Virtue and Character Essay Example for Free

Virtue and Character Essay 1. a distinctive trait; 2. behavior typical of a person or group; 3. moral strength; 4. reputation. Character is an evaluation of a particular individuals moral qualities. It can also imply a variety of attributes including the existence of lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty and loyalty, or of good behaviors or habits. When someone is a moral character, it is primarily referring to the assemblage of qualities that distinguish one individual from another. Character is who we really are. Its what we do when no one is looking. It s the accumulation of thoughts, values, words and actions. These become the habits that comprise our character. That character determines our destiny. Six pillars of character: A person of character thinks right and does right according to core universal values that define the qualities of a good person: They are †¢Trustworthiness †¢Respect †¢responsibility †¢fairness †¢caring †¢citizenship The CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition calls these the Six Pillars of Character. Whatever we call them, though, our role as character developers is to guide young peoples thoughts, words, actions and habits toward these values, which all people share, regardless of other differences. Primary character building force: The family is the primary character-building force in a childs life, and character education is a major family obligation. Its a parents job to help our kids engage the world with as much trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship as possible. This challenge becomes more manageable by taking a simple approach and involving the full community in sending a common message about the standards of good character. Humility and character are the two important steps of true education. If we have our childrens best interests at heart as parents and teachers, we will make the development of their character a high priority. Good character consists of knowing the good, desiring the good, and doing the goodhabits of the mind, habits of the heart, and habits of action. All three are necessary for leading a moral life; all three make up moral maturity. It also helps to identify other major character influences in anyones life: †¢ people we admire †¢ people who spend time with us †¢ reactions we observe †¢ goals †¢ expectations †¢ games †¢ friends †¢ life experiences †¢ stories we hear †¢ books we read †¢ words we hear †¢ music we hear †¢ TV shows and movies How character is related to life: Heraclitus said that â€Å"A man’s character is his fate.† There are certain personal traits that can lead to a good life. Psychology guru Martin Seligman says that these character qualities foster good physical and mental health and so improve our quality of living over all. Instilling them early will set a person up for life. The good news is that we can all learn and develop these qualities and a good life is available to every one of us, and at any age.

Slavery In The United States Essays -- Slavery Essays

Throughout this course we learned about slavery and it's effects on our country and on African Americans. Slavery and racism is prevalent throughout the Americas before during and after Thomas Jefferson's presidency. Some people say that Jefferson did not really help stop any of the slavery in the United States. I feel very differently and I will explain why throughout this essay. Throughout this essay I will be explaining how views of race were changed in the United States after the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, and how the events of the Jeffersonian Era set the stage for race relations for the nineteenth century. "Nobody wishes more ardently to see an abolition, not only of the trade, but of the condition of slavery; and certainly, nobody will be more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object." (Thomas Jefferson to Brissot de Warville, 1788. ME 6:428) Thomas Jefferson said this to Brissot de Warville in 1788 explaining his view on slavery in the United States. This was both positive and negative for Thomas Jefferson, in many ways. He was very positive in the abolition of slavery in the United States because Jefferson says he would do anything to stop slavery, and the slave trade in the States. Thomas Jefferson had a theory that the United States could use part of the coast of Africa, and it would be used as an establishment where African American who were in the states would be moved. Jefferson sees this as the best way to deal with the slavery issue. Jefferson thinks this is a good idea because when the African Americans got back to Africa they would take the things they learned w ile they were enslaved here and us them back in Africa. Thomas Jefferson saw this as retribution to the African Americans for all that t... ...nows that slavery would have ripped our great country into two sides, one for slavery and one against slavery. He knew that our county would not have survived it we had slavery in it and through his speech he shows it. Throughout this essay I explained the movie Amistad and how race relations were seen throughout the movie. This movie really helps people see how horrible it was for African Americans back in 1839-1842. The movie showed the bias that this country had against people from Africa and how horrible our country treated slaves. Through John Quince Adams speech it stated how the problem was going to be fixed, and that was through a civil war. Citations http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118607/ http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/jeffersonian_era/index.cfm http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1290.htm http://www.american.edu/TED/slave.htm

Self Assessment

Whether it Is in regards to family, friends or co-workers we constantly do self assessments. Self-assessment Is defined as a process through which Individuals gain knowledge about themselves. This includes information about their likes and dislikes as well as their reactions to specific situations. By knowing more about themselves, individuals can be able to determine the work situations and occupations that are most appropriate for them. There are several lessons that can be learnt from self-assessment in relation to individual decision making.This research paper will examine reveal the lesions learned from self assessment. We will observe of the Influence of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) as a guiding force In setting ethical standards in the healthcare industry. This will lead us to discuss how our individual ethics influence our decision making. Lastly, a formulated strategy on enhancing future decision-making will be explained. Self-assessments of an indivi dual's abilities have proved to play a fundamental role in career-based decision making. Self-assessments also serve as a deep-seated Information source which provides a basis for decision-making.A good example Is the Jungian Personality Self-Assessment which was developed from the theories of personality types by Carl Jung (Sedgwick, 2008). This type of self-assessment was initially created with the aim of helping women in the course of the Second World War in order to give them a chance to enter the workforce. There was a marked success in the Jungian Personality Self- Assessment which was eventually published in the year 1962 (Junker, 2005). Self- assessments enable participants to have knowledge of their personality types.This In turn helps Individuals to determine whether they cult in specific relationships, Jobs, learning styles, educational pursuits and means of personal growth. The Western Nevada College noted that self-assessments are not used to define an individual but th ey enable people to figure out various types of personalities and their implications. Individuals with different personality types naturally pursue varying perspectives, interest, motivations and behaviors. Awareness of personality types enables people o comprehend and value other people who act and think differently.Hence, awareness about one's personality type Is the most crucial step towards Individual decision making process (Junker, 2005). In knowing one's personality it can shape one's views on ethical decision making, especially in the realm of healthcare management. Healthcare managers often face situations that are ethically complex for instance, determination of accountability for medical errors. Healthcare associations and I organizations strive to ensure dignity, maintain ethical standards ND ensure superior-quality of care within the profession of medicine.However, It can be extremely challenging to uphold the aforementioned standards in practice due to the complex natu re of situations confronting healthcare managers (Morrison, 2009). The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Code of ethics is maintained by the organization. The code of ethics is responsible for setting standards of ethical behavior pertaining to healthcare professions In their association with patients. ACHE standards give a gulled as to how health care professionals need to perform tenet professional activities.According to ACHE cook AT ethics, healthcare professionals should practice with integrity, honesty, fairness, respect and good faith (Morrison, 2009). ACHE standards play a fundamental role of promoting managerial ethics within the healthcare profession, which is the key to ethical decision-making. According to a report by an American Medical Association, placing more structures on ethical-decision making helps in improving managerial ethics within the healthcare profession. Hence, ACHE standards enhance the focus on goals and structures within the healthcare o rganization.Consequently, this ensures increased ethical accountability on the healthcare professionals resulting in enhanced ethical decision making process (Morrison, 2009). Hence, it clear that the ACHE standards provide a comprehensive ethical direction for health service professionals. Despite the beneficial effects of the standards, a thorough analysis of the ACHE code was done. It points out the fact that it fails to sufficiently address various ethical issues pertaining to managed care. This forces us to probe our personal ethics at a deeper level.Individual ethics refer to the ability to differentiate hat is right from what is wrong. This may entail personal values, norms and beliefs. The influence of individual beliefs and values as well as the values of the coworkers has a great impact on an individual's decision making (Farrell, Frederica and Farrell, 2006). While some organizations encourage their employees to come up with ethical choices, other organizations lead to pr omotion of immoral conduct within their employees. There is an assumption that many people make choices which are grounded on their personal values and beliefs.According to social scientists, there re various factors that influence ethical decision making, and individual factors are among the significant factors to consider. One of the great challenges encountered in relation to organizational ethics is that of individual ethical values. Individual factors are essential in the resolution of ethical issues of concern. Disputes between coworkers usually emerge in an organization or workplace, and decisions made in order to resolve the conflicts are based on the conflicting parties moral philosophies and beliefs.The importance of ethical issues reflects the feelings of an individual once initiating the process of ethical decision making (Farrell, et al. , 2006). It is therefore clear that an individual's beliefs and values play a crucial role in ethical decision making. However, it is noteworthy that individuals decisions are dependent on an organization's ethical climate, culture and pressure from supervisors and coworkers. Every organization has its own ethical climate that has a significant impact on its employees' decision making process (Farrell, et al. , 2006). -But a focus should be placed on enhancing future decisions.Many important outcomes of families, individuals, societies, organizations and governments are shaped by the various decisions made. It is therefore essential to formulate appropriate strategies to improve decision making in the future. Due to the massive costs that may be caused by illogical and unsound decision making, it is vital to lay great emphasis and effort in coming up with strategies that can improve the act of decision making (Feldman, 2002). One effective strategy that can be used to improve decision making is optimizing. Through optimizing, an individual is able to choose the best possible answer to a given issue.It is first of all essential to determine a list of alternatives from which one can be able to choose the most suitable solution or alternative to adopt I en timorousness AT optimizing strategy apneas AT ten cost Involved Walt alternative solutions, importance of the problem, individual values, time availability and availability of knowledge and resources (Feldman, 2002). Organizations can employ a motivation strategy in order to improve decision making process in the future. Through motivation, people can gain self-confidence and get to believe in homeless.One of the important aspects to making logical decisions is having a belief in oneself. People who are confident have a high probability of making appropriate decisions. Hence, it is essential for organizations to have influential leaders who have the ability to motivate the employees they manage (Feldman, 2002). At some point in our life we, voluntary or involuntary, take a self-assessment. It is from this that we learn who we truly are. A met hod such as the Jungian Personality Self-Assessment introduced by Carl Jung is an excellent assessment to probe who we really are.It could be argued that a fine line exists between knowing who you are and the ethics that guide us. For those individuals in healthcare, when walking that fine line having the code of ethics as put forth by the ACHE to guide ones decision-making aids to reduce to intervention of personal feelings when professional decisions are made. To ensure this, imploring the process of optimization to arrive at the best conclusion has yielded successful results. The ability to separate personal from professional is very important and self-assessments can aid in that procedure. References Feldman, D. A. (2002). Self assessment

A Collection of Anthropology Definitions

The study of anthropology is the study of human beings: their culture, their behavior, their beliefs, their ways of surviving. Here is a collection of other definitions of anthropology from anthropologists and other dedicated to defining and describing what Alexander Pope (1688 to 1744) called the proper study of mankind. Anthropology Definitions Eric Wolf: Anthropology is less a subject matter than a bond between subject matters. It is part history, part literature; in part natural science, part social science; it strives to study men both from within and without; it represents both a manner of looking at man and a vision of man—the most scientific of the humanities, the most humanist of sciences. James William Lett: Anthropology has traditionally attempted to stake out a compromise position on this central issue by regarding itself as both the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences. That compromise has always looked peculiar to those outside anthropology  but today it looks increasingly precarious to those within the discipline. University of Florida: Anthropology is the study of humankind. Of all the disciplines that examine aspects of human existence and accomplishments, only Anthropology explores the entire panorama of the human experience from human origins to contemporary forms of culture and social life. Anthropology is Answering Questions Michael Scullin: Anthropologists attempt to answer the question: how can one explain the diversity of human cultures that are currently found on earth and how have they evolved? Given that we will have to change rather rapidly within the next generation or two this is a very pertinent question for anthropologists. University of North Texas: Anthropology is the study of human diversity around the world. Anthropologists look at cross-cultural differences in social institutions, cultural beliefs, and communication styles. They often seek to promote understanding between groups by translating each culture to the other, for instance by spelling out common, taken-for-granted assumptions. American Anthropological Association: Anthropology seeks to uncover principles of behavior that apply to all human communities. To an anthropologist, diversity itself—seen in body shapes and sizes, customs, clothing, speech, religion, and worldview—provides a frame of reference for understanding any single aspect of life in any given community. Portland Community College: Anthropology is the study of people. In this discipline, people are considered in all their biological and cultural diversities, in the present as well as in the prehistoric past, and wherever people have existed. Students are introduced to the interaction between people and their environments to develop an appreciation of human adaptations past and present. Western Washington University: Anthropology explores what it means to be human. Anthropology is the scientific study of humankind in all the cultures of the world, both past and present. The Human Experience of Anthropology Triton College: Anthropology is the study of humans in all areas and in all periods of time. Michael Brian Schiffer: Anthropology is the only discipline that can access evidence about the entire human experience on this planet. Western Kentucky University: Anthropology is the study of human culture and biology in the past and present. University of Louisville: Anthropology is, at once, both easy to define and difficult to describe; its subject matter is both exotic (marriage practices among Australian aborigines) and commonplace (the structure of the human hand); its focus both sweeping and microscopic. Anthropologists may study the language of a tribe of Brazilian Native Americans, the social life of apes in an African rain forest, or the remains of a long-vanished civilization in their own backyard—but there is always a common thread linking these vastly different projects, and always the common goal of advancing our understanding of who we are and how we came to be that way. In a sense, we all do anthropology because it is rooted in a universal human characteristic—curiosity about ourselves and other people, living and dead, here and across the globe. Stanford University: Anthropology is devoted to the study of human beings and human societies as they exist across time and space. It is distinct from other social sciences in that it gives central attention to the full-time span of human history, and to the full range of human societies and cultures, including those located in historically marginalized parts of the world. It is therefore especially attuned to questions of social, cultural, and biological diversity, to issues of power, identity, and inequality, and to the understanding of dynamic processes of social, historical, ecological, and biological change over time. A.L. Kroeber: Anthropology is the most humanistic of the sciences and the most scientific of the humanities. The Jam in the Sandwich Robert Foley and Marta Mirazon Lahr: Culture is the jam in the sandwich of anthropology. It is all-pervasive. It is used to distinguish humans from apes (everything that man does that the monkeys do not (Lord Ragland)) and to characterize evolutionarily derived behaviors in both living apes and humans. It is often both the explanation of what it is that has made human evolution different and what it is that it is necessary to explain... It exists in the heads of humans and is manifested in the products of actions. ... [C]ulture is seen by some as the equivalent of the gene, and hence a particulate unit (the meme) that can be added together in endless permutations and combinations, while to others it is as a large and indivisible whole that it takes on its significance.  In other words, culture is everything to anthropology, and it could be argued that in the process it has also become nothing. Moishe Shokeid: Anthropologists and their informants are inextricably bound together in producing an ethnographic text that integrates the impact of their unique personalities, their social incongruities, and their dreams.