Psychological Characteristics of Volunteers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29038/2227-1376-2019-33-10-23Keywords:
volunteers, volunteer activity, motivation, values, social attitudes, affiliationAbstract
The article analyzes psychological featers of volunteers and motivational factors of volunteer activity. Based on the analysis of the degree of affiliation and the need to maintain and establish contacts with others in the group of respondents involved in volunteering and the group of respondents who did not participate in volunteer work, it has been established that volunteers have a higher affiliation level than a group of people that not involved in volunteering. The study of the level of subjective control and personal responsibility of a group of volunteers and groups not involved in volunteering, showed that volunteers have a higher score on the scales of general internality, which is evidence of a high level of sense of subjective control over life events; on the scale of interpersonal relations, which are indicators of a higher level of sense of control of informal and formal relations with others, the ability to control the respect and sympathy of others; on the scale of failure, which means the perception of subjects of unpleasant events as a result of their own actions. It`s been shown that volunteers have a higher level of sense of social acceptability and social approval of their own life. On the basis of the diagnostics of socio-psychological attitudes of the two groups of respondents in the area of the motivational needs, it was established that the people involved in volunteering activity have dominating altruistic values, high indicators in the orientations on the process, as well as on freedom (independence, resistance to restrictions).
References
2. Apinunmahakul, A.; Devlin, R. A. (2008). Social networks and private philanthropy. Journal of Public Economics, 92, 309–328.
3. Bekkers, R. (2005). Participation in voluntary associations: relations with resources, personality, and political values. Political Psychology, 26(3), 439–454.
4. Caputo, R. (2009). Religious capital and intergenerational transmission of volunteering as correlates of civic engagement. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 38(6), 983–1002.
5. Carlo, G.; Okun, M. A. ; Knight, G. P., et al. (2005). The interplay of traits and motives on volunteering: agreeableness, extraversion and prosocial value motivation. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 1293–1305.
6. Caro, F. G. ; Bass, S. A. (1997). Receptivity to volunteering in the immediate postretirement period. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 16(4), 427–442.
7. Einolf, C. J. 2010. Does extensivity form part of the altruistic personality? An empirical test of Oliner and Oliner’s theory. Social Science Research, 39, 142–151.
8. Matsuba, M. K.; Hart, D.; Atkins, R. (2007). Psychological and social– structural influences on commitment to volunteering. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 889–907.
9. Okun, M. A.; Pugliese, J.; Rook, K. S. (2007). Unpacking the relation between extraversion and volunteering in later life: the role of social capital. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 1467–1477.
10. Mellor, D.; Hayashi, Y.; Stokes, M.; Firth, L.; Lake, L.; Staples, M.; Chambers, S.; Cummins, R. (2009). Volunteering and its relationship with personal and neighborhood wellbeing. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 38(1), 144–159.
11. Mowen, J. C.; Sujan, H. (2005). Volunteer behavior: a hierarchical model approach for investigating its trait and functional motives antecedents. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(2), 170–182.
12. Perry, J. L.; Brudney, J. L.; Coursey, D.; Littlepage, L. (2008). What drives morally committed citizens? A study of the antecedents of public service motivation. Public Administration Review, 68(3), 445–458.
13. Rossi, A. S. (ed). 2001. Caring and Doing for Others: Social Responsibility in the Domains of Work, Family, and Community. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
14. Rotolo, T. (2000). A time to join, a time to quit: the influence of life cycle transitions on voluntary association membership. Social Forces, 78, 1133–1161.
15. Rotolo, T.; Wilson, J. (2007). The effects of children and employment status on the volunteer work of American women. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36, 487–503.
16. Rotolo, T.; Wilson, J. (2011). State-level differences in volunteerism in the United States: research based on demographic, institutional and cultural macro-level theories. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. DOI:10.1177/0899764011412383
17. Staines, G. L. (1980). Spillover versus compensation: a review of the literature on the relationship between work and nonwork. Human Relations, 33(2), 111–129.
18. Wymer, W. W. (1999). Understanding volunteer markets: the case of senior volunteers. Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, 6(2/3), 1–23.
