Thinking Critically About the Trait of Compassion The question has been asked many times over, what exactly is the personality trait known as compassion? This discussion will hopefully shed some light on this curious and complicated question. It will also address how it developed, how it might affect a person’s social behaviors as well as their interpersonal relationships. To open our discussion, let us take a closer look at a formal definition of compassion. Random House Dictionary defines compassion as “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering (Dictionary.com, 2015).” A person who feels and displays compassion is referred to as being compassionate.
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One empirical study reveals compassion to “have distinct appraisal processes attuned to undeserved suffering; distinct signaling behavior related to caregiving patterns of touch, posture, and vocalization; and a phenomenological experience and physiological response that orients the individual to social approach (J. L. Goetz, D. Keltner, E. Simon-Thomas, 2010)”. A person who acts with compassion, chooses to interact with another individual who is at some disadvantage beyond basic sympathy or even empathetic feelings. They are moved to right the wrong in a tangible expression. There are several theories on where this trait …show more content…
In support of this, an academic article entitled The Compassionate Mind, authored by Emma Seppela finds “a growing body of evidence suggests that, at our core, both animals and human beings have what APS Fellow Dacher Keltner at the University of California, Berkeley, coins a ‘“compassionate instinct.”’ In other words, compassion is a natural and automatic response that has ensured our survival (Seppela, 2013). For this reason, compassion is imperative to our social interactions as well as within our interpersonal relationships. To illustrate, let’s look at the people who survived the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Without compassion, many more individuals than initially injured and killed would have suffered and died. In contrast to that illustration and on a more personal note, how would you feel if you suffered a personal tragedy like the loss of your home in a fire, and no one reached out to help? Even infants have responded positively to the relief of another in perceived
One empirical study reveals compassion to “have distinct appraisal processes attuned to undeserved suffering; distinct signaling behavior related to caregiving patterns of touch, posture, and vocalization; and a phenomenological experience and physiological response that orients the individual to social approach (J. L. Goetz, D. Keltner, E. Simon-Thomas, 2010)”. A person who acts with compassion, chooses to interact with another individual who is at some disadvantage beyond basic sympathy or even empathetic feelings. They are moved to right the wrong in a tangible expression. There are several theories on where this trait …show more content…
In support of this, an academic article entitled The Compassionate Mind, authored by Emma Seppela finds “a growing body of evidence suggests that, at our core, both animals and human beings have what APS Fellow Dacher Keltner at the University of California, Berkeley, coins a ‘“compassionate instinct.”’ In other words, compassion is a natural and automatic response that has ensured our survival (Seppela, 2013). For this reason, compassion is imperative to our social interactions as well as within our interpersonal relationships. To illustrate, let’s look at the people who survived the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Without compassion, many more individuals than initially injured and killed would have suffered and died. In contrast to that illustration and on a more personal note, how would you feel if you suffered a personal tragedy like the loss of your home in a fire, and no one reached out to help? Even infants have responded positively to the relief of another in perceived