Conducive Motivations and Psychological Influences on Volunteering.

Abstract

For over 60 years, research has shown that formal volunteering (FV) is influenced significantly by psychological factors and variables, which many scholars see as the results of individual genetics, socialization into one’s culture and social roles, and idiosyncratic personal experiences. Such predictors are sometimes referred to as dynamic variables. This chapter reviews research from various nations mainly on such motivational factors as personality traits, values, general and specific attitudes, habits, intentions, and goals/values as influences on FV. Less research is available on other, potentially relevant, psychological factors, such as affects-emotions, intellectual capacities, cognitions– information–perceptions, and the self, let alone on serious pain as a factor affecting volunteering. Yet some, often much, empirical evidence and also relevant theory support the necessity of studying such psychological factors, as well as motivations in understanding FV, partially validating the recent S-Theory of Smith (2014b, 2015a, 2017b). Smith’s (1994) Active-Effective Character (A-EC) Model, now re-named as the Active-Prosocial Character (A-PC) Model, is also supported.