Ethics V

Delhi Law Academy

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Definition

•            Emotional intelligence (El), refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups – Mayer & Salovey, 1997

•            Emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions, well in ourselves and in our relationships – Goleman, 1998

Models of Emotional Intelligence (El):

There are three main models of emotional intelligence:

•            Ability model

•            Mixed model

•            Trait model

I.            Ability Model

•            The Ability model by Salovey and Mayer perceives El as a form of pure intelligence.

•            It regards El as a cognitive ability.

•            As per Mayer and Salovey, El is the ability:

•            To perceive emotions

•            To generate emotions to assist thought

•            To understand emotions

•            To effectively regulate emotions to promote emotional as well as intellectual growth.

Hence, Mayer and Salovey identified four areas (branches) of El:

1.           Perceiving emotions

•            the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts—including the ability to identify one’s own emotions.

•            Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of emotional intelligence, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.

2.           Reasoning with emotions

•            the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem solving

•            The emotionally intelligent person can capitalize fully upon his or her changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand.

3.           Understanding emotions

•            the ability to comprehend emotion language and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions.

•            For example, understanding emotions encompasses the ability to be sensitive to slight variations between emotions, and the ability to recognize and describe how emotions evolve over time.

4.           Managing emotions

•            the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others.

•            Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.

Measurement:

•            As the model considers El as a type of cognitive ability, these El tests are modelled on ability- based tests.

•            The current measure of Mayer and Salovey’s model of El, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) is based on a series of emotion-based problem-solving items.

II.           Mixed Model:

•            Includes two models:

•            Reuven Bar-On Model

•            El model by Daniel Goleman

Reuven Bar-On Model

•            Reuven Bar-On (1988) considered El in the framework of personality theory, specifically a model of well-being.

•            The model focuses on a range of emotional and social abilities, including the ability to be aware of, understand, and express oneself, the ability to be aware of, understand, and relate to others, the ability to deal with strong emotions, and the ability to adapt to change and solve problems of a social or personal nature.

•            Bar-On model has five components of El:

•            Intrapersonal

•            Interpersonal

•            Adaptability

•            Stress management

•            General mood

•            This model postulates that El develops over time and that it can be improved through training, programming, and therapy.

El model by Daniel Goleman

•            The model introduced by Daniel Goleman and focuses on El as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance.

•            Goleman’s model outlines five main El constructs:

1.           Self-awareness

•            the ability to know one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and goals and recognize their impact on others while using gut feelings to guide decisions.

2.           Self-regulation

•            involves controlling or redirecting one’s disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.

3.           Social skill

•            managing relationships to move people in the desired direction

4.           Empathy

•            considering other people’s feelings especially when making decisions

5.           Motivation

•            being driven to achieve for the sake of achievement.

•            Goleman includes a set of emotional competencies within each construct of EI.

•            Emotional competencies are not innate talents, but rather learned capabilities that must be worked on and can be developed to achieve outstanding performance.

III.          Trait Model:

•            This model was proposed by K V Petrides.

•            He defined the trait model as “a constellation of emotional self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality.”

•            Trait model is based on an individual’s self-perceptions of their emotional abilities.

Measurement:

•            Trait Model uses personality framework to investigate trait El.

RIT and RIN

•            The ancient Indian sources of knowledge are Vedas, which consist of Samhitas, Brahmanas and Aranyakas. Among the Samhitas, Rigveda Samhita is the oldest and serves as a source for rest of the vedic literature. Rita (Rit \ Rta) is the most dominant ethical concept in the Rigveda. It is considered as the origin of Indian ethical thought.

•            As enshrined in Rigveda, Rit is a universal order, both cosmic and moral. Rit stands for the infallible order found natural phenomena, and it is also the moral order that gods and men are to conduct themselves. The vedic idea of Nature is not disconnected with man’s social and personal experiences and thus Rit forms a complex idea of Cosmic-Moral order.

•            In its cosmic aspect, it is due to Rit that the the sky and the earth are firm, sun rises, waters flow, cows yield milk. In other words, everything is what it is and how it is due to the working of Rit. It is the law that regulates the universe.

•            In its moral aspect, Rit is the order because of which gods and men lived in harmony. Rit constituted the ethical standard which had a direct impact on the lives of the Vedic people. The Rigveda identified Vanina as the guardian of Rita. Varuna accompanied by Mitra, governed all the gods through Rit. Adityas are said to be the spies of Varuna who observed the moral conduct of men.

Dharma

•            In the post-Rigvedic thought (later Vedic era), Rit was overshadowed by the concept of Dharma. While Rit was connected with gods who uphold and execute the Cosmic Order, Dhrama acquired independence from gods and became an autonomous ethical order. It now became a duty of individual to follow the path of dharma to preserve oneself.

•            Alternatively, Dharma also denoted the moral pursuit of man. It was one of the four objects of human pursuit (purusartha), the other three being Artha (wealth), Kama (desired pleasures) and Moksa (spiritual liberation).

Rin / Rna

•            The word Rin (Rna) refers to ‘being in debt’

•            Moksha was considered as the ultimate goal of an individual’s life. Moksha means attainment of bliss in life after death.The moksha could be achieved only when an individual has fulfilled his duties toward the different sections of the society, towards some person and also toward the gods. This understanding gave birth to the doctrine of three Rins.

•            In the Vedic conception, every human being by birth carries this baggage of Rin.

Taittiriya Samhita speaks about three types of Rins.  They are:

•            Rishi Rin – The debt owed to those who founded the religious life and gave education and learning. The debt was paid by studying Vedas.

•            Pitra Rin – Signifies indebtedness to one’s ancestors. It was repaid by performing duties of a grahastha ashrama.

 •           Dev Rin – This debt was repaid by performing sacrifices (yajna) to God

The Shathapatha Brahmana adds one more Rin; the debt one owes to his fellow beings.

Only when a man has paid his debts to rishi, pitra and deva in first three stage of his life, he could aspire for salvation and enter the last stage of sanyasa ashrama.

PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF INTEGRITY

Public Service

•            The term public service carries different meanings. The first meaning of ‘public service’ is in the sense of a public utility, i.e., it refers to the kind of services governments commonly provide- electricity, healthcare, maintenance of law and order, urban and rural infrastructure, etc.- where the prime criteria of success are availability, affordability and accessibility of services.

•            In this connection, the delivery of public service means the goods and services offered by government institutions to the public, and it includes the interface between the citizen and the administration.

•            A public service is a service which is provided by government to people. Services are provided or supported by a government or its agencies. Public service is done to help people rather than to make a profit.

•            A public service may sometimes have the characteristics of a public good (being non-rivalrous and non-excludable i.e. individuals cannot be effectively excluded from use and where use by one individual does not reduce availability to others), but most cases public services are services.

•            Second meaning of public service refers to all the public functionaries including all those working in the army as well as the judiciary and the executive.

Probity

•            Probity is the evidence of ethical behaviour in a particular process. The term probity means integrity, uprightness and honesty. For Government employees and agencies, maintaining probity involves more than simply avoiding corrupt or dishonest conduct. It involves applying public sector values such as impartiality, accountability and transparency.

•            Probity is also regarded as being incorruptible. However, probity goes further than the avoidance of being dishonest because it is determined by intangibles like personal and societal values. It is also regarded as strict adherence to a code of ethics based on undeviating honesty, especially in commercial (monetary) matters and beyond legal requirements.

•           Ensuring probity in public services is part of every public official’s duty to adopt processes, practices and behaviour that enhance and promote public service values.

Probity in Governance

•            Apart from the traditional civil service values of efficiency, integrity, accountability and patriotism, it is necessary for civil servants to inculcate and adopt ethical and moral values including probity in public life, respect for human rights and compassion for the downtrodden and commitment to their welfare.

•            Probity in governance is an essential and vital requirement for an efficient and effective system of governance and for socio-economic development. An important requisite for ensuring probity in governance is absence of corruption.

•            The other requirements are effective laws, rules and regulations governing every aspect of public life and, more important, an effective and fair implementation of those laws, etc.

Probity Principles

•            There are several generally accepted probity principles that serve to maintain the integrity of a process. These are:

•            Accountability: It is the obligation to be able to explain or account for the way duties have been performed. Government should have appropriate mechanisms in place to show that they are accountable for their practices and decisions.

•            Transparency: It is important that the process is transparent to the maximum extent possible so that all stakeholders can have confidence in the outcomes. Transparent, open processes also minimise the opportunity for, and the risk of, fraud and corruption.

•           Confidentiality: As a condition of employment, all public servants are under a general obligation of confidentiality to their employer. All Government advisors, members and any other third party that is privy to commercially sensitive information must provide a formal undertaking to Government that they will keep this information confidential.

•            Management of Conflicts of Interest: A conflict of interest arises where an individual associated with the process is, through their particular associations or circumstances, influenced, or perceived to be influenced, to obtain an unfair advantage for him or herself or another party. Conflicts of interest are often unavoidable.

•            However, provided they are identified early and dealt with effectively, they need not prejudice the process. It is important to ensure that individuals associated with the process are aware of how a conflict of interest arises and their responsibilities to report conflicts, ensure conflicts are adequately addressed, and ensure the manner in which they have been addressed is adequately documented.

•            Policies to deal with potential conflicts of interest should be established at the outset, rather than attempting to manage such issues on an ad-hoc basis as they arise.

Philosophical Basis of Governance and Probity

•            The ethical concerns of governance have been underscored widely in Indian scriptures and other treatises such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagvad Gita, Buddha Charita, Arthashastra, Panchatantra, Manusmriti, Hitopadesh etc.

•            Also the maxims on ethical governance were provided by the Chinese philosophers such as Lao Tse, Confucius and Mencius.

•            In the Western philosophy, there are three eminent schools of ethics.

1.           The first, inspired by Aristotle, holds that virtues (such as justice, charity and generosity) are dispositions to act in ways that benefit the possessor of these virtues and the society of which he is a part.

2.           The second, subscribed to mainly by Immanual Kant, makes the concept of duty central to morality:

human beings are bound, from knowledge of their duty as rational beings, to obey the categorical imperative to respect other rational beings with whom they interact.

3.           The third is the utilitarian viewpoint that asserts that the guiding principle of conduct should be the greatest happiness (or benefit) of the greatest number.

•            The Western thought is full of ethical guidelines to rulers, whether in a monarch or a democracy. These concerns are found in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Penn, John Stuart Mill, Edmund Burke, and others.

•            The gist of wisdom on administrative ethics is that the public administrators are the “guardians” of the Administrative state. Hence, they are expected to honour public trust and not violate it.

•            Two crucial questions raised in this context are “why should guardians be guarded? And “Who guards the guardian?” The administrators need to be guarded against their tendency to misconceive public interest, promote self-interest, indulge in corruption and cause subversion of national interest. And they need to be guarded by the external institutions such as the judiciary, legislature, political executive, media and civil society, organisations. These various modes of control become instruments of accountability.

•            The current discipline of public administration accords primacy to the ‘values’ of equity, justice, humanism, human rights, gender equality and compassion. The movement of Good Governance, initiated by the World Bank in 1992, lays stress on the ethical and moral conduct of administrators.

•            While the New Public Management movement is more concerned with administrative effectiveness, the New Public Administration focuses on administrative ethics in its broader manifestation. Both the movements are complementary to each other. This complementarity of foci is as truer today as it was a hundred years ago when the industrial world was experiencing the rise of Scientific Management amidst a strong acceptance of the notion of administrative responsibility.

•            John Kennedy, during his Presidency of USA (1961-1963) had averred: “No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the higher standards of ethical behavior”.

•            The ideal-type construction of bureaucracy, propounded by Max Weber also highlighted an ethical imperative of bureaucratic behaviour. Weber (1947) observed: In the rational type, it is a matter of principle that the members of the administrative staff should be completely separated from ownership of the means of production and administration. Officials, employees and workers attached to the administrative staff do not themselves own the non-human means of production and administration. There exists, furthermore, in principle complete separation of property belonging to the organisation, which is controlled within the sphere of office, and the personal property of the official, which is available for his own private uses.

Objective of Probity in Governance

•            To ensure accountability in governance;

•            To maintain integrity in public services;

•            To ensure compliance with processes;

•            To preserve public confidence in Government processes;

•            To avoid the potential for misconduct, fraud and corruption.

Difference between Amoral and Immoral:

•            Amoral is someone who is not aware (doesn’t know) how to differentiate between what is wrong and what is right. An amoral person has no sense of care or conscience whether the act he is doing is morally wrong.

•            On the other hand, immoral is someone who does things that aren’t good enough in the moral sense. Thus, this person continues to do things even if he knows it is really wrong.

STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

•            There are many simple ways to combat stress.

•            We can club these methods of stress management in two broad categories:

•            Self Help methods

•            Learnt Methods

Self-Help Methods:

•            This category covers ways of managing stress by observing its cause and effect relationship with our response and thereby controlling., eliminating or reducing the intensity of stressor.

•            Another way to handle ill-effect of stress is to regulate our response to the stressor by either delaying the response or reducing the intensity of response.

•            For, e.g., if you get exhausted by driving through traffic jam and experience ‘commuting stress’. It is better to start little early to avoid heavy traffic hours or to use charted bus and listen to some relaxing music or enjoy recreational reading.

•            It is essential to identify the stressors and be creative in handling them.

•            Many of our stress related reactions are due to minor, chronic and unattended health problems.

•            Therefore, it is important to value and enhance well-being, by attending to health problems and getting proper treatment for them.

•            Taking care of health would reduce the number of stressors.

•            Another way of managing stress is to change your lifestyle and adapting new ways of viewing the world.

•            A lot depends on how we view the world. It is essential to be optimistic and be objective in viewing the situation.

•            It helps to plan an effective management of the situation without causing damage to physical and mental health. This method is a self-help method, where we learn to view a situation from different viewpoints.

•            Lots of stressors can be eliminated and nullified by objectively evaluating their nuisance value and by simply ignoring or overlooking them.

•            Sometimes we react blindly to the situation.

•            Instead, we should act rationally and identify the stressor and look for alternative modes of handling these stressors.

•            A balanced diet, sufficient sleep, some physical exercises, yoga, little entertainment and good insight can help adapt to many stressors.

•            Regular exercise can provide an active outlet for the physiological arousal experienced in response to stress.

•            Regular exercise improves the efficiency of the heart, enhances the function of the lungs, maintains good circulation, lowers blood pressure, reduces fat in the blood and improves the body’s immune system.

•            Swimming, walking, running, cycling, skipping, etc. help to reduce stress.

Learnt Methods:

•            There are many other methods of stress management that can be learnt with the help of professionals. Few of these are:

•            Relaxation training

•            Bio feedback

•            Systematic desensitization

•            Creative Visualization

•            Cognitive Behavioural Techniques

•            Meditation Procedures

•            Hypnosis

Relaxation training

•            It is an active skill that reduces symptoms of stress and decreases the incidence of illnesses such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Usually relaxation starts from the lower part of the body and progresses up to the facial muscles in such a way that the whole body is relaxed.

•            Deep breathing is used along with muscle relaxation to calm the mind and relax the body.

Bio feedback

•            It is a procedure to monitor and reduce the physiological aspects of stress by providing feedback about current physiological activity and is often accompanied by relaxation training. Biofeedback training involves three stages :

•            Developing an awareness of the particular physiological response, e.g. heart rate

•            Learning ways of controlling that physiological response in quiet conditions and

 •           Transferring that control into the conditions of everyday life.

Systematic desensitization

•            Systematic desensitization is a procedure, in which relaxation and pleasant feelings are learned as conditioned responses to stimuli that once acted as fear producers. Take an example of an individual who is excessively afraid of dogs. Systematic desensitization would start from, may be showing the pictures of a dog, to looking at chained dog, to seeing others play with dog and finally to touching the dog himself. This requires numbers of sessions and the progress will depend on individual’s ability to tolerate the situation and control his reaction.

Creative Visualization

•            It is an effective technique for dealing with stress. Creative visualisation is a subjective experience that uses imagery and imagination. Before visualising one must set oneself a realistic goal, as it helps build confidence. It is easier to visualise if one’s mind is quiet, body relaxed and eyes are closed. This reduces the risk of interference from unbidden thoughts and provides the creative energy needed for turning an imagined scene into reality.

Cognitive Behavioural Techniques

•            These techniques aim to inoculate people against stress. Stress inoculation training is one effective method developed by Meichenbaum.

•            The essence of this approach is to replace negative and irrational thoughts with positive and rational ones.

•            There are three main phases in this: assessment, stress reduction techniques, and application and follow-through. Assessment involves discussing the nature of the problem and seeing it from the viewpoint of the person/client. Stress reduction involves learning the techniques of reducing stress such as relaxation and self-instruction.

Meditation Procedures

•            The logic method of meditation consists of a sequence of learned techniques for refocusing of attention that brings about an altered state of consciousness. It involves such a thorough concentration that the meditator becomes unaware of any outside stimulation and reaches a different state of consciousness.

Hypnosis

•            Hypnosis is also one of the methods used for treating and managing stress. Hypnosis puts the client into a trance like situation where the client is very suggestible. Relaxation instructions used for deep muscle relaxation may include suggestions of drowsiness or deep sleep. This state is called hypnosis.

•            The heightened suggestibility is used to get clients to comply with direct suggestions for behaviour change. Hypnotic treatment is used to stop health threatening habits like smoking or over- eating.