Physiological Correlates of Volunteering

We review research on physiological correlates of volunteering, a neglected but promising research field. Some of these correlates seem to be causal factors influencing volunteering. Volunteers tend to have better physical health, both self-reported and expert-assessed, better mental health, and perform better on cognitive tasks. Research thus far has rarely examined neurological, neurochemical, hormonal, and genetic correlates of volunteering to any significant extent, especially controlling for other factors as potential confounds. Evolutionary theory and behavioral genetic research suggest the importance of such physiological factors in humans. Basically, many aspects of social relationships and social activities have effects on health (e.g., Newman and Roberts 2013; Uchino 2004), as the widely used biopsychosocial (BPS) model suggests (Institute of Medicine 2001). Studies of formal volunteering (FV), charitable giving, and altruistic behavior suggest that physiological characteristics are related to volunteering, including specific genes (such as oxytocin receptor [OXTR] genes, Arginine vasopressin receptor [AVPR] genes, dopamine D4 receptor [DRD4] genes, and 5-HTTLPR). We recommend that future research on physiological factors be extended to non-Western populations, focusing specifically on volunteering, and differentiating between different forms and types of volunteering and civic participation

Volunteer Engagement in Housing Co-Operatives – Civil Society “en miniature”

Housing co‐operatives host miniature versions of civil society. They vitalise a social system that is shaped by formal regulations, economic functions, and a population of private housing units. The study examines factors that influence a person’s willingness to volunteer in civic society using a multilevel analysis based on survey data from 32 co‐operatives and 1263 members. To do so, the social exchange theory is extended to include the member value approach, which connects social engagement with the fulfillment of a range of needs, thus going beyond a narrow economic cost benefit analysis. Study results show that volunteer engagement largely depends on the degree to which members can expect to experience their own achievement. This finding provides an explanation for significant differences in the engagement levels beyond factors that have already been determined (age, level of education). On an organizational level, the study reveals that the age of an organization influences volunteer engagement, but that the size and the degree of professionalization do not have an effect on it

Mrs. Aristotele’s teeth: How SOEP transformed life satisfaction research

Aristotle thought that women were inferior to men, and cited the well-known »fact« that they have fewer teeth as evidence to support his belief. Bertrand Russell pointed out that all he had to do to check this »fact« was ask Mrs. Aristotle to open her mouth. SOEP has played the same role in research on LS that Mrs. Aristotle’s teeth should have played for Aristotle. Evidence from SOEP played a major role in overturning the previously dominant theory of LS – set-point theory – and has contributed substantially towards new lines of research directed towards explaining medium and long-term change. Our aim in this paper is to review some of the contributions that SOEP has made to research on Life Satisfaction (LS) under Gert Wagner’s leadership. We then attempt to make a further contribution by analysing SOEP data for the last 25 years (1990–2014) on the somewhat different factors which affect (1) LS change and (2) LS volatility. In doing this, we assume that the reasons why many people have fairly stable levels of LS are already well understood (Sheldon/Lucas 2014). SOEP’s contribution has primarily been to provide evidence about change. In this paper, we introduce what may be quite an important distinction between LS change and LS volatility. The point of this distinction is that many individuals whose long-term mean levels of LS show no net change nevertheless record high degrees of volatility, with periods in which their LS is well above their long-term mean, and other periods in which it is well below. There is now general agreement among LS researchers that our main current task is to develop a theory of LS which accounts for change – or, we would say, both change and volatility – as well as stability (Sheldon/Lucas, 2014). Clearly, set-point theory is purely a theory of stability and it is certainly correct to claim that there are some factors which tend to stabilise LS. But what are the variables that account for change and volatility? In seeking to explain change and volatility, we have found that conscious values/life priorities and behavioural choices play significant roles. It is likely that we have only scratched the surface in accounting for change. Future researchers will presumably find more individual choices – and perhaps public policy choices – which make a significant difference. Hedonic treadmills can then be sent to the junkyard of discarded academic metaphors

Kooperation in der Bauwirtschaft mit Hilfe von Verbundbetrieben Teil 1: Thoretische Grundlagen

TIB: RN 5973 (1381) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman