What Does it Mean to Be Human? More Importantly, What is Meant by Humanity as it Pertains to Personality?

Humanity is often referred to as being human or a part of the human race. However, it has also grown to become one of six well-defined virtues that make up one’s character. In this case, there are character strengths that define humanity.

According to the VIA Institute on Character, “Humanity describes strengths that manifest in caring relationships with others. These strengths are interpersonal and are mostly relevant in one-on-one relationships. The other strengths in humanity are kindness, love, and social intelligence.”

WHAT IS KINDNESS?

Simply put, kindness is being generous, compassionate, and nurturing toward others. Kind individuals believe that others are worthy of positive attention as human beings, not out of a sense of duty or principle. Altruistic people are those with personalities that are characterized by selflessness and concern for the wellbeing of others.  As such, altruism includes the three traits of empathy/sympathy, moral reasoning, and social responsibility.

WHAT IS LOVE?

VIA explains “Love as a character strength, rather than as an emotion, refers to the degree to which you value close relationships with people, and contribute to that closeness in a warm and genuine way…Love is reciprocal, referring to both loving others and the willingness to accept love from others. There are four types of love, each with a biological and evolutionary base:

• Attachment love: parent for child; child for parent
• Compassionate/altruistic love: kindness
• Companionate love: friendship
• Romantic love: spouse/partner/boyfriend/girlfriend.”

WHAT IS SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE?

When a person knows what makes other people tick, he or she is displaying social intelligence. According to VIA, socially intelligent people are “aware of the motives and feelings of themselves and others, and how to fit into different social situations. They can feel comfortable and say the right thing whether they’re in the boardroom or the janitorial room, in a school setting or at a construction site. Social intelligence involves two general components:

• Social awareness: what we sense about others and
• Social facility: what we do with our awareness.”

When I first took the VIA Character Strengths survey, kindness, love, and social intelligence all ranked in my top 10 out of 24 strengths. Kindness and love were in my top 5. What does this say about me? Is it truly a measure of my character as a person? It does speak to my being a people person. I wouldn’t say I’m any better than anyone else who ranks differently, however. It simply means that those are traits that are important to me, so I prioritize actualizing them in my day-to-day life. I am pleased enough with this. I wonder how other virtues like courage and transcendence show up however. I’ll need to take a closer look!

Which virtues are your most prominent?

How would your family and closest friends describe you?

How do you feel about this?

Can these change over time? How?