Volunteerism Essay

Determinants of Sustained Volunteerism
Among social psychologists, there is anelongatedsaga of interest in why and when people help others(Schroeder, Penner, Dovidio, & Piliavin, 1995).Up untilquitein recent times, inquiry on helping behavior focused mainly on a very specific kind of prosocial action—bystanders intervening to provide immediate and short-term help to a physically distressed stranger. In the last few years, however, more attention has been given to prosocial behaviors that continue for an extended time—sustained prosocial actions. There are a number of different kinds of behaviors that might be classified as sustained prosocial actions (e.g., caring for the elderly in a nursing home, the donation of blood at a blood center), but this study is primarily concerned with volunteerism.
Because volunteerism

These factors can be summarized through four theoretical models of volunteer work that presently guide the literature. What might be called the volunteer motivations model emphasizes individuals’ motivations for or goals in volunteering. Research indicates that people give service for a variety of reasons, for example, to learn new skills, to develop the self, to enhance self-esteem, to prepare for a career, to express personal values and community commitment, and even to reduce ego-conflicts or identity threats (Omoto &Snyder, 1990, 1995; Janoski, Musick & Wilson, 1998). Motivation researchers suggest that volunteering can serve different functions (i.e., motivations) for different people and sometimes multiple functions for a single individual(Omoto & Snyder, 1990; Penner & Finkelstein, 1998). Thus, selection into volunteer service may not be broadly socially patterned or