Α quantitative investigation of personality and psychological characteristics on volunteers in the humanitarian non government organizations

Background: In the heart of volunteerism, as derived from the literature review, the protection of human dignity is identified, since through volunteerism the image of the self is reflected. However, little is known today about the personality characteristics of volunteers at a quantitative level. Most studies around volunteerism focus mostly on a more qualitative and theoretical approach of volunteerism. Aim: The present study was designed to investigate specific psychological characteristics of the personality (altruism, happiness, narcissism, religiousness and the overall family environment) which are associated with volunteerism in primary nursing services. More specifically, it was attempted to: a) compare the volunteers and non volunteers groups as far as the specific characteristics are concerned, b) correlate the individual subscale of each variable both for the whole sample and for each group separately. Methods: The study sample was decided to consist of 121 people who came from two main sources: a) volunteers in the nursing section of the Humanitarian NGO of the Hellenic Red Cross and b) non- volunteers, members of the healthy population of the wider area of health. The volunteers group consisted of 63 people (52.1%), while the control group consisted of 58 people (47.9%) who reported that they had never been involved in volunteerism. The data collection was conducted through a written questionnaire filled at a place and time chosen by the participants. The tools used were: a) A questionnaire of sociodemographic characteristics, b) The Altruism subscale, c) The Subjective Happiness Scale, d) The Narcissistic Personality Scale and e) The Scale for measuring the Family Environment. Results: From the statistical analysis it was shown that the two groups differentiated quite significantly concerning altruism (P=0.000). Also, they were significantly differentiated concerning narcissism (P=0.012) and moral and religious emphasis of the family environment (P=0.027). Finally, concerning the happiness dimension no statistically significant differentiation between volunteers and non-volunteers was observed. Conclusions: From the results of the present study the association between specific personality characteristics and volunteerism was shown. We regard the difficulties around the role of the psychosocial characteristics of volunteers as one of the most intriguing fields, particularly for the health sciences, the study of which will essentially contribute to highlight its role in Volunteerism in Primary Health Care.