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International
Year
of Volunteers
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From
improving a CV to meeting kindred spirits, volunteers are driven by a myriad of motives.
For many, giving a hand is simply a moral obligation, says Spanish social psychologist
Fernando Chacón Fuentes*
Why
do people feel the need to volunteer?
It isn’t easy to figure out because the desire to volunteer stems from many inner
motives that are very hard to discern. The only source of information we have is
the actual volunteer. But all the studies that have been done–especially those by
two American professors, Allen M. Omoto (University of Kansas) and Mark Snyder (University
of Minnesota)–come up with two broad reasons. The main one is a feeling of moral
or religious obligation to help solve a problem. These are the altruists. I prefer
to call them “hetero-centred,” or focused on others. The second group of volunteers
are the egotists or “self-centred.” They’re out to get some benefit for themselves.
But these motives aren’t exclusive of each other, are they?
No. There aren’t any “pure” volunteers. Nearly all of them are driven by a combination
of motives, though one will dominate the others.
Volunteers who hold out the longest in organizations are those who are altruistic,
but at the same time recognize that they are benefiting from their work.
What are these motives?
Omoto and Snyder have identified five. The first is belief in a set of values.
By volunteering, people express their own personal principles. So if someone thinks
of him or herself as a humanitarian kind of person and acts accordingly, they’ll
feel at ease.
The second, quite broad motive is a quest for knowledge. Some people go to developing
countries to gain a different perspective on life, while others merely do so to add
to their CV.
The third reason is more utilitarian: volunteering is a means to an end, often driven
by the wish to meet others, especially kindred spirits.
The fourth group of motives is what we call identification with the community. This
is when someone identifies with a specific group or problem and makes a commitment
to it by becoming actively involved. These are the volunteers you’ll find in causes
such as the mentally ill, cancer or AIDS. Some people clearly join the fight against
AIDS as a way of acknowledging rights and above all identifying with those groups
which are hardest hit by the epidemic.
The last group of motives, much rarer and harder to explain, is what psychologists
call self-defence. When someone is very afraid or anxious, they sometimes become
a volunteer as a way of confronting their fear. An example is the homosexual who
gets involved in the battle against AIDS. It can also be a way to cope with more
general fears and anxieties, and some of my colleagues encourage their patients to
get involved in voluntary activity to take their mind off their own problems. But
I don’t really approve of that.
Why not?
Because I think voluntary projects should help the people targeted by such programmes.
They aren’t there to help the volunteers themselves.
Who volunteers most, women or men?
Neither differ much in their reasons for volunteering, though more women volunteer
than men, especially in social work and health. You’ll also find more men in civil
protection organizations. Whether we like it or not, this has a lot to do with traditional
roles–women tend to be the carers while men put out fires and deal with disasters.
Are volunteers different from place to place?
I don’t know of any transcultural study about that, but national surveys suggest
a few differences. In Eastern societies, such as Japan, people work more for groups
and for the community. They talk more about the interests of a group and having a
sense of duty. In Western societies, especially Anglo-Saxon ones, people act in more
individualistic ways.
Societies have always had their own mechanisms for dealing with social needs unmet
by the state. Before, families took care of their elders. These natural networks
are breaking down and creating exclusion. In this sense, volunteering will always
have an important role to play.
* Professor of
Social Psychology at Madrid’s Alcalá de Henares University and president of
the Official College of Psychologists in Madrid. |
