Ethical lens inventory blind spot

Ethical Lens Inventory Irasema

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10/27/2018

Your preferred ethical lens is: Results Lens Considered Sensibility and Considered Autonomy (CSCA) You listen to your intuition (sensibility) to determine the greatest good for yourself and each individual (autonomy).

Your Primary Values show how you prioritize the tension between rationality and sensibility as well as autonomy and equality. Your primary values are Sensibility and Autonomy You have a considered preference for the value of sensibility (CS)—following your heart—over rationality—following your head. As a CS, your passions and emotions provide appreciable energy as you seek your heart's desires. You thoughtfully frame the narrative of your life in terms of being all you can be as you strive to embody the ideals of your roles.

You give a considered priority to the value of autonomy (CA)—respecting the individual—over equality—giving priority to the group. As a CA, you want to choose your own path and life goals. However, as you are making your decisions, you may find that your choices are shaped by the opinions of others and the general community expectations about what constitutes a "good life." You wholeheartedly defend the right of every human to choose how they will live into their full potential as they seek their own expression of the good life.

Know Yourself Pay attention to your beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. The first step to ethical agility and maturity is to carefully read the description of your own ethical lens. While you may resonate with elements of other lenses, when you are under stress or pressure, you’ll begin your ethical analysis from your home lens. So, becoming familiar with both the gifts and the blind spots of your lens is useful. For more information about how to think about ethics as well as hints for interpreting your results, look at the information under the ELI Essentials and Exploring the ELI on the menu bar.

Understanding Your Ethical Lens Over the course of history, four different ethical perspectives, which we call the Four Ethical Lenses, have guided people in making ethical decisions. Each of us has an inherited bias towards community that intersects with our earliest socialization. As we make sense of our world, we develop an approach to ethics that becomes our ethical instinct—our gut reaction to value conflicts. The questions you answered were designed to determine your instinctual approach to your values preferences. These preferences determine your placement on the Ethical Lens Inventory grid, seen on the right side of this page.

The dot on the grid shows which ethical lens you prefer and how strong that preference is. Those who land on or close to the center point do not have a strong preference for any ethical lens and may instead resonate with an approach to ethics that is concerned with living authentically in the world rather than one that privileges one set of values over another.

Each of the paragraphs below describes an ethical trait—a personal characteristic or quality that defines how you begin to approach

ethical problems. For each of the categories, the trait describes the values you believe are the most important as well as the reasons you give for why you make particular ethical decisions.

To see how other people might look at the world differently, read the descriptions of the different ethical lenses under the tab Ethical Lenses on the menu bar. The “Overview of the Four Ethical Lenses” can be printed to give you a quick reference document. Finally, you can compare and contrast each ethical trait by reading the description of the trait found under the Traits menu. Comparing the traits of your perspective to others helps you understand how people might emphasize different values and approach ethical dilemmas differently.

As you read your ethical profile and study the different approaches, you’ll have a better sense of what we mean when we use the word “ethics.” You’ll also have some insight into how human beings determine what actions are—or are not—ethical.

The Snapshot gives you a quick overview of your ethical lens. Your snapshot shows you pursuing your ethical goals. This ethical lens is called the Results Lens because people with this focus value having others who are important to them in their various communities think highly of their expertise and character—their results. The Results Lens represents the family of ethical theories known as consequentialism, where you consider your goals to help you determine what is ethical.

Your Ethical Path is the method you use to become ethically aware and mature. Your ethical path is the Path of the Hero. On the ethical Path of the Hero, you follow your intuition to determine what you want to become, do, and have. Ethical goals, sometimes called ideal goals, help you identify what kind of a person you want to be. As you walk through this life, do you want to be kind, generous, and accepting instead of mean-spirited, selfish, and judgmental? This ethical perspective also helps you moderate your desires as you simultaneously decide what you want to accomplish and what you want to acquire. What achievements are really meaningful? How much stuff do you really need?

As you walk the Path of the Hero, you energetically pursue your own goals and strive to work with others to break down barriers and find the good life. In the process, you explore your own desires as informed by community expectations to determine what goals will allow you to become the best expression of yourself. You also learn how to moderate your desires to find satisfaction.

Your Vantage Point describes the overall perspective you take to determine what behaviors best reflect your values. The icon that represents your preferred vantage point is a magnifying glass. Just as a magnifying glass helps you notice details in your surroundings, the Results Lens helps you focus on present circumstances to make choices bounded by a respect for human dignity—choices that help you reach your personal goals.

Your Ethical Self is the persona the theorists invite you to take on as you resolve the ethical problem. Your ethical self is a particular person with specific desires and life goals. Using the magnifying glass of the Results Lens, you think of your ethical self as a particular person with specific goals and desires. You consider your position in the community, available opportunities, and desirable long and short-term goals as you choose your path forward.

You strongly believe that everyone should be empowered to make choices that make them happy. You also defend the right of each person to ultimately take responsibility for their own actions. You have confidence that as you freely make choices that fulfill your heart’s desire and seem to make sense, you will create the greatest amount of good possible for your community.

Your Classical Virtue is the one of the four virtues identified by Greek philosophers you find the most

important to embody. Your classical virtue is Prudence—making wise decisions in everyday affairs. As you seek ethical maturity, you endeavor to embrace temperance, being moderate and self-restrained, as your desires are moderated by reason. Noticing the problems caused by gluttony and greed, you consider others as you seek moderation in all things. You work to control your desires through discipline and self-control.

Your Key Phrase is the statement you use to describe your ethical self. Your key phrase is “I make wise choices that support a good life.” Rather than passively choosing from options that come to you, you engage your imagination to find ways to both increase your own happiness and allow all others to thrive. Because you moderately value personal autonomy and following your heart’s desire, you cherish the choices you make. And, having chosen, you live with the consequences and don’t whine.

Using the Results Lens By prioritizing sensibility and autonomy, the Results Lens provides a unique perspective on what specific actions count as being ethical. This lens also has its own process for resolving ethical dilemmas. As you translate your overarching values into actions— applied ethics—each perspective provides a particular nuance on what counts as ethical behavior. This next section describes how you can use the Results Lens to resolve an ethical dilemma.

Deciding what is Ethical is the statement that describes your preferred method for defining what behaviors and actions are ethical. Individuals use their emotion and passion to determine the goals they wish to pursue. With a considered preference for sensibility, your emotion and imagination provide the drive needed to determine and reach the goals that you wish to pursue. You believe that as individuals consider themselves and others they will be ethical—choosing actions that lead to good results for individuals, create the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, and serve the greater good resulting in harmony and satisfaction for many individuals.

Your Ethical Task is the process you prefer to use to resolve ethical dilemmas. Your ethical task is to identify ideal goals, the long-term results that will lead to a good life. Your primary focus is seeking that which is Good. As you gaze through this lens, you follow your heart and consult with your reason to identify what kind of person you want to become and what tangible results you want to see in your life and community.

As you consider how to live into the values of a life where all can thrive, you choose to pursue concrete actions that will bring those considered values to life and help you reach your goals, even as you notice that others might not make the same choices you do.

Your Analytical Tool is your preferred method for critically thinking about ethical dilemmas. Your preferred analytical tool is experience. You determine what is good based on your own personal experience and the experience of others. The interplay of action and reflection based on experience is your most powerful—and highly valued—analytical tool.

You begin with a careful assessment of the world and your ability to achieve your stated goals. If you see that a particular course of action is not leading to your desired goals or might be hurting others, you quickly change direction.

Your Foundational Question helps you determine your ethical boundaries. Your foundational question is “What would make me happy?” As you ask “What will make me happy?”, you take time to thoughtfully explore your feelings and desires to determine your long-term goals as well as imagine the kind of person you want to become. And, any path forward has to meet the ethical minimum of allowing yourself—and others—to have meaningful choices about how best to thrive.

Your Aspirational Question helps you become more ethically mature. Your aspirational question is “What are mutually good results?” The path to ethical maturity begins with considering other people besides yourself. As you moderate your considered preference for autonomy and expand your perspective to include others, you begin thinking about what goals and actions other people might desire. You ask, “What are mutually good results?” You want each person to have a measured amount of freedom. The intent is to ensure that as many people as possible can thrive and pursue their own life plans.

And then, as your perspective shifts to include all people and find a greater purpose in life than only caring for yourself, you begin to use your reason to moderate your considered preference for sensibility and trusting your heart and reason as you ask, “How can I be a partner in creating a better world?” Asking this question allows you to develop your own sense of accomplishment and to use your imagination to help support individuals and the group.

Your Justification for Acting is the reason you give yourself and others to explain your choice. Your justification for acting is “I found a win-win solution that respects everyone.” You like to explain your choices by announcing that you found a win-win solution that respects everyone as individuals. If you can see that your action allows people to thrive while supporting the majority of people’s preferences, you are happy.

Because you are in tune with the emotional climate of a situation and can thoughtfully evaluate the context, you want as many people as possible to have a good life. At your best, you will work to find creative solutions that will not only make people happy but also meet your long-term ethical goals—the ability for all to succeed and live in harmony with others.

Strengths of the Results Lens The ethical perspective of the Results Lens has been used by many over thousands of years to provide a personal map toward ethical action and personal fulfillment. Striving to embrace core goals that will allow you to thrive is an effective strategy for energizing action, finding a purpose for your life, and getting along well with others.

Your Gift is the insight you provide yourself and others as we seek to be ethical. Your gift is free will. Free will means not only that you get to freely choose your own goals but also that you celebrate others being able to do the same. You accept the consequences of your actions and learn to tolerate moral ambiguity.

As you gain ethical maturity, you develop the flexibility to look clearly at the past, imagine the future, and act in the present to fulfill your desires as informed by your reason. Energized by possibilities, you bring optimism and enthusiasm to the table.

Your Contemporary Value is the current ethical value you

most clearly embody. Your contemporary value is seeking the greatest good. You are actively committed to finding the greatest good for as many individuals as possible, including yourself. That commitment, however, gives a considered privilege to autonomy—the right of people to determine for themselves what is “good,” while thinking about the desires of others. Still, you value people having the opportunity to live from their own enlightened self-interest.

As you move from private action to public policy, you begin to moderate your own desires to consider the desires of others. As you consider others, you find the utilitarian approach to ethics, carefully assessing which action will create the greatest good, particularly valuable. At your best, you take responsibility for your actions, even those that end badly. In the process, you thoughtfully savor life.

Your Secondary Values are those that logically flow from your primary values. Your secondary values focus on maximizing opportunities to support a fulfilled, purposeful life. The Path of the Hero involves enthusiastically embracing flexibility and creativity. You also want to achieve your goals efficiently by consuming as few resources as possible. You are loyal as you act in the best interest of yourself and others in the community. Finally, you work to avoid conflicts of interest.

Challenges of the Results Lens One of the greatest challenges of the Results Lens is recognizing that your desires may not be fulfilled—and in fact may be thwarted, leading to unhappiness. Those who have a considered preference for sensibility and for autonomy, are somewhat vulnerable to the ethical blind spots of the Results Lens that come from not making peace with your lot in life, resenting the success of others, and a yearning desire for “more.” Using the magnifying glass of the Results Lens to engage in careful personal reflection helps you avoid ethical blind spots that come from self-deception.

Your Blind Spot is the place you are not ethically aware and so may unintentionally make an ethical misstep. Your blind spot is being satisfied with too little good. Our ethical blind spots may cause us to inadvertently be unethical because we are not paying attention. Without being mindful, actions that are grounded in good intentions may wind up not meeting either your own or other’s ethical standards.

Being very sensitive to the emotional climate of the situation and beginning to listen to your rational voice, you still may forget to maintain consistency between your long-term goals and your actions. Trying to take care of meeting everyone else’s desires, you might become angry and resentful because no one is considering what will make you happy.

Because you want to make people happy and are reluctant to second guess what others might want, you may take the path of expedience and be satisfied with too little good as you don’t hold yourself and others accountable for the consequences of their actions. By not using your reason, you may forget to test your action against the principles that keep unfettered desire in check.

Your Risk is where you may be overbearing by expecting that people think just like you. Your risk is being calculating. When faced with conflict, you believe that every decision can be reduced to a cost-benefit analysis that supports you getting what you want, as you try to balance your short-term goals with your long-term objectives. In doing your calculations, you may fail to respect the humanity and desires of others. While economic utilitarianism has a place, human beings have more complex desires than simply maximizing their own economic status—after all, many things do not have a monetary value. If you assume that everyone wants the same things that you do, you may forget to ask others what they want or fail to honor their wishes.

Your Double Standard is the rationalization you use to

justify unethical actions. Your double standard is expedience, making choices based on what is politic or personally advantageous. Humans are skilled at deflecting blame if caught being unethical—taking actions that do not live into personal or communal expectations and that thwart human thriving. As you view the world through the Results Lens, you judge the ethics of yourself and others by whether the actions help you achieve your desired goals.

When you are tempted to be unethical, your will be tempted to deflect blame with the double standard of expedience—making choices based on what is advantageous to you and those close to you, rather than pursuing excellence. Also, believing that the show is more important than substance, you might substitute acquiring material goods for the richness of living a good life. Failure comes as you realize that no one ever has enough “stuff” to satisfy the deepest longings of the heart.

Your Vice is the quality of being that could result in you being intentionally or carelessly lured into unethical action. Your vice could be becoming greedy and failing to moderate desires. Vices come into play when we know that the actions we are considering are not ethical and choose to follow that particular path anyway. These unethical choices illumine our very human moral flaw that, if not acknowledged and resisted, may turn unethical choices into habits.

While unethical action can come from being unaware, humans also have moral flaws that, if not acknowledged, may turn unethical choices into habits. Because you have a considered preference for sensibility, your strong desires fuel greed and recklessness. Without a measure of humility and reflection, you could seek only to satisfy your own unmoderated desires, regardless of the impact on others.

With a considered preference for autonomy, you may also succumb to envy and jealousy. By focusing on your lack instead of celebrating your own abundance, you may inadvertently forget to share from your resources—which need not be money—and fail to help others reach their goals.

Your Crisis is the circumstance that causes you to stop and evaluate your ethical choices. Your crisis may be failure, precipitated by facing your inability to meet deeply desired goals. As you continue to walk the Path of the Hero, you will at some point face a personal crisis as you acknowledge your inability to meet seemingly rational goals. Believing that all things are possible in a fundamentally good world, you become so committed to reaching your goals that failure can be overwhelming.

Confronted with failure that causes an unraveling of your world, you may wind up on a slippery slope to unethical behavior—neither considering those who have entrusted their life journey to you nor paying attention to those who offer thoughtful advice. Many who have been found guilty of financial misconduct began with one small transaction that they thought that they could “make right” without anyone knowing the difference.

Strategies for Ethical Agility and Ethical Maturity Resolving ethical conflict is an ongoing as well as challenging task. Because our personal morals and community ethics come from our deeply held values, we must approach the problems mindfully. Great self-knowledge helps us identify the values that are in conflict. Listening respectfully to others as they express their preferred course of action based on their core values also helps. Seeking harmony between our personal expectations and the behavior that the community rewards enhances ethical effectiveness and leads to ethical maturity, the ability to live in personal integrity while respecting the value priorities of and caring for both other individuals and the community as a whole.

Ethical agility is measured by our ability to use all four ethical lenses effectively. We develop ethical agility as we practice looking at the world through different ethical lenses, become more aware of the places where we are tempted to be unethical, and remember to ask the core questions that define each ethical perspective.

Follow the checklist for action

Ethical courage involves not just analyzing and reflecting—but also taking action. Pausing to check a proposed action against the value priorities of Results Lens is a good final step for people from every ethical perspective. Using the checklist from each lens ensures a balanced decision, one that considers the core values and commitment of each lens.

Remember to make choices that will contribute to both you and others achieving a good life. Focus on the abundance you want to create for yourself and others. Expect good results from your actions and you’ll be more likely to get those results. Ask people what will make them happy. Remember that each person has different goals and criteria for happiness. Hold people accountable for their choices. Encourage people to think through the consequences of their choices. And then when choices are made, honor them and be willing to live with the outcomes—whether good, bad, or ugly.

As you become skilled at using your ethical magnifying glass to identify the goals you wish to pursue in this life and moderate your desires, you will find yourself in good company with others who follow the Path of the Hero on their journey through life.

Develop ethical agility Ethical agility is the ability to use all four ethical lenses—and the center perspective—effectively. You become more ethically agile as you practice looking at the world through different ethical lenses, become more aware of the places where you are tempted to be unethical, and remember to ask the core questions that define each ethical perspective.

Recognize the language of the different lenses As you read about different approaches to ethics, you can pick up the subtle clues to other people’s ethical perspectives by the words they choose to describe the problems and the reasons for their proposed course of action. To learn more about the other ethical lenses, read the information about each ethical lens under the tab Ethical Lenses on the menu bar or review the descriptions of the ethical traits for each lens under the tab Traits. You can also print the document “Overview Four Ethical Lenses” found under the Ethical Lens tab to have a quick reference guide to all four ethical perspectives.

Use all the ethical perspectives Each ethical lens has a unique perspective on both the way to solve a problem as well as the specific characteristics of the most appropriate solution. To learn more about how each ethical perspective approaches ethical dilemmas, click Lens in the top navigation bar and read through the descriptions of each ethical lens.

Ethical agility is the first step towards ethical maturity, a life-long process of becoming ever more self-aware and learning how to move with dignity and grace in our community. As we move from fear into confidence, from thinking only of our self to considering others and the community as a whole, we gain ethical wisdom—a primary task of life as we seek that which is True and Good to find the Beautiful.

If you want to learn more about the how to understand and effectively use your ethical profile, please refer to The Ethical Self, by Catharyn Baird and Jeannine Niacaris (2016).

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Ethical Lens Inventory

Irasema

1/1/0001

10/27/2018

Your preferred ethical lens is: Results Lens

Considered Sensibility and Considered Autonomy (CSCA)

Your Primary Values show how you prioritize the tension between rationality and sensibility as well as autonomy and equality.

Your primary values are Sensibility and Autonomy

Know Yourself

Pay attention to your beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.

Understanding Your Ethical Lens

The Snapshot gives you a quick overview of your ethical lens.

Your snapshot shows you pursuing your ethical goals.

Your Ethical Path is the method you use to become ethically aware and mature.

Your ethical path is the Path of the Hero.

Your Vantage Point describes the overall perspective you take to determine what behaviors best reflect your values.

The icon that represents your preferred vantage point is a magnifying glass.

Your Ethical Self is the persona the theorists invite you to take on as you resolve the ethical problem.

Your ethical self is a particular person with specific desires and life goals.

Your Classical Virtue is the one of the four virtues identified by Greek philosophers you find the most important to embody.

Your classical virtue is Prudence—making wise decisions in everyday affairs.

Your Key Phrase is the statement you use to describe your ethical self.

Your key phrase is “I make wise choices that support a good life.”

Using the Results Lens

Deciding what is Ethical is the statement that describes your preferred method for defining what behaviors and actions are ethical.

Individuals use their emotion and passion to determine the goals they wish to pursue.

Your Ethical Task is the process you prefer to use to resolve ethical dilemmas.

Your ethical task is to identify ideal goals, the long-term results that will lead to a good life.

Your Analytical Tool is your preferred method for critically thinking about ethical dilemmas.

Your preferred analytical tool is experience.

Your Foundational Question helps you determine your ethical boundaries.

Your foundational question is “What would make me happy?”

Your Aspirational Question helps you become more ethically mature.

Your aspirational question is “What are mutually good results?”

Your Justification for Acting is the reason you give yourself and others to explain your choice.

Your justification for acting is “I found a win-win solution that respects everyone.”

Strengths of the Results Lens

Your Gift is the insight you provide yourself and others as we seek to be ethical.

Your gift is free will.

Your Contemporary Value is the current ethical value you most clearly embody.

Your contemporary value is seeking the greatest good.

Your Secondary Values are those that logically flow from your primary values.

Your secondary values focus on maximizing opportunities to support a fulfilled, purposeful life.

Challenges of the Results Lens

Your Blind Spot is the place you are not ethically aware and so may unintentionally make an ethical misstep.

Your blind spot is being satisfied with too little good.

Your Risk is where you may be overbearing by expecting that people think just like you.

Your risk is being calculating.

Your Double Standard is the rationalization you use to justify unethical actions.

Your double standard is expedience, making choices based on what is politic or personally advantageous.

Your Vice is the quality of being that could result in you being intentionally or carelessly lured into unethical action.

Your vice could be becoming greedy and failing to moderate desires.

Your Crisis is the circumstance that causes you to stop and evaluate your ethical choices.

Your crisis may be failure, precipitated by facing your inability to meet deeply desired goals.

Strategies for Ethical Agility and Ethical Maturity

Follow the checklist for action

Develop ethical agility

Recognize the language of the different lenses

Use all the ethical perspectives

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