The purpose of the study was to evaluate the ethical decision making self-efficacy of a sample of state-credentialed psychologists and counselors. A questionnaire was constructed which asked respondents to rate the confidence they possessed in relation to thirty items (reflecting ten a priori ethical decision-making domains). The items described ethical knowledge and ethical decision-making tasks and situations. The questionnaire also included eight questions pertaining to respondents' personal characteristics and professional education, training, and experience. The questionnaire was mailed to 400 Arizona-licensed psychologists and 340 Arizona-certified counselors. Although no formal, a priori hypotheses were established prior to the survey, it was expected that the extent and quality of professional ethics training might be associated with higher scores on factors generated by an exploratory factor analysis performed on survey results. In particular, it was anticipated that a values-clarification component of ethics training would be associated with higher ethical decision-making factor scores. Approximately 50% of the total sample responded to the survey. The factor analysis of scorable questionnaires resulted in a six-factor model of ethical decision-making self-efficacy. The six factors were: (1) Knowledge, (2) Behavior, (3) Thinking, (4) Awareness, (5) Resources, (6) Authorities-Conflict Analysis/Resolution. Having taken an ethics course as a student was associated with higher scores on factors 1, 5, and 6. Having taken an ethics training seminar as a postgraduate was associated with higher scores on factors 1, 2, and 5. Those respondents with a values clarification component to their ethics training scored higher on factors 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. Study results suggest that further development of an Ethical Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale and pursuit of a national survey of psychologists and counselors addressing issues raised in this study are warranted.

Within western societies the act of consumption is not merely concerned with satisfying basic human needs. Rather, consumption has become a source of leisure and self expression for the masses (Belk, 1988). This has meant that humankind’s wants have tended to outstrip the world’s finite resources available, leading to environmental damage, questionable farming practice and the widespread abuse of human labour. In response to these issues the phenomena of ethical consumption was born. Ethical consumption attempts to limit the environmental, human and animal costs of our spending via the favouring of products that are deemed to be for the betterment of wider society. At face value ethical consumption has been hugely successful in terms of market share, with sales of products stressing their ethical credentials having grown rapidly in recent years (Cooperative Bank 2011). However, despite this success, ethically branded products still represent a minority of purchases (Thøgersen, 2006). Psychological research exploring the reasons why consumers purchase ethically is dominated by papers focusing upon consumers’ attitudes, values and intentions (Andorfer & Liebe, 2012, Milfont & Duckitt, 2004). However, consumers’ attitudes do not always mirror actual spending (Auger, Burke, Devinney & Louviere., 2003; Auger & Devinney, 2007). Whilst one third of consumers describe themselves as being ethical spenders, only 1-3% of products purchased are Fair Trade certified (Cowe & Williams, 2000). The divergence between attitude and behaviour has been referred to as the ‘ethical purchasing gap’ (Andorfer & Liebe, 2012, Clayton & Brook, 2005). One factor that may be partially responsible for the divergence between purchase intention and actual behaviours is self-regulatory fatigue (ego depletion). Chapter one of the thesis presents the argument for ethical spending being affected by, amongst other things, our ability to suppress our impulsive desires via a process known as self-regulation (Bagozzi, 1992; Baumeister, 2002; Baumeister & Vohs, 2007). According to the self-regulatory fatigue literature, self-control requires the expenditure of blood glucose (Gailliot, 2008, Inzlicht & Gutsell, 2007). However, the available level of blood glucose temporarily diminishes with continued use of the self-regulatory system. In response to the lower availability of blood glucose, individuals begin to limit all non-essential cognitive expenditure, including further acts of self-regulation. Individuals who have exhausted their capacity for self control are said to be ego depleted or in a state of self-regulatory fatigue (Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996; Hofmann. Friese & Strack, 2009; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000) Chapter one argues that self-regulatory fatigue may restrict an individual’s capacity to consider the social and long-term impacts of their spending to resist the temptation of cheap consumer goods. As a result, it is predicted that ethical spending may be negatively affected by self-regulation fatigue. Following this theoretical foundation, Chapter two presents the methodological rationale for the research project that set out to test various aspects of this foundational hypothesis. Chapter three presents the findings of the first empirical study. The purpose of the study was to use open-ended questionnaires to explore the principles that guided participants’ spending, as well gaining an insight into instances where there was a discrepancy between spending and principle. The study is included within the thesis primarily to show the genesis of the research agenda. The study indicated that consumers within the sample were primarily concerned with traditional forms of ethical consumption, namely environmental, human and animal welfare concerns. Participants justified non-principled purchasing as being a result of financial consideration or impulsive urge. It was thus decided to explore the possibility that self-regulation fatigue may have a potentially negative impact upon ethical spending, due to its known relationship with impulsive spending (Vohs & Faber, 2007). Chapter four explores the effects of self-regulation fatigue upon socially-minded economic behaviour within the controlled setting of a social dilemma game. Ethical consumption can be considered to be a prime example of a ‘social dilemma’ in the sense that decisions relating to whether or not to consume ethically involve a direct conflict between an individual’s short term interests (e.g. to save money) and the collective interests of wider society (Gattig & Hendrickx, 2007; Milfont & Gouveiac, 2006). Therefore it was decided to measure the effects of self-regulatory fatigue within an experimental social dilemma task. The task used was based upon the forest game, which was first outlined by Sheldon and McGregor (2000), with the white bear thought suppression task (Wegner, Schneider, Carter, & White, 1987) being utilised to manipulate self-regulatory fatigue. The results revealed a clear divergence in behaviour within the game as a function of the manipulation of self-regulatory fatigue, with non-depleted groups sustaining the central resource longer than their depleted counterparts. Chapter five builds on the findings of chapter four through an exploration of the relationship between ego depletion and participants’ willingness to pay for ethical goods. The study utilised a discrete choice measure in order to measure participant’s willingness to pay for ethical goods. The findings did not show a significant effect of self-regulatory fatigue on the willingness to pay for ethical goods. However a potential explanation for this result was the fact that the decision-making processes involved in this study were less arduous than those required within a real-life shopping environment (or, for that matter, than the decisions required in the forest game reported in chapter four). It is possible that the complexity of the choice presented may have been insufficient for the decision to be negatively affected by self-regulatory fatigue. The study is thus included in order to illustrate the importance of utilising more realistic measures of spending that incorporate more of the complexity of decision-making required in real-world contexts. Chapter six presents four separate experiments exploring the relationship between self-regulatory fatigue and ethical spending. The first study utilised an online supermarket simulation and asked participants to go shopping for one week’s worth of groceries after either completing, or not completing, the white bear thought suppression task. The simulated supermarket allowed participants to select from a range of over 1900 products. The pattern of results indicated that participants in a state of self-regulatory fatigue spent significantly less on ethically branded products than their non-depleted counterparts. However, this was only true for individuals with a high food budget. Those with a low budget were not significantly affected, presumably due to having relatively little flexibility in terms of product choice and/or having established shopping habits focusing upon value. The second study in chapter six explored the ways in which social appeals interact with self-regulatory fatigue. Participants were presented with an attention control task before reading either an article praising students for their ethical behaviours or a control article. Participants were then asked to “go shopping” within the online store. Results once again indicated that self-regulatory fatigue reduced spending on ethically branded goods. However, contrary to predictions, the social appeal had no significant effect on levels of ethical spending either as a main effect or in interaction with self-regulatory fatigue.

This study was designed to measure ten demographic membership variables of the Texas Association for Counseling and Development (TACD) and the respective relationships of those variables to ethical knowledge. It was also an effort to conduct a global study of the most recent revision (1988) of the AACD Ethical Standards and to find the relative knowledge of these standards by a random sample of 357 counselors in one state counseling organization.

In this paper, I examine the connection between race and the morality of action. I argue that moral racial identitarianism, where this is the position that in some cases the moral status of a person’s actions depends on their race, is false. / A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art in Applied Ethics for Professionals), 2017 / GR2018

Thesis advisor: Pamela J. Grace / Nurses working in newborn intensive care units (NICU) report experiencing ethical dilemmas related to treatment decisions for infants in their care. The opportunity for nurses to contribute to the formulation of treatment plans for these infants is increasing, but often nurses are required to implement treatment plans with which they may not agree. This causes conflict for the nurse and has been shown to have implications for the nurse and, ultimately, nursing and healthcare practice. Not taking action to resolve the perceived dilemma is especially problematic on several counts (Raines, 1996). Nurse Activism, the outcome variable, is defined as the range of likely actions nurses may take to resolve ethical dilemmas in practice (Penticuff & Walden, 1987). This cross-sectional study investigated the range of likely actions that nurses would take in response to a hypothetical ethical dilemma. The web-based survey was completed by 224 NICU nurses from seven Massachusetts hospitals. Subjects responded to the Nurses Ethical Involvement Survey (Penticuff & Walden, 1987) and demographic questions. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis found that NICU nurses with greater concern for the ethical aspects of clinical practice (p = .001) and an increased perception of their ability to influence ethical decision-making (p = .018) were more likely to exhibit nurse activism to resolve an ethical dilemma and these findings explained just 8.5 percent of the variance. Future research is necessary to determine other factors contributing to, and inhibiting the actions of, nurses to resolve ethical dilemmas encountered in the NICU. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

by Wan Man-fong Sylvia. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 58-59.

En este trabajo, buscamos conocer los diferentes puntos de vista en torno al dilema que surge entre la ética y las finanzas, y partimos definiendo a las finanzas desde su raíz etimológica, la misma que determina que las finanzas son la ciencia para alcanzar fines u objetivos humanos; así también, abordamos diversas teorías éticas, que, si bien es cierto, se desarrollaron en un contexto diferente al de nuestros días, son necesarias para lograr un correcto entendimiento del dilema planteado. Bajo ese mismo enfoque, estudiamos a la ética empresarial, que se define como las reglas, normas, códigos o principios morales que proporcionan directrices para un comportamiento correcto y veraz en situaciones específicas; y el comportamiento ético individual, que es afectado por características individuales, como el desarrollo moral, y por factores situacionales, como la cultura organizacional .Además, como parte del desarrollo de esta investigación bibliográfica, se presentan diversos ejemplos que demuestran como el comportamiento ético afecta de manera positiva y en muchas ocasiones de manera negativa a las actividades financieras, y por ende a la economía, no solo local, sino también global; estos ejemplos apoyan y contradicen las posiciones adoptadas por diferentes autores respecto al tema controvertido. Finalmente, se explica como el modelo de la Economía del Bien Común busca hacer frente al modelo económico Capitalista, apoyándose en los valores que profesa, como la dignidad humana, la solidaridad y justicia social, la sostenibilidad ecológica y la transparencia y la participación democrática. / In this work, we seek to know the different points of view around the dilemma that arises between ethics and finance, and we start by defining finance from its etymological root, the same one that determines that finance is science to reach human ends or objectives; likewise, we approach diverse ethical theories, that although it is true, were developed in a different context to the one of our days, they are necessary to achieve a correct understanding of the dilemma raised. Under the same approach, we study business ethics, which is defined as the rules, norms, codes or moral principles that provide guidelines for correct and truthful behavior in specific situations; and individual ethical behavior, which is affected by individual characteristics, such as moral development, and by situational factors, such as organizational culture.In addition, as part of the development of this bibliographic research, several examples are presented that demonstrate how ethical behavior affects in a positive way and in many occasions in a negative way financial activities, and therefore the economy, not only local, but also global; these examples support and contradict the positions adopted by different authors regarding the controversial topic. Finally, it is explained how the model of the Economy of the Common Good seeks to confront the Capitalist economic model, relying on the values it professes, such as human dignity, solidarity and social justice, ecological sustainability and transparency and democratic participation. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional

This research evaluated the ethics competencies which were determined to be important to the curriculum of an ethics course for students studying Nondestructive Testing and Welding Inspection. Data were gathered from samples of American Society of Nondestructive Testing Nationally Certified Level III's (N = 268), American Welding Society Nationally Certified Welding Inspectors CWI's (N = 212) and American Welding Society Nationally Certified Associate Welding Inspectors - CAWI's (N = 101) who are currently licensed by their respective societies. The twenty-nine (29) item instrument utilized a six-point Likert type scale for the data collection. The scale, which was validated by consensus using a DELPHI panel procedure, utilized the Hoyt-Stunkard method for assessing reliability. The computed reliability for the instrument was determined to be +0.970. Analysis of variance tests were completed for each of the twenty-nine (29) competencies to ascertain differences between ASNT Level III's, AWS CWI's and AWS CAWI's samples. Factor analysis, using the R-mode, provided for the clustering of competencies and constituted the major analysis procedure for the study. The results of the study indicated the presence of three (3) clusters of content which were considered necessary to curriculum inclusion in an ethics course for nondestructive testing and welding inspection. The identified clusters include: I. Ethical issues and personal integrity (18 competencies), II. Ethics and the legal aspects of inspection (8 competencies), and III. Ethical theory and professional conduct (4 competencies). Overall competency means ranged from 3.929 to 5.594; significance tests showed only five (5) rejected hypotheses for the twent-ynine (29) primary competencies. Standard errors of the mean were found to be lower for the ASNT Level III's sample. The results of the study present a valid pattern for the development of objectives which should be included in an ethics curriculum for nondestructive testing personnel and welding inspectors. / Graduation date: 1993

In British Columbia (BC) foresters registered with the Association of BC Forest Professionals (ABCFP) have been given the exclusive right to practise professional forestry. As with all professions there is an expectation that Registered Professional Foresters (RPFs) conduct their activities in an ethical manner and are therefore obligated to act as an ethical agent on behalf of society regarding forest resources. If a certain level of ethical agency is desired of professionals we need to understand whether or not an RPF possesses the ability (defined as their discretion) to sufficiently fulfil this responsibility. Rule-based and principle-based standards of forest management, an RPF’s scope of practice, and the socio-political framework of public forest management in BC all come together to define an RPF’s discretionary context, which sets the limits to an RPF’s discretion. This context is highly idiosyncratic to a specific situation or decision and this makes the RPF’s discretion similarly idiosyncratic. This suggests that an RPF should not be accountable for a standard of ethical agency that does not reflect the context-dependent level of discretion they possess. Fifteen interviews of RPFs were conducted for this study to discuss their approach to ethical decision making. The analysis of the interviews revealed 12 major themes, several of which appear to be highly idiosyncratic to the situations described by the participants. The way these themes were perceived by the participants revealed the differences in the discretionary context of their situations. Several aspects of ethical deliberation emerged from the data that appear to be particular to broad employer categories, including delegated decision-making (government), economic and forest health considerations (industry), and the tension between personal and professional values (consultants).

Utbudet av etiska produkter har ökat på senare år, vilket borde betyda att människor har blivit mer benägna att köpa etiska produkter. Detta har krävt vissa förändringar i företagens marknadsföring, eftersom en etisk profilering i vissa fall kan kräva en annan infallsvinkel. Om ett företag med en etisk profil samarbetar med ett företag utan en etisk profil, skulle detta kunna ses som att företaget inte står fullt ut för sina värderingar, vilket kan göra att de tappar trovärdighet. The Body Shop är ett företag som säljer kosmetika, hud- och hårvårdsprodukter och marknadsför sig som ett företag med starka etiska värderingar och de arbetar mycket med Corporate Social Responsibility. The Body Shop kallas i detta arbete ett företag som framställer sig som etiskt eller ett företag med etisk profil. Åhléns är en varuhuskedja inom detaljhandeln, de kallas i detta arbete för ett företag som inte framställer sig som etiskt eller ett företag utan etisk profil. Företagen har ett samarbete, som innebär att vissa av The Body Shop:s produkter säljs i vissa utvalda Åhlénsbutiker. Syftet med detta arbete är att belysa konsumenterna uppfattningar om The Body Shop:s samarbete med Åhléns, påverkar detta samarbete konsumenternas bild av The Body Shop i någon riktning? För att uppnå syftet kommer det att undersökas om konsumenterna värderar The Body Shop:s anstränganden att profilera sig etiskt, som något positivt. Vidare kommer konsumenternas åsikter angående till vilken grad The Body Shop respektive Åhléns anses etiska, att undersökas. För att uppfylla syftet har en kvalitativ undersökning av företagens hemsidor gjorts och därefter en kvantitativ enkätundersökning bland The Body Shop:s potentiella kunder. Utvalda teorier har även studerats för att sedan jämföras med empirin. Slutsatser dras om att The Body Shop av konsumenterna anses vara ett etiskt företag och att deras etiska strävanden anses vara något positivt. The Body Shop anses även vara mer etiskt än Åhléns, av konsumenterna. Dock så anses inte samarbetet mellan The Body Shop och Åhléns vara något negativt, enligt de tillfrågade i enkätundersökningen. En anledning till detta skulle kunna vara att Åhléns inte ses som ett företag utan etisk profil av de tillfrågade, utan snarare ett företag med en lägre etisk profil än The Body Shop.