Our thoughts and feelings help explain the behavioral traits that drive our reputations. Thoughts and feelings are also referred to as cognitive and emotional traits, and they are the basis for many of our actions. Consider someone with a reputation for being sensitive, caring, and empathic. Nonverbal behaviors such as tone of voice, facial expression, head nodding, and posture also affect impressions of empathy. In the case of empathic behavior, the motive is a desire to help other people.
Empathic people feel genuine sympathy for people who are hurting.
This relationship between motive and behavior may seem fairly straightforward. However, it's rarely as simple as it sounds here. Often, our behaviors satisfy several motives at the same time. For example, someone may act empathically to satisfy a need to be liked as well as a need to help others. What's more, our behaviors may fail to communicate our motives.