Peace on Earth and goodwill toward men: altruism of long term volunteers

A grounded theory approach was taken to formulating a new theoretical framework of altruism based on twelve in-depth interviews with a heterogenous group of long term volunteers from a single community. Interviews were first analyzed separately to construct a clear sense of each individuals??? motivations for volunteering, then commonalities were identified and integrated with past research on both volunteer moti- vations and altruism. The emergent motives from interviews largely aligned with core psychological needs as described by Self Determination Theory, motives to volunteer as identified by work on the Volunteer Functions Inventory, or role identification in accordance with Social Identity Theory. An integrated frame- work was formulated by integrating these three elements along with other relevant observations from the interview responses. Most volunteers interviewed saw their own actions as having a self-centered motivation. This observation along with the integrated framework of Self Determination theory is used to highlight that the emotional or regulatory processes which volunteers rely upon to maintain their volunteering may be self focused while the overall behavioral patten may still be altruistic, or other serving