Abrahamic religion
Humanity is one of Thomas Aquinas'
"Seven Heavenly Virtues."[7] Beyond
that, humanity was so important in some
positivist Christian cultures that it
was to be capitalized like God.[8]
Kindness, altruism and love are all
mentioned in the bible. Proverbs 19:22
"states the desire of a man is his
kindness." On the topic of altruism,
emphasis is placed on helping strangers
(Hebrews 13:1) and the biblical adage
"it is better to give than to receive"
(Acts 20:35).
To live humanity
Choose to love, love everyone as they
would your brothers and sisters...
Always look for the good in people,
focus on people's potentials...
Treat everyone as equals, forgive, show
compassion...
KNIGHTLY VIRTUES - Chivalric virtues in
medieval Europe
In the 8th century, upon the occasion of
his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor,
Charlemagne published a list of knightly
virtues:
Love God
Love your neighbour
Give alms to the poor
Entertain strangers
Visit the sick
Be merciful to prisoners
Do ill to no man, nor consent unto such
Forgive as ye hope to be forgiven
Redeem the captive
Help the oppressed
Defend the cause of the widow and orphan
Render righteous judgement
Do not consent to any wrong
Persevere not in wrath
Shun excess in eating and drinking
Be humble and kind
Serve your liege lord faithfully
Do not steal
Do not perjure yourself, nor let others
do so
Envy, hatred and violence separate men
from the Kingdom of God
Defend the Church and promote her cause.
Love
Love has many different definitions
ranging from a set of purely biological
and chemical processes to a religious
concept. As a character strength, love
is a mutual feeling between two people
characterized by attachment, comfort,
and generally positive feelings. It can
be broken down into 3 categories: love
between a child and their parents, love
for your friends, and romantic love.[9]
Having love as a strength is not about
the capacity to love, as such, it is
about being involved in a loving
relationship.
Love, in the psychological sense, is
most often studied in terms of
attachment to others. A degree of
controversy surrounds defining and
researching love in this way, as it
takes away the “mystery of love.”[10]
Because love is mysterious, to an
extent, it is most often studied in
terms of attachment theory, because it
can be studied in the way across ages.
In infants, attachment is studied
through the Strange Situation Test.
Attachment to an individual, usually the
mother, is determined by how distressed
the infant becomes when the mother is
taken out of the experimental
setting.[11] There are several models of
adult attachment including the Adult
Attachment Interviews, Adult Attachment
Prototypes and more. Generally adult
attachment models focus on the mental
representation of the visible signs of
attachment seen in infants.[12]
Evidence in support of the benefits of
love are seen in the negative affect
states that result from lacking love.
Orphaned children have been targeted in
studies about negative attributes
resulting from lack of attachment. A
study by Smyke and others found that
children raised in an environment that
didn’t allow children to become attached
to their preferred caregivers
experienced attachment disorders.[13]
Additionally, individuals who develop
securely attached have a lower
likelihood of depression, high-self
esteem, and less likelihood of
divorce.[14]
Kindness
The strength kindness encompasses most
related terms that evoke feelings of
altruism, generosity, helpfulness and a
general desire to help people. That is,
a disposition for helping humanity. The
following statements are from the Values
in Action (VIA) psychological
assessment, aimed at determining
people's strengths in kindness: others
are just as important to me, giving is
more important than receiving, I care
for the ungrateful as well as the
grateful.[15] Kindness, as a part of
humanity, is deeply rooted in
philosophical and religious traditions,
each having words for the altruistic
love aspect of kindness, such as agape
in Greek, chesed in Hebrew, and the
Latin word philantropia, the root of the
word "philanthropy."[15] Kindness is so
valued as a strength beyond religious
and theoretical concepts that it is
advocated through school community
service programs and national programs
like AmeriCorps. Additionally, while
gender differences in kindness are
statistically significant, they are
minimal, and the methods of testing used
may not always have construct
validity.[16]
Kindness is most often measured on a
case by case measure and not usually as
a trait. The Self-Report Altruism Scale
and the Altruism Facet Scale for
Agreeableness Measure of the Revised NEO
Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R)
psychological assessment are often used
to ask people how often they engage in
altruistic behaviors and gauge their
concern for others.[17] The former,
however, only asks about 20 specific
altruistic acts, leaving out a wide
range of altruistic behaviors.
There are numerous benefits from
kindness and altruism on both sides of
the action. For some, the motivation to
be kind comes from a place of egoistic
motivation, and thus the benefit to them
is the positive affect state they
receive from the action.[18] Another
study found that the process of being
kind develops pro-social skills in
children, which positively effects their
attachments and relationships.[19]
Additionally, volunteerism in the
elderly has shown to lead to decreased
risk of early death, and mental health
benefits.[20] One thing to note is the
difference between altruism as a trait
and as an act.[20]
Social intelligence
Social intelligence is the most modern
of the three strengths associated with
humanity. The Character Strengths and
Virtues (CSV) psychological assessment
defines social intelligence as the
ability to understand “relationships
with other people, including the social
relationships involved in intimacy and
trust, persuasion, group membership, and
political power.”[21]
Intelligence has many psychological
definitions from Weschler’s intelligence
to the various theories of multiple
intelligence. The CSV divides
intelligence into hot and cold, hot
intelligence being those intelligences
related to active emotional processes.
(338) Individuals with high social
intelligence are very self-aware, and
effective organizers and leaders.[22]
Additionally, it combines elements of
the other two hot intelligences,
personal and emotional intelligence.
Personal intelligence being the internal
counterpart to social intelligence and
emotional intelligence being the
capacity to understand emotions. The CSV
highlights three social intelligence
measurement scales: Factor Based Social
Intelligence Tasks, Psychological
Mindedness Assessment Procedure, and
Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional
intelligence Test.[23]
Social Intelligence research is limited,
however, there is much literature on the
characteristics associated with social
intelligence. Zaccaro et al. found
social intelligence and perceptiveness
to be integral to effective leadership;
that is, good leaders are “social
experts.”[24] Emotional intelligence,
too, plays a role in leadership. Another
study found that emotional intelligence
enables leaders to better understand
their followers, thereby enhancing their
ability to influence them.[25]
Psychological research on humanity as a
virtue
Virtue and wellbeing
Although only a relatively new field of
inquiry for psychological researchers,
character strengths[26][27] and
virtues[28][29][30] have been
consistently measured in psychometric
surveys and have been shown to be
positively associated with psychological
and subjective wellbeing.[31] What is
more, even among those who endorse a
spiritual/theistic worldview, these
salutary associations appear to be
better explained by humanity/civility
rather than endorsing a faith in a
supernatural being.[
There are many sides to every story.
There are good and bad sides to every
story.
We all have our good and bad sides too.