulationfaced by public colleges and universities. In discussing the question oftenure, it notes that in some cases tenure has been used to protectfaculty who are guilty of ethical improprieties, such as creating ahostile environment for or economic exploitation of graduate students.The paper recommends that professional organizations in the field ofspeech communication develop professional codes of ethics, and that suchcodes address principles related to the responsibilities of faculty intheir relationship to students, to other faculty, to the university, tothe discipline, and to society as a whole. (All Eric documents are fromwww.eric.ed.gov)

4.6  Do a Social Ethics Update with current news,information and research:

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