ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the personality traits and behaviors that we feel would characterize the "ideal" ethical individual. This approach to ethics is psychologically based and, therefore, ethical behaviors are those that have positive rather than negative effects on a person’s sense of well-being. Cursed with the conscious awareness of the existential realities of aloneness and death, humans are a frightened species. The choice to live a relatively undefended and ethical lifestyle presents each person with an essential paradox. However, responding emotionally to real events in life rather than retreating to a self-protective posture makes one more susceptible to real suffering. The person who lives according to practical wisdom attains eudaimonia , and is accounted virtuous, where the virtues are such traits of character as courage, temperance, liberality, justice and honesty. Research shows that in marriages where verbal communications contradict nonverbal cues, partners report a high degree of marital dissatisfaction.
