Ethics And Self-Awareness In Counselling Case Study

There are many perspectives in defining ethics, morals and values. Ethics are viewed as a theoretic and moral consideration of what are “good”, “right” or “worthy” actions (Pack-Brown, Thomas, & Seymour, 2008). In the individual sense, ethics are seen as behaviours associated with the principles and values that are acceptable to the society (Taft & White, 2007).

Morality, on the other hand, refers to “judgements of justice, rights, and welfare pertaining to how people ought to treat each other” and it helps to keep the harmony between people (Bartels, Bauman, Cushman, Pizarro, & Macgraw, 2015).

Values are general principles used to guide actions and people use it to rationalise their behaviours. Different societies can value success, but

When using the ethical decision making model, it is important for counsellors to be self-aware as it will influence how they deal with the behaviours and choices of the client. Self-awareness includes being aware of their emotions, values and biases. A way to work through this is to discuss their feelings of discomfort with their supervisors or colleagues (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011). Self-awareness is key to competent counselling so it logically ensues that it is key to ethical decision making in counselling. A counsellor’s sense of self is important in determining how personal values are enacted with clients and their issues.

In step three, referring to the relevant code of ethics from the Singapore Nursing Board (2015), the assistant nurse had breached the professional code of conduct under the section “Professional Misconduct”. He had brought shame to the nursing profession due to his insensitive remarks on social media and was therefore fired from the hospital. In step four, his remarks were seen as an intentional act of inciting ill-feelings amongst the citizens of Singapore, which was a chargeable offence under Singapore law. Therefore, he was lawfully charged under the Sedition Act as a punishment.

The fourth case is about "Sugar dating" sites, which pair young women with rich older men who are willing to pay lavishly for companionship, have been targeting Singapore, which lead to many people calling for the Media Development Authority (MDA) to ban such sites (Tai,