PHL 218 Project Guidelines and Rubric
Competencies
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:
- Explain how ethical frameworks aid in understanding human actions
- Explain how cultural differences affect ethical decision-making
- Analyze the ethical considerations related to an issue
Overview
We live in a global society with complex issues. These issues come with ethical dilemmas that must be considered if we are to address them effectively. We must take a broader approach by working with people from diverse cultures, perspectives, and ethical standards. Recognizing that these perspectives and norms may differ from our own, our decision-making process must be open to understanding and possibly integrating these different views. To do that, we must recognize our ethical and cultural biases and open ourselves up to working with the different ethical frameworks and cultural biases that we might encounter.
Earlier in this course, you examined the differences between professional and global ethics and the different ideologies of ethical thinking as they relate in a global society. Throughout the term, you’ve completed assignments that examined a single global ethical issue from different perspectives and expressed your own personal ethical standards as you understand them.
Directions
For this project, you will look at the background of ethics as it relates to your chosen topic and complete your detailed examination of that topic by applying the ethical frameworks you feel are most significant to the topic, including your own. Then you will reflect on your process of ethical decision making and look at your chosen topic from a different ethical perspective that may not reflect your own.
Specifically, you must address the following:
Part One: Summarize the Background of Ethics
In this section, you will look at the background of ethics, how ethics differ based on ideologies, and why frameworks of ethics are used throughout various cultures. Briefly introduce your chosen topic and describe the key ethical questions related to it.
- Human Actions: Explain how ethical frameworks are related to human actions.
- How do ethical frameworks influence human actions?
- How do morals and values differ from ethics?
- Professional Ethics and Global Ethics:Â Describe the difference between professional ethics and global ethics.
- Western, Eastern, and Indigenous or Tribal Ethical Ideologies: Describe the difference between Western, Eastern, and Indigenous or Tribal ethical ideologies.
- Why have cultures developed ethical frameworks?
- What are the characteristics of Western ethical ideologies?
- What are the characteristics of Eastern ethical ideologies?
- What are the characteristics of Indigenous or Tribal ethical ideologies?
- What are the differences between Western, Eastern, and Indigenous or Tribal ethical ideologies?
- Using an Ethical Framework:Â Explain the purpose of using an ethical framework as it relates to your topic.
- What purposes does an ethical framework serve?
- How does culture influence the creation of an ethical framework?
Part Two: Analyze Your Chosen Topic
In this section, you will look at how ethics inform and influence decisions.
- Ethical Framework: Explain how your chosen topic is framed by an ethical framework.
- Decision Making: Explain which ethical frameworks have influenced the historical decision making regarding your chosen topic.
- Impact of Ethical Decisions: Discuss the impact of ethical decisions on your chosen topic.
- Alternative Perspective: Discuss the ethical topic from an alternative perspective from your own.
- For example, if your perspective is from a Western ethical ideology, how would you look at this topic from the perspective of Eastern or Indigenous Tribal ethical ideology?
- How would you explain, from an ethical perspective, the validity of this alternative perspective?
Part Three: Reflect on Ethical Decision Making
In this section, you will reflect on the process of your ethical decision making. You will not be providing a solution for a problem, but looking at the steps you would take, or should take, in discussing, examining, and evaluating the ethical aspects of possible outcomes.
- Individual Morals and Values: Describe ways that your cultural influences shape your morals and values.
- Biases: Explain how your cultural or individual biases impact the ethical decisions about your chosen topic.
- Cultural Influence on Ethical Decisions: Discuss ways that your cultural influences impact your ethical decisions when considering your chosen topic.
- Diverse Perspectives: Explain how diverse ethical perspectives can add value when working toward addressing your chosen topic.
What to Submit
Use the Project Template to create your paper and submit it for grading. Your submission should be a 4- to 6-page Microsoft Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Use at least five sources, including videos and textbook resources from this course, and any additional sources from the Shapiro Library. Sources used should be cited according to APA style both throughout and at the end of your paper.
Although Brightspace allows the addition of video notes in assignment submissions, you may not use the Video Note tool to complete this assignment.
Supporting Materials
The following resource supports your work on the project:
Reading: Project Resources
This resource contains various focuses to base your topic on. Each area has ideas and resources for the specific theme you can base your project on.
AI Usage
If you use gen AI tools to support your work on this assignment, be sure to follow these AI usage guidelines. You must acknowledge your use of these tools in your work. Guidelines on how to cite AI tools can be found in this Shapiro Library guide.
Project Rubric
| Criteria | Exceeds Expectations (100%) | Meets Expectations (85%) | Partially Meets Expectations (55%) | Does Not Meet Expectations (0%) | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Background: Human Actions | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Explains how ethical frameworks are related to human actions | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include explaining the relationship of ethical frameworks to human actions or describing in more detail the human actions that are related to ethical frameworks | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Background: Professional Ethics and Global Ethics | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Describes the difference between professional and global ethics | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include describing professional and global ethics or describing the differences in more detail | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Background: Western, Eastern, and Indigenous or Tribal Ethical Ideologies | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Describes the difference between Western, Eastern, and Indigenous or Tribal ethical ideologies | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include describing Western, Eastern, and Indigenous or Tribal ethical ideologies or describing the differences in more detail | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Background: Using an Ethical Framework | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Explains the purpose of using an ethical framework as it relates to chosen topic | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include relating how a culture has influenced the ethical framework or providing more details on the ethical framework that relates to chosen topic | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Analyze: Ethical Framework | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Explains how the chosen topic is framed by an ethical framework | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include explaining how the topic is impacted by the ethical framework or more details about the ethical framework | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Analyze: Decision Making | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Explains which ethical frameworks have influenced the historical decision making regarding the chosen topic | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include explaining which ethical frameworks have influenced the historical decision making regarding the topic or providing evidence for the answer | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Analyze: Impact of Ethical Decisions | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Discusses the impact of ethical decisions on the chosen topic | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include discussing the ethical decisions or more details about how those decisions impact the topic | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Analyze: Alternative Perspective | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Discusses the ethical topic from an alternative perspective | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include discussing the alternative perspective in greater detail or providing information about the differing perspective in relation to the ethical topic | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Reflect: Individual Morals and Values | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Describes ways that cultural influences shape morals and values | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include describing the cultural influences that impact individual morals and values or providing greater context about the morals and values that are influenced by culture | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Reflect: Biases | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Explains how cultural or individual biases impact the ethical decisions made about chosen topic | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include explaining the biases that impact ethical decisions or explaining how the ethical decisions made are impacted by biases | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Reflect: Cultural Influence on Ethical Decisions | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Discusses ways that cultural influences impact ethical decisions when considering chosen topic | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include discussing the cultural influences that impact ethical decisions or providing greater context about how the ethical decisions made were impacted by cultural influences | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Reflect: Diverse Perspectives | Exceeds expectations in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Explains how diverse ethical perspectives can add value when working toward addressing chosen topic | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include explaining how diverse perspectives are considered in addressing the topic or providing greater context in addressing the topic from multiple perspectives | Does not attempt criterion | 7.5 |
| Clear Communication | Exceeds expectations with an intentional use of language that promotes a thorough understanding | Consistently and effectively communicates in an organized way to a specific audience | Shows progress toward meeting expectations, but communication is inconsistent or ineffective in a way that negatively impacts understanding | Shows no evidence of consistent, effective, or organized communication | 5 |
| Citations and Attributions | Uses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with few or no minor errors | Uses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with consistent minor errors | Uses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with major errors | Does not use citations for ideas requiring attribution | 5 |
| Total: | 100% | ||||