Generosity is the habit In psychology, habituation is the psychological process in humans and animals in which there is a decrease in psychological response and behavioral response to a stimulus after repeated exposure to that stimulus over a duration of time of giving A gift or a present is the transfer of something, without the need for compensation that is involved in trade. A gift is a voluntary act which does not require anything in return. Even though it involves possibly a social expectation of reciprocity, or a return in the form of prestige or power, a gift is meant to be free without coercion Coercion (/koˈɝ.ʒ(ə)n/ or /ko(ʊ)ˈɝ.ʃ(ə)n/) is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force. These are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way. Coercion. Often equated with charity In Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others as a virtue Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a character trait or quality valued as being good, generosity is widely accepted in society as a desirable habit.
In times of natural disaster A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard that affects the environment, and leads to financial, environmental and/or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, and their resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards, relief efforts are frequently provided, voluntarily, by individuals or groups acting unilaterally in making gifts of time, resources, goods, money, etc.
Generosity is a guiding principle for many registered charities A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . The term is relatively general and can technically refer to a public charity (also called "charitable foundation," "public foundation" or simply "foundation") or a private foundation. It differs from other types of NPOs in that its focus is centered, foundations A foundation is a legal categorization of nonprofit organizations. Foundations may also and often have charitable purposes. This type of nonprofit organization may either donate funds and support to other organizations, or provide the sole source of funding for their own charitable activities and non-profit organizations A nonprofit organization is an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. Examples of NPOs include charities (i.e. charitable organizations) , trade unions, and public arts organizations. Most governments and government agencies meet this definition, but in.
Generosity can also be spending time, money, or labour, for others, without being rewarded in return.
Although the term generosity often goes hand-in-hand with charity, many people in the public's eye want recognition for their good deeds. Donations are needed to support organizations and committees, however, generosity should not be limited to times of great need such as natural disasters and extreme situations.
Generosity is not solely based on one's economic status, but instead, includes the individual's pure intentions of looking out for society's common good and giving from the heart. Generosity should reflect the individual's passion to help others.
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Etymology
The modern English word "generosity" derives from the Latin word generōsus, which means "of noble birth," which itself was passed down to English through the Old French word generous. The Latin stem gener– is the declensional stem of genus, meaning "kin," "clan," "race," or "stock," with the root Indo–European meaning of gen being "to beget." The same root gives us the words genesis, gentry, gender, genital, gentile, genealogy, and genius, among others.
Most recorded English uses of the word "generous" up to and during the Sixteenth Century reflect an aristocratic sense of being of noble lineage or high birth. To be generous was literally a way of saying "to belong to nobility." During the 17th Century, however, the meaning and use of the word began to change. Generosity came increasingly to identify not literal family heritage but a nobility of spirit thought to be associated with high birth— that is, with various admirable qualities that could now vary from person to person, depending not on family history but on whether a person actually possessed the qualities. In this way generosity increasingly came in the 17th Century to signify a variety of traits of character and action historically associated (whether accurately or not) with the ideals of actual nobility: gallantry, courage, strength, richness, gentleness, and fairness. In addition to describing these diverse human qualities, "generous" became a word during this period used to describe fertile land, the strength of animal breeds, abundant provisions of food, vibrancy of colors, the strength of liquor, and the potency of medicine.
Then, during the 18th Century, the meaning of "generosity" continued to evolve in directions denoting the more specific, contemporary meaning of munificence, open–handedness, and liberality in the giving of money and possessions to others. This more specific meaning came to dominate English usage by the 19th Century. Over the last five centuries in the English speaking world, "generosity" developed from being primarily the description of an ascribed status pertaining to the elite nobility to being an achieved mark of admirable personal quality and action capable of being exercised in theory by any person who had learned virtue and noble character (Smith 2009).
Research and Scholarship
Recent neuroscientific research has shown that generosity is primarily associated with empathy, rather than with cognitive mechanisms. In this research, by Paul J. Zak and colleagues and published in Public Library of Science ONE, the peptide Peptides are short polymers formed from the linking, in a defined order, of α-amino acids. The link between one amino acid residue and the next is known as an amide bond or a peptide bond oxytocin Oxytocin is a mammalian hormone that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain or placebo was given to about 100 men and then they made several decisions regarding money. One, the Dictator Game The dictator game is a very simple game in experimental economics, similar to the ultimatum game. Experimental results in the dictator game have often been cited as a conclusive rebuttal of the rationally self-interested individual model of economic behavior, although precisely what to conclude from the evidence is controversial, was used to measure altruism by asking people to make a unilateral transfer of $10 they were given by the experimenters to a stranger in the lab; oxytocin had no effect on altruism.
Another task, the Ultimatum Game The ultimatum game is a game often played in economic experiments in which two players interact to decide how to divide a sum of money that is given to them. The first player proposes how to divide the sum between the two players, and the second player can either accept or reject this proposal. If the second player rejects, neither player receives was used to measure generosity. In this game, one person was endowed with $10 and was asked to offer some split of it to another person in the lab, all done by computer. If the second person did not like the split, he could reject it (for example, if it was stingy) and both people would get zero. In a clever twist, the researchers told participants they would be randomly chosen to be either the person making the offer or the person responding to it. This required the person making the offer to take the other's perspective explicitly. Generosity was defined as an offer greater than the minimum amount needed for acceptance. Oxytocin increased generosity 80% compared to those on placebo. In addition, oxytocin was quantitatively twice as important in predicting generosity as was altruism.
Zak and colleagues argue that oxytocin is a physiologic signature for empathy Empathy is the capability to share and understand another's emotions and feelings. It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes," Empathy does not necessarily imply compassion, sympathy, or empathic concern because this capacity can be present in context of compassionate or cruel behavior, and that this research shows that much of generosity is driven by empathy or more generally, by emotions An emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and behavior. Emotions are subjective experiences, or experienced from an individual point of view. Emotion is often associated with mood, temperament, personality, and disposition. The English word 'emotion' is derived from the French word é.
Science of Generosity
The Science of Generosity project at the University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (pronounced /ˌnoʊtərˈdeɪm/) is a private Roman Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA is investigating the sources, origins, and causes of generosity; manifestations and expressions of generosity; and consequences of generosity for both the givers and receivers involved. Generosity for the purposes of this project is defined as the virtue of giving good things to others freely and abundantly.
See also
- Altruism Altruism is the deliberate pursuit of the interests or welfare of others or the public interest
- Philanthropy Philanthropy derives from Ancient Greek, meaning "to love people". Philanthropy is the act of donating money, goods, services, time and/or effort to support a socially beneficial cause, with a defined objective and with no financial or material reward to the donor. In a more general sense, philanthropy may encompass any altruistic
- Selfishness Selfishness denotes the precedence given in thought or deed to the self, i.e., self interest or self concern. It is the act of placing one's own needs or desires above the needs or desires of others. Selfishness is the opposite of altruism
External references
- Science of Generosity
- Smith, Christian. 2009. http://generosityresearch.nd.edu.
- Zak, P.J. Stanton, A.A., Ahmadi, A. 2007. Oxytocin increases generosity in humans. PloS ONE 2(11): e1128.
- Center for Neuroeconomics Studies
- Media coverage of generosity and oxytocin
Categories: Philanthropy | Social philosophy Social philosophy is the philosophical study of interesting questions about social behavior . Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to criteria for revolution, from the functions of everyday actions to the effects of science on culture, from changes in human
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Towers Online, KY
Boyce and fellow founder John Albert Broadus, who would become the seminary's second president, began to pray that God would provide a single donor whose means and generosity would set the school immediately on solvent ground. ...
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2009-04-04 02:46:29
Generosity. is often a status seeking activity. The giver is asserting his dominance over the receiver and often trying to influence his behavior. That is why . generosity. on a large scale is tricky. Those too often on the recipient side, . ...
