ASSIGNMENT #2Recognizing and Responding to JustificationsThis assignment offers you the opportunity to think more deeply about an incident, an unethical choice, in your life; eitheryour AI incident or some other time in your life when you knowingly violated one of the core principles of integrity(honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness and trustworthiness). You will look at the contributing factors including personalweaknesses and external obstacles as well as justifications for the incident. You will also respond to those justificationswhile drawing on your personal values and the values associated with integrity.PART ITo begin, decide what incident of unethical behavior in your life you would like to explore further: your academic integrityviolation or a different past incident in which you knowingly violated a core principle of integrity. In just one or twosentences, explain the incident. Explicitly state what you did and which value(s) of integrity your action(s) went against.PART IIA. Contributing FactorsLooking at the incident, write about what external frustrations, challenges or obstacles (ie. circumstances beyond yourcontrol such as being ill for two weeks) might have contributed to your choice(s) and interfered with your ethicaldecision-making? Detail at least two.Thinking about yourself, what weaknesses did/do you have that may have contributed to your choice(s) and interfered withyour ethical decision-making? Detail at least two.B. JustificationsWhen we make a choice that is inconsistent with our core beliefs and values, we often try to justify the behavior to makeourselves feel better.How did you justify your choices and lack of ethical decision-making? What did you say to yourself before, during andafter the incident to make yourself feel better or correct in your course of action (eg. “I needed a good grade because I wantto get into grad school”, “It is none of my business so I won’t get involved”)?List at least three. Write several sentences for each justification, exploring them in detail, explaining how each is connectedto the action you took.Do these justifications sound familiar to you? Have you used these before in other situations (is there a pattern)? If not,write about at least two other justifications that you have more typically used to try to excuse choices or behavior.PART IIIA. Responding to JustificationsThinking about your core beliefs and values as well as the values associated with integrity, respond to at least three of yourmost common justifications, writing at least a paragraph for each. Answer the following questions as part of your response:●Are there assumptions (eg. “I will fail if I don’t do this”) or lies (eg. “No one else will be hurt by this) underlyingthose justifications? If yes, explain. Or perhaps there is actually truth in the justifications (ie. You were reallyoverwhelmed with other work at the time), but that truth does not excuse or justify the behavior/choice. Explain why.●Also, think about what you could have done instead in this situation and explain.●Lastly, write about what you can do in the future to confront justifications before they lead you to an unethical choice.The DRAFT is due uploaded to Canvas by 11:59pm the night before our fourth seminar meeting. You must uploadyour revised assignment to Canvas by 11:59pm one week after our final meeting.
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