Which term refers to standards of what is right or wrong with regard to important social values and norms?

• A. Ethics
• B. Applied ethics
• C. Ethical Principles
• D. Morals

Answer: (C)

Ethical principles are the standards that define what is right or wrong in light of important social values and norms. They serve as concrete guidelines that professionals and societies use to evaluate actions and guide decision-making. This makes them more specific than ethics, which is the broader study of moral values and rules, and more actionable than morals, which refer to personal or cultural beliefs about right and wrong. Applied ethics is about using these principles to work through real-world dilemmas, but the foundational idea is that ethical principles provide the criteria by which actions are judged.