PHL-323
February 20, 2012
Frank Campbell

At the core, one’s personal beliefs are what makes up one’s value system or what could be called their personal ethics structure. One’s personal values, or ethics structure, are developed over a lifetime and is ever evolving. There are many factors that come into play during the development of one’s ethics structure. The process begins at childhood. The people that a person comes into contact with, influences inside the home such as parents, siblings, and neighbors. As one grows older and ventures out into the world outside the home teachers, friends and even enemies all help to shape one’s value system. Any type of communication with anyone that we come in contact with
Sports played a huge role in the person that I am today. As a youth I participated in many sports. Playing sports and being on team taught me about sacrifice, teamwork and working hard so that the team can succeed above the individual. As a youth I had my parents to look up too. I respected them and did what they said. My father served in the military and coached youth sports, my mother raised children, went back to school to finish her education and became an educator. These were my first influences. Good.
As I entered my adolescent years, my world expanded beyond my front yard. As I got older, I was afforded the ability to experience more of my neighborhood and more of my town. I came into contact with many more people and was subjected to many different ideals. Some of the ideals I experienced were bad, but many of them good. As I entered into high school my grandfather’s health began to decline rapidly. I consider my grandparents to be my greatest influences. My grandfather is the one that I credit most with the content of my character. Character is the moral actions based on duty-driven ethical principles. These include trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship (Josephson Institute, 2009).Through the years my grandfather taught me many lessons. Many of those lessons he learned in the military, but the lesson that he deemed most important was to be an honest man. One of