1veedo
January 5th, 2007, 01:09 AM
On page 495, Myers starts talking about "The Need to Belong" as a motivator -- after food and sex.
[Talking about how we're social creatures]...Another study found that very happy university students are not distinguished by their money but by their "rich and satisfying close relationships" (Diener & Sligman, 2002). The need to belong runs deeper, it seems, than any need to be rich.
South Africans have a word for these human bonds that define us all. Ubuntu (oo-BOON-too), explains Desmond Tutu (1999), expresses the fact that "my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours." A Zulu maxim captures the idea: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu -- "a person is a person through other persons."It seems like the definition for ubuntu is a little opinionated. At wikipedia it lists,
* "Humanity towards others"
* "I am because we are"
* "A person 'becomes human' through other persons"
* "A person is a person because of other persons"
The last three mean the same thing and are in line with the definition in my text book. The first one which goes a long w/ "peace, love, and being nice to people" seems to be more of an implication of the idea, not the root definition. I guess "humanity towards others" kind of goes a long with it. That's the angle organizations (like ubuntu.org) take the word to mean cause it sounds flowery.
I'm not big on this kind of stuff, I just thought it was cool that Myers talked about it.
[Talking about how we're social creatures]...Another study found that very happy university students are not distinguished by their money but by their "rich and satisfying close relationships" (Diener & Sligman, 2002). The need to belong runs deeper, it seems, than any need to be rich.
South Africans have a word for these human bonds that define us all. Ubuntu (oo-BOON-too), explains Desmond Tutu (1999), expresses the fact that "my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours." A Zulu maxim captures the idea: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu -- "a person is a person through other persons."It seems like the definition for ubuntu is a little opinionated. At wikipedia it lists,
* "Humanity towards others"
* "I am because we are"
* "A person 'becomes human' through other persons"
* "A person is a person because of other persons"
The last three mean the same thing and are in line with the definition in my text book. The first one which goes a long w/ "peace, love, and being nice to people" seems to be more of an implication of the idea, not the root definition. I guess "humanity towards others" kind of goes a long with it. That's the angle organizations (like ubuntu.org) take the word to mean cause it sounds flowery.
I'm not big on this kind of stuff, I just thought it was cool that Myers talked about it.