Humility Essay Examples

Socially miscommunicated, culturally misconceived, politically abused, humility remains an elusive concept. Socially, humility is viewed as self-degrading act; culturally as appeasement for "superior" cultures; and, politically, as repugnant act of unprincipled opportunism. Given how universal humility is across social, cultural and political systems, literature on humility appears to be scarce (Tangney, 2000). Interestingly, bordering constructs such as self-esteem, modesty and narcissism (Tangney) do not initiate serious investigation into humility as not only a psychological construct but a social, cultural and political as well. Accordingly, instead of viewing humility in either / or dichotomies of (un)favorability (Exline and Geyer, 2012), humility should be reflected on in depth based not only on lexicographic conceptualizations but on in depth self reflection and specific, personal experiences of paper author. This paper, hence, aims to conceptualize humility in an attempt to identify key features and address associated problematics.
Typical lexicographic definitions of humility do not depart from Merriam-Webster's circular, favorable definition: "the quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people: the quality or state of being humble." ("humility"). This is a definition by negation which casts humility in favorable light but does not actually define what humility is. Humility is, in fact, a concept experienced, not identified; in-process, not final; collaborative, not personal.
Personally, paper author has encountered situations in which humility has unfolded as a state, a process and an act. In a professional networking event, for example, in which paper author was invited to deliver a presentation on a recent content development strategy which, adopted, resulted in unprecedented number of unique users for a cross-functional online application project. The event was set up in a big, famous convention center hall. Three hundred persons participated including industry experts, guests of honor, reporters and college students. The strategy, in fact, managed to invite very interesting offers from select universities to incorporate strategy in university portals in order to both enhance university brand image and broaden base of student applicants by attracting more international students. The author-student interactions constituted, overall, what is referred to here as a humility situation.
Upon presentation conclusion, author was approached by a group of college students who seemed full of questions. That moment author paper was poised to pontificate his successful strategy to unassuming college students of little, if not no, experience. Unsurprisingly, situation in question has been encountered by countless people. However, author responded in what he can refer to as humility. By stepping forward, paper author aimed to convey a sense of a comfortable zone setting aside a former mode in which speaker (author) was in limelight. The college students experienced, apparently, a sense of an equal-footing communication in which answers are answered in a peer-to-peer mode. The stepping forward was, in fact, an representation of an act of humility by which a performer (author) enacts an instance of humility. Pursued by students later for further inquiries and follow-ups, paper author seemed to engage in several, subsequent tokens of humility experienced by students as acts of humility and hence both author and students continued to perform humility in reciprocity in an ongoing basis, in-process, not once and for all.
The situation in question, of course, is self defined by paper author as overarched by humility. That different spectra of conceptions could overarch situation in question is most probable. This should require, accordingly, much caution, in conceptualizations of humility, a concept still socially, culturally and politically undecided.
In conclusion, humility should not be conceptualized socially, culturally, politically, let alone lexically exclusively. Humility should, instead, be conceptualized by further reflection and based upon rich personal experiences. As such, humility becomes a state by virtue of experience, a process by development and an act by performance. Intuitively, further research should be conducted in order to better capture and set metrics for humility.

Works Cited

Exline, J. Julie, and Anne L Geyer. " Perceptions of Humility: A Preliminary Study." Self and Identity 3.2 (2012): 95-114. Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.
"humility." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2015.Web. 15 Jan. 2015.
Tangney, June. "Humility: Theoretical Perspectives, Empirical Findings and Directions for Future Research." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 19.1 (2000): 70-82. Guilford Journals. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.