The Differences of the Personality Features and of the Emotional Empathy for Volunteering

Abstract

The article presents personality features of volunteers as relatively permanent psychological characteristics. It summarizes motives for volunteering discussed in the current concepts of volunteering and it introduces the Functional approach to volunteer motivation. Some results of the research supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic No 407/11/0380, Prosocial behaviour and its personality aspects in the context of volunteering are presented. Research subjects were 240 volunteers, members of Czech Civic Associations of volunteers. Two questionnaires were used. Questionnaire NEO

Determinants of Prosocial Behavior in Included Versus Excluded Contexts

“…This psychological pattern seems intuitively plausible: prosocial and empathic individuals usually see others like them, tend to expect some reciprocity, and consequently trust the others ( Levenson and Ruef, 1992 ). In the expectation that the others will operate with goodwill, trust can produce not only reciprocity but also social orientation by bestowing on individuals the motivation to approximate those others, to engage in activities with them, as well as encouraging closeness as the starting-point for relationships ( Welch et al, 2005 ); therefore it seems logical that trust may produce PSB ( Baumeister and Leary, 1995 ; Zaskodna et al, 2013 ).…”

“…Affiliation motivation is the desire to maintain social contact or a sense of belonging ( Veroff and Veroff, 1980 ); it motivates individuals to pursue positive interpersonal relationships ( Zaskodna et al, 2013 ). High affiliation motivation reflects a strong sense of social interdependence ( Markus and Kitayama, 1991 ) and so individuals with high affiliation motivation tend to act on behalf of their society or for the benefit of the group, i.e., in a prosocial manner.…”

“…High affiliation motivation reflects a strong sense of social interdependence ( Markus and Kitayama, 1991 ) and so individuals with high affiliation motivation tend to act on behalf of their society or for the benefit of the group, i.e., in a prosocial manner. Individuals with high affiliation motivation will tend to behave in a friendly, prosocial manner in order to create or maintain social contact and avoid breaking bonds ( Baumeister and Leary, 1995 ; Zaskodna et al, 2013 ). Many authors ( Maner et al, 2007 ; Smart Richman and Leary, 2009 ; Romero-Canyas et al, 2010b ; DeWall and Richman, 2011 ) have argued that rejected individuals tend to behave prosocially only when they see an opportunity to reconnect with others and have the desire to do so.…”

“…Affiliation motivation was also a direct predictor of PSB. The desire to maintain social contact motivates individuals to behave in a prosocial and friendly way in order to achieve affiliation ( Baumeister and Leary, 1995 ; Zaskodna et al, 2013 ).…”

Developing a hierarchical model of personality and motivation to predict youth volunteerism : a cross-culture study

“…Taken together, these reasons justify the need to include both empathy and agreeableness in our studies of volunteer initiation. Other studies of volunteerism have also considered both empathy and agreeableness as meaningful predictors of volunteer behaviors (e.g., Claxton-Oldfield, & Banzen, 2010;Zaskodna, Simek, & Mlcak, 2013). Penner et al (1995) proposed two prosocial personality traits, other-oriented empathy and helpfulness, which encompass various dimensions of empathy.…”