BACHELOR OF PSYCHOLOGY WITH HONOURS (BPSY)

1181 / 2018

OUMM3203

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

MATRICULATION NO: 860427465510001

IDENTITY CARD NO. : 860427465510
TELEPHONE NO. : 013-3664324
E-MAIL : grumik86@oum.edu.my
LEARNING CENTRE : NEGERI SEMBILAN LEARNING
CENTRE

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 It is possible to describe law as the body of official rules and regulations, generally
found in constitutions, legislation, judicial opinions, and the like, that is used to govern a
society and to control the behaviour of its members, so Law is a formal mechanism of
social control. Legal systems are particular ways of establishing and maintaining social
order. The law also can be defined as a consistent set of universal rules established to
govern societal behaviour. These rules are widely published, generally accepted and usually
enforced. Laws must be obeyed whether people like it or not. And since people have no
option when it comes to obeying the laws, it means that laws have to be good so that people
don’t feel the law is a burden.

What are the characteristics of a good law? In order for a law to qualify as a good
law, it must have the following characteristic:

i. Consistent

The requirement to act or not to act have to be consistent to be considered as part

of the law. For example, if two requirements contedict each other, both cannot be
termed as law because obviously people cannot obey both.

ii. Universal
The requirements to act or not act must be universal or applicable to everyone with
similar characteristics and facing the same set of circumstances. This means that the
law must apply to everybody that falls under it in an equal manner. Nobody should
be above a good law. A good law does not discriminate. In the eyes of a good law,
everybody is equal. For example, a billionaire politician should be equal in the eyes
of a good law just like a pauper. A good law is no respector of a person’s status or
position in society.

iii. Published

The requirements to act or not act must be published and put in print so that they
are accessible to everyone within the society. No doubt that not everyone has
the time to read up or understand everything that is published. However, trained

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 professionals such as attorneys are available to interpret and explain the law.
Hence, ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse. All good laws are publicized
in order that the people get to know it. Since ignorance of the law is no excuse, a
good law must be made known to the general public so that the public is aware of
that there is such a law in existence and the consequences of breaking the law.

iv. Accepted

The requirements to act or not act in a given way must be obeyed. If most members
of the society do not voluntarily follow the law, they would have to be compelled to
do so. By being accepted, a good law should not be one that is too harsh or rigid
such that it is very difficult to obey. And sanctions associated with flouting or
disobeying a good law should be reasonable or should equal to the gravity of the
disobeyer’s deeds or actions. This is what is meant by the statement ‘a good law
should be reasonable’.

v. Enforced

The requirements to act or not act in a given way must be enforced. Members of
society have to understand that they will be compelled to obey the law if they do
not do so voluntarily. People have to recognize that if they disobey the law, and if it
is noted and can be proven, they will suffer loss of convenience, time, money,
freedom or life. There is an element of persistence about the law. There is also or
should be an element of certainty as it defines what will happen if we do not follow
rules. An unenforceable law cannot qualify to be a good law. Before any law can
be said to be a good law, then it must have the capability of being enforced. When
a person flouts a good law, the person should be able to be sanctioned
appropriately in order to deter others from also breaking it.

The above are the basic features of a good law. A law that is devoid of any of the
features or characteristics above is not considered a good law.

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 In the modern world, morality and law are almost universally held to be unrelated
fields and, where the term "legal ethics" is used, it is taken to refer to the professional
honesty of lawyers or judges, but has nothing to do with the possible "rightness" or
"wrongness" of particular laws themselves.

The law, as mentioned earlier, may be viewed in ideal terms as a set of universal
and consistent rules that govern human conduct within a society. The question is whether
we can accept these rules as representing the collective moral judgment of members of our
society.

i. If we can, then we have the standards to guide managerial decisions and actions,
even if these standards may be at a minimal level.
ii. If we cannot, then we will have to look elsewhere for our standards.

In considering the possible relationship between moral judgments and legal requirements,
three conclusions can be reached fairly quickly as shown below:

i. Conclusion 1

The requirements of the law overlap to a considerable extent. However, they do not
duplicate the probable moral standards of a society. Clearly, a person who violates
the federal law against bank robbery also violates the moral standard against theft.
It is easy to show that laws governing sexual conduct, narcotics usage, product
liability and contract adherence are similar to the moral beliefs that are probably
held by the majority of people in our society. We can agree that in a democratic
society, legal requirements reflect many of the basic values of the citizens. Thus, we
can say that legal requirements overlap with moral standards. There is also an area
of overlapping between the law and morality as shown in Figure 1

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 Figure 1: Overlapping between moral standards and legal requirements

However, the area of overlapping is not complete. There are some laws that are
morally unresponsive, with no ethical content whatsoever. For example, the
requirement that we drive on the left-hand side of the road is neither right nor
wrong; it is just important that we all agree on which side to drive.

Finally, there are some moral standards that have no legal standing at all. We all
object to lying as it goes against our moral standards. However, truthfulness is not
required by law except in court and under oath, and in a few other specific
instances, such as employment contracts and property sales.

ii. Conclusion 2

The requirements of the law tend to be negative, while the standards of morality are
more often positive. According to the law, we are forbidden to assault, rob or
defame each other. However, we are not required to help people, even in extreme
situations.

For example, there is no law insisting that we must aid a drowning child. Here, we
do have a situation where the moral standards of the majority can be inferred as
most of the adult population in any country would go to the aid of a drowning child,
to the limit of their ability.

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 iii. Conclusion 3

The requirements of the law tend to lag behind the apparent moral standards of
society. Slavery, of course, is the most unpleasant example. However, sexual and
racial discrimination, environmental pollution and bribery in foreign countries can
all be cited as moral problems that were slowly remedied by legislation.

Advocates of the rule of law would say, however, that the evidence of a delay
between apparent moral consensus and enacted legal sanctions does not necessarily
indicate a lack of relationship between legal requirements and moral standards. It
only serves to confirm that relationship, they would claim, for laws controlling
discrimination, pollution and bribery were eventually passed.

The formation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written and

the rights encoded therein. The law shapes politics, economics, history and society in
various ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people. The law are form
through several process as outlined below.
i. Individual Processes

Think of the changes that have occurred in the laws governing employment. This is
essentially the same point made previously, that there seems to be a time lag
between changes in moral standards and changes in legal requirements.
Nevertheless, actions that were considered legal 20 years ago (such as racial and
sexual discrimination in hiring employees, or the discharge of chemical wastes into
lakes and streams) have now become illegal.

The question is whether these changes in law can be attributed to changes in the
moral standards of the majority of our population through social and political
processes, and consequently, whether the law represents the collective moral
standards of our society. The social and political processes by which the changing
moral standards of individual human beings are alleged to become institutionalised

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into the formal legal framework of society is lengthy and complex, but a simplified
version is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Processes by which individual norms, beliefs and values

are institutionalised into law

Each individual has a set of norms, beliefs and values which collectively forms
his or her moral standards as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Individual Moral Standards

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 ii. Group Processes
Context, which means the general background or surrounding environment of a
situation, plays a significant role in the norm, beliefs and values of an individual.
Each individual develops a set of norms, beliefs and values through exposure to:
• Cultural or religious context;
• Social or political context; and
• Economic or technological context.

Each society has a context that consists of inter-related factors as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Six inter-related factors of context

The interwoven nature of the context, within which individual choices of norms,
beliefs and values are made, ensures that all the mentioned factors interact with one
another. As can be seen in Figure 4, technological changes in communication bring political
changes in governance. The political changes cause economic changes in spending and
taxation patterns, which eventually result in cultural changes in personal lifestyle.

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 Figure 4: Interaction of inter-related factors of the context

The exact relationships among economic, technological, social, political, cultural

and religious factors are not known, nor can their combined influences upon an
individual’s norms, beliefs and values be predicted with accuracy. However, the
relationships and influences can easily be observed as shown in the example:

The changing status of women resulted from:

 The economic shift from heavy manufacturing and mining to knowledge-

based and service industries;
 The technological development of better birth-control methods; and
 The social expansion of educational opportunities.

iii. Social Processes

All individuals within a society do not have the same exposure to economic,
technological, social, political, cultural and religious factors. Such exposure comes from:
 Individual positions;
 Family units;
 Peer groups; and
 Formal organisations.

In a democratic society, the changing norms, beliefs and values of individuals

within society do have an apparent, although delayed, impact upon the law. This
impact would appear to be the result of both social and political processes.
Basically, the social process involves accumulation of power. People with similar
norms, beliefs and values tend to become associated in small groups. It is just
natural to join others who have parallel views. These small groups generally are part
of much larger organizations such as:

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  Business firms;
 Labour unions;
 Political parties;
 Charitable agencies;
 Religious institutions; and
 Veteran’s associations.

These larger organisations over time either achieve an acceptable compromise on

norms, beliefs and values or split into smaller organisations that can achieve such a
compromise. There are alternative theories on the means by which this compromise
is formed such as:
 Autocratic decision;
 Bureaucratic adjustment; and
 Coalition bargaining or collective choice.

iv. Political Processes

The political processes by which the norms, beliefs and values held by
organisations, groups and individuals are institutionalised into law can be seen as a
means of resolving conflict. Organisations, groups and individuals have different
opinions on norms (what should be done now) and beliefs (what should be
accomplished in the future).

These different views have to be accustomed to consistent and universal rules to be

effective. The following are alternative theories on the ways this is done:
 Presidential leadership;
 Institutional compromise;
 Congressional bargaining; and
 Constituent pressure.

Elected representatives are formally assigned the responsibility of formulating laws

in a representative system. However, issues differ by sections of the country,
segments of the population and sectors of the economy. Consequently, coalitions
have to be formed to pass most legislation. The public can express opinions on
potential laws by voting for some administrators and all legislators, and indirectly
through public surveys, letters and the media.

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 As conclusion, the law is a set of rules established by a society to govern behavior
within that society. There are five characteristics of the law that is consistent, universal,
published, accepted and enforced. There are four chain processes of formation of the law
individual process, group process, social process and political process. Some changes in the
norms, beliefs and values of individual members of society are eventually reflected by
changes in the law.

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