Empathy and Altruism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric L. Stocks ◽  
David A. Lishner
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Motivational State ◽  
Fruitful Research

The term empathy has been used as a label for a broad range of phenomena, including feeling what another person is feeling, understanding another person’s point of view, and imagining oneself in another person’s situation. However, perhaps the most widely researched phenomenon that goes by this label involves an other-oriented emotional state that is congruent with the perceived welfare of another person. The feelings associated with empathy include sympathy, tenderness, and warmth toward the other person. Other variations of empathic emotions have been investigated too, including empathic joy, empathic embarrassment, and empathic anger. The term altruism has also been used as a label for a broad range of phenomena, including any type of helping behavior, personality traits associated with helpful persons, and biological influences that spur protection of genetically related others. However, a particularly fruitful research tradition has focused on altruism as a motivational state with the ultimate goal of protecting or promoting the welfare of a valued other. For example, the empathy–altruism hypothesis claims that empathy (construed as an other-oriented emotional state) evokes altruism (construed as a motivational state). Empathy and altruism, regardless of how they are construed, have important consequences for understanding human behavior in general, and for understanding social relationships and well-being in particular.

scholarly journals Empathy and Altruism

Psychology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric L. Stocks ◽  
Taylor Clark
Keyword(s):  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Protective Behaviors ◽  
Motivational State ◽  
Fruitful Research

The word empathy has been used as a label for many different phenomena, including feeling what another person is feeling, understanding another person’s point of view, and imagining oneself in another person’s situation. Perhaps the most widely researched phenomenon called “empathy” involves an other-oriented emotional state that is congruent with the perceived welfare of another person. Feelings associated with empathy include sympathy, tenderness, and warmth toward the other person. Other manifestations of empathic emotions have been investigated, too, including empathic joy, empathic embarrassment, and empathic anger. As was the case with empathy, the term altruism has also been used as a label for a broad range of phenomena, including any type of prosocial behavior, as a collection of personality traits associated with helpful persons, and biological influences that evoke protective behaviors toward genetically related others. A particularly fruitful research tradition has focused on altruism as a motivational state with the ultimate goal of protecting or promoting the welfare of a valued other. For example, the empathy–altruism hypothesis claims that empathy (viewed here as an other-oriented emotional state) evokes an altruistic motivational state. Empathy and altruism, regardless of how they are construed, have important consequences for understanding human behavior and social relationships.

scholarly journals Comparative Personality Traits Assessment of Three Species of Communally Housed Captive Penguins

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 376
Author(s):  
Giovanni Quintavalle Pastorino ◽  
Richard Preziosi ◽  
Massimo Faustini ◽  
Giulio Curone ◽  
Mariangela Albertini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Behavioral Characteristics ◽  
Specific Expression ◽  
Fundamental Factor ◽  
Animal Management ◽  
Group Life ◽  
Animal Personalities ◽  
Health And Well Being

Understanding animal personalities has notable implications in the ecology and evolution of animal behavior, but personality studies can also be useful in optimizing animal management, with the aim of improving health and well-being, and optimizing reproductive success, a fundamental factor in the species threatened with extinction. Modern zoos are increasingly being structured with enclosures that host different species, which permanently share spaces. This condition has undeniable positive aspects, but, in some species, it could determine the appearance of collective or synchronized behaviors. The aim of this study was to verify, in a colony of three species of communally housed penguins (Pygoscelis papua, Aptenodytes patagonicus and Eudyptes moseleyi), through a trait-rating assessment, if interspecific group life impacts on the expression of personality traits, and if it is possible to highlight specie-specific expression of personality traits, despite the influence of forced cohabitation. For many of the personality traits we analyzed, we have observed that it was possible to detect an expression that differed, according to the species. From a practical point of view, these data could ameliorate the management of the animals, allowing to design animal life routines, according to the different behavioral characteristics of the cohabiting species.

scholarly journals Loodus tuleb tagasi: delfiinid ja saurused. Libauudistest, photoshop-muistenditest ja meemidest koroonakarantiini ajal

Mäetagused ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 167-184
Author(s):  
Eda Kalmre ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The Social ◽  
Truth Value ◽  
Positive Effect

The article follows the narrative trend initiated by the social media posts and fake news during the first months of the corona quarantine, which claims that the decrease of contamination due to the quarantine has a positive effect on the environment and nature recovery. The author describes the context of the topic and follows the changes in the rhetoric through different genres, discussing the ways in which a picture can tell a truthful story. What is the relation between the context, truth, and rhetoric? This material spread globally, yet it was also readily “translated” into the Estonian context, and – what is very characteristic of the entire pandemic material – when approaching this material, truthful and fabricated texts, photos, and videos were combined. From the folkloristic point of view, these rumours in the form of fake news, first presented in the function of a tall tale and further following the sliding truth scale of legends, constitute a part of coping strategies, so-called crisis humour, yet, on the other hand, also a belief story presenting positive imagery, which surrounds the mainly apocalyptically perceived pandemic period and interprets the human existence on a wider scale. Even if these fake news and memes have no truth value, they communicate an idea – nature recovers – and definitely offer hope and a feeling of well-being.

scholarly journals Fluctuations in mental well-being during Study Abroad

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-243
Author(s):  
Jean-Marc Dewaele ◽  
Livia Dewaele
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Large Fluctuations ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Apparent Stability

Abstract This mixed-methods study focuses on the effect of Study Abroad (SA) on the mental well-being of 33 Anglophone students who spent between four and twelve months in Francophone countries. It investigates the relationship between well-being and personality traits. Statistical analyses revealed no significant change in well-being between the start, the middle and the end of the SA. A closer look at individual patterns showed large fluctuations, with half of participants scoring higher and the other half scoring lower between the start and the middle of the SA. The narratives of three participants whose well-being scores increased most were not very different from the three participants whose well-being scores decreased most, and only (lower) Emotional Stability was linked with the increase in well-being. At the group level, well-being was not significantly linked to personality traits. The apparent stability of well-being during SA seems to be the result of upward and downward patterns cancelling each other out.

scholarly journals Personality traits, workers’ age, and job satisfaction: The moderated effect of conscientiousness

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0252275
Author(s):  
Eleonora Topino ◽  
Annamaria Di Fabio ◽  
Letizia Palazzeschi ◽  
Alessio Gori
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Big Five Personality Traits ◽  
The Other ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Satisfaction Scale

Job satisfaction has gained increasing interest in the world of work and a vast field of research has been stimulated regarding its antecedents. Among these, personality traits have received consistent and significant attention, with a particular emphasis on conscientiousness. To delve deeper and detail these aspects, in the present research, a moderation model was hypothesized, with the aim of investigating the effect of age on the association between conscientiousness (and its subdimensions scrupulousness and perseverance) and job satisfaction. The age-moderated interactions of the other Big Five personality traits were also explored. The study involved 202 Italian workers (92 men, 110 women) with a mean age of 44.82 years (SD = 10.56) who completed the Big Five Questionnaire and the Job Satisfaction Scale. The results showed a positive association between conscientiousness and job satisfaction. This was moderated by age to the extent that it was significant for younger and average-age workers and was less significant for older workers. Similar results were found for the subdomain of perseverance, while the relationship between scrupulousness and job satisfaction was not significant. Furthermore, no age-moderated interaction between the other Big Five personality traits and Job satisfaction were found. Such data supports interactive models that highlight the need to integrate personality traits with other factors in exploring the antecedents of job satisfaction. These findings provide additional elements to an understanding of the factors contributing to workers satisfaction, and could have important applicative implications in a framework for healthy organizations and the well-being movement.

scholarly journals An Integrative Framework for Conceptualizing and Assessing Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills: The BESSI

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Soto ◽  
Christopher Napolitano ◽  
Madison Nicole Sewell ◽  
Heejun Roy Yoon ◽  
Brent Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Behavioral Skills ◽  
Emotional Resilience ◽  
Psychological Constructs ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
Using Data

People differ in their social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills: their capacities to maintain social relationships, regulate emotions, and manage goal- and learning-directed behaviors. In five studies using data from seven independent samples (N = 6,309), we address three key questions about the nature, structure, assessment, and outcomes of SEB skills. First, how can SEB skills be defined and distinguished from other kinds of psychological constructs, such as personality traits? We propose that SEB skills represent how someone is capable of thinking, feeling, and behaving when the situation calls for it, whereas traits represent how someone tends to think, feel, and behave averaged across situations. Second, how can specific SEB skills be organized within broader domains? We find that many skill facets can be organized within five major domains representing Social Engagement, Cooperation, Self-Management, Emotional Resilience, and Innovation Skills. Third, how should SEB skills be measured? We develop and validate the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI) to measure individuals’ capacity to enact specific behaviors representing 32 skill facets. We then use the BESSI to investigate the nomological network of SEB skills. We show that both skill domains and facets converge in conceptually meaningful ways with socioemotional competencies, character and developmental strengths, and personality traits, and predict consequential outcomes including academic achievement and engagement, occupational interests, social relationships, and well-being. We believe that this work provides the most comprehensive model currently available for conceptualizing SEB skills, as well as the most psychometrically robust tool available for assessing them.

scholarly journals Is Empathy Always Good?

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
M. Rossi Monti
Keyword(s):  
Emotional State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Complex Phenomenon ◽  
State Of Mind

Empathy is a complex phenomenon. First of all empathy means the capacity to understand someone else’s state of mind or to identify with his emotional state. From this point of view, empathy plays a fundamental role in psychotherapy and has been studied as a fundamental therapeutic factor. It is true that an emphatic attitude can help other people and lead to a better understanding of their feelings. But empathy can also be used as a horrible instrument to manipulate and abuse the other. We can see this kind of malign empathy in perverted narcissistic relationships, in sadism or in torture, where the torturer can use empathy in order to figure out the most effective ways to make each of his victims suffer.

The Human Good and the Ambitions of Consequentialism

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Griffin
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Personal Relations ◽  
Moral Point ◽  
Moral Point Of View ◽  
Human Good ◽  
The Right

I want to look at one aspect of the human good: how it serves as the basis for judgments about the moral right. One important view is that the right is always derived from the good. I want to suggest that the more one understands the nature of the human good, the more reservations one has about that view.I. OneRoute toConsequentialismMany of us think that different things make a life good, with no one deep value underlying them all. My own list includes: enjoyment, accomplishing something with one's life, deep personal relations, certain sorts of understanding, and the elements of a characteristically human existence (autonomy, liberty).Most of us also think that moral right and wrong are based, in some way or other, in how well individual lives go, and that the moral point of view is, in some sense or other, impartial between lives. Utilitarianism is a prominent, but not the only, way of spelling out this intuition. There is no reason why an account of the human good needs to be confined, in the classical utilitarian way, to happiness or to fulfillment of desire (on the usual understanding of that notion). Nor is there any reason why impartiality has to be confined to maximizing the good, counting everybody for one and nobody for more than one. We may generalize.Let us broaden the notion of the good. We might say, for instance, that though happiness is a good, so are the other items on my list. But though broadened, this notion of the good stays within the confines of individual goods; it still has to do with human well-being, with what promotes the quality of one person's life.

scholarly journals Game Graph and Formats Approach for Mixlingual Data Ontology for Geological and Marketing Tasks

2021 ◽  
pp. 252-259
Author(s):  
Ekaterina S. Skornyakova ◽  
Dmitry V. Lichargin ◽  
Pavel V. Polunian
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Graph Theory ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Generative Grammar ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Forest Model ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Turn Over

The paper introduces a new concept – trans-forest. A forest is a complex of additional connected trees. The skeleton of the graph is the basic multi-hierarchy. Subjects and “forces” are sources of moves on the playing field of the trans-forest based on the rules of the generative grammars of Montague. Each move of all generative grammars is synchronized with the meta-generative grammar – the “daemon of time”. Each turn over a trans-forest can be done by moving the present marker on the time tree to the “Next” position. Particular attention is paid to the format tree and trans-connections between trees and its levels, since it is the format tree that determines human behavior in certain situations. An algorithm of evolutionarily justified expansions is proposed, the purpose of which is to ensure well-being for the subject himself and other subjects. The proposed trans-forest model is intended for modeling educational, language IT marketing, geological and other situations from the point of view of graph theory and game theory

scholarly journals Ecology and Esthetics, Esthetic Ecology and the Ecological Esthetic in the Landscape: Contributions to the Apparent TongueTwister

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 887
Author(s):  
Alicia López-Rodríguez ◽  
Ana-Belén Berrocal Menárguez ◽  
Rafael Escribano Bombín ◽  
Simon Bell
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Landscape Planning ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Generic Framework ◽  
Meaningful Relationship

The interface between ecology and esthetics does not only exist but is often vaster than thought at first sight. The implications of one for the other are diverse and often subtle, but both dimensions share a link that is as elusive as it is significant because of its influence on human behavior and on the landscape itself. Therefore, it is increasingly viewed as one of the aspects in the complex human–nature reality that should receive serious consideration to better manage the landscape. However, this relationship can be approached in different ways, and each of these perspectives will shape certain outcomes and different ways of intervening in the landscape. This article presents a generic framework of the models of analysis and intervention in the landscape from the point of view of how they address the ecological and esthetic component, with the aim of defining the limits in which each one moves, the differentiating nuances, and the repercussions they can have on the landscape. Likewise, the strategy that would best incorporate a more effective and meaningful relationship between ecology and esthetics in landscape planning is suggested.

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