The Psychological and Spiritual Dimension of Volunteering
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/11.2/70Keywords:
volunteering, volunteer psychology, personal development through volunteering, religious dimension of volunteering, social utility, social responsibilityAbstract
Volunteering is one of the oldest human social cooperation activities. Whether it is called volunteering, whether it is called charity, whether it is in the form of social involvement and active participation in the public agenda, whether it is a small-scale or extremely large-scale activity, in niche fields or in traditional fields, organized on the basis of state-sponsored programs or non-governmental institutions, over time, volunteering has represented a clear manifestation of social cohesion. This form of social cohesion can come from a psychological need that some individuals satisfy by volunteering, or from a desire for personal development, or from adherence to certain religious precepts, but regardless of the motivation, the social utility and social responsibility of volunteering have been demonstrated over time. This paper aims to analyze the psychological and religious dimension of volunteering, from the perspective of its social utility and the responsibility that volunteering involves.
References
Cnaan, R. A., Handy, F., & Wadsworth, M. (1996). Defining Who is a Volunteer: Conceptual and Empirical Considerations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 25(3), 364–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764096253006
Epure, M. (2013). Learning about volunteering – a path to personal development. Review of Applied Socio- Economic Research, 5(1), 61.
Farooq, Q., Liu, X., Fu, P., & Hao, Y. (2009). Volunteering sustainability: An advancement in corporate social responsibility conceptualization. Corporate Social Responsability and Environment Management, 27(6), 2450-2464. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1893
Grönlund, H. (2012). Religiousness and Volunteering Searching For Connections in Late Modernity. Nordic Journal of Religion and Society, 25(1), 47–66. https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN1890-7008-2012-01-03
Khasanzyanova, A. (2017). How volunteering helps students to develop soft skills. International Review of Education, 63, 363–379. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-017-9645-2
MacNeela, P., & Gannon, N. (2014). Process and Positive Development: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of University Student Volunteering. Journal of Adolescent Research, 29(3), 407–436. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558413510968
Matsuba, K., Hart, D., & Atkins, R. (2007). Psychological and Social-Structural Influences on Commitment to Volunteering. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(4), 889-907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2006.11.001
Metzer, J. C. (1996). The psychology of volunteering: external or internal rewards? Australian Journal on Volunteering, 1(2), 20–24. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.980605759
Muthuri, J. N., Matten, D., & Moon, J. (2009). Employee Volunteering and Social Capital: Contributions to Corporate Social Responsibility. British Journal of Management, 20(1), 75-89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2007.00551.x
Paxton, P., Reith, N. E., & Glanville, J. L. (2014). Volunteering and the Dimensions of Religiosity: A Cross-National Analysis. Review of Religious Research, 56, 597–625. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-014-0169-y
Poussou-Plesse, M., Mascova, E., & Petit, M. (2014). Older volunteers in France: recognising their social utility in a less and less corporatist welfare state. In A. Principi, P. H. Jensen, & G. Lamura (Eds.), Active ageing: Voluntary work by older people in Europe (pp. 149-171). Policy Press Scholarship. https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447307204.003.0007
Sana (Nemţeanu), M. S. (2016). Satisfacţia şi angajamentul voluntarilor. Factori de influenţă [Volunteer satisfaction and engagement. Influencing factors] [Unpublished doctoral thesis]. Universitatea Babeş Bolyai Cluj-Napoca.
Shagurova, A. A., Ivanovna, E. G., Aleksandrovna, B. I., Denisenko, S. I., Valerievich, M., Viktorovna, N. M., & Potutkova, A. (2016). Characteristics of the essence of volunteering in psychology. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(15), 8572-8579.
van Tienen, M., Scheepers, P., Reitsma, J., & Schilderman, H. (2011). The Role of Religiosity for Formal and Informal Volunteering in the Netherlands. Voluntas, 22, 365–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-010-9160-6
Veerasamy, C., Sambasivan, M., & Kumar, N. (2015). Life Satisfaction Among Healthcare Volunteers in Malaysia: Role of Personality Factors, Volunteering Motives, and Spiritual Capital. Voluntas, 26, 531–552. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-014-9437-2
Windsor, T. D., Anstey, K. J., & Rodgers, B. (2008). Volunteering and Psychological Well-Being Among Young-Old Adults: How Much Is Too Much?, The Gerontologist, 48(1), 59–70. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/48.1.59
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors & LUMEN Publishing House

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant this journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as an earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
LUMEN SS Journal has an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND