PPMP is a personality profile that I coined in the May 5 2024 Groundhog Day Resolutions Report.
As a profile, it breaks down into the following elements:
- Prosocial motivation is distinct from "pleasing others", "personal benefits" like money, "social status", "competition", "curiosity/interest", or "getting along with others". It is being motivated by seeing other people overcome challenges, grow, and succeed. Possibly it's similar to how a parent derives happiness from seeing the growth of their children, but applied to everyone. This seems to be an overlooked motivation, though being prosocial as a behavior is extremely common.
- Predominantly is an important modifier, because in my case this is the primary motivation that I need to do anything at all.
- Profile is important because there are a unique set of traits, acquired skills, interests, and behaviors that are associated with it.
The motivations of a person with the PPM profile are centered on individual success, and this has lead to an emphasis on understanding individuals as the center of skill acquisition.
In other words, to be PPMP one must feel that they are driven primarily by prosocial factors. In my case, I feel extremelly lethargic unless I can attach a benefit I can observe in someone else who has a meaningful investment in what I'm doing, or has a strong interest as well. I am at my best when I have at least another work partner who is also PPMP. The kind of people who fall into this category are anyone engaged in human-centered activities with an extremely strong personal desire to really reach and connect with people in a hands-on way.
Other References
- The traits of predominantly-prosocial are being collected here; they may be overlap with this article but we'll see how that goes
- The May 5 GHDR Report that establishes "prosocial motivation" is a continuation from the Groundhog Day Resolutions 2024 post that set The Colony as my goal for the year.
- The PPMP Study Group is a short-term group of other so-called PPMP individuals that want to build the framework for establishing supportive environments. I'm calling this prosocial cultural architecture for now.
- The DSCafe is an example of the virtual version of this that I have been working on for some time, an extension of my earlier blog at davidseah.com.