Free Essay Example: Social Psychology and Volunteering

Introduction

The willingness of human beings to have the ability to assist others shows an outstanding difference in characteristics that create differences from others. Several individuals worldwide occasionally volunteer their energy and time for specific causes that they hold dear to them. Therefore, the study indicates that the psychology behind volunteerism is motivated by to various personal values of the volunteers (Hansen & Slagsvold, 2020). The psychology of volunteerism defines the occasion where an individual voluntarily sacrifices to help others without expecting compensation. Service work are also included in volunteerism. The United Way being a charitable organization that needs the intervention of the prosocial behavior experts would include the evaluation of detailed practices needed in promoting the general activities that promote social psychology in volunteerism (Hansen & Slagsvold, 2020). Therefore, this paper describes the ways of overcoming barriers to volunteering experienced by United Way charitable organizations.

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Why People Volunteer

In a society where people might depend on help from others to survive, volunteering is encouraged significantly. Various reasons encourage the individual’s interest in volunteering. For instance, some individuals choose to volunteer with the objective of making a difference to society or giving back. For others, volunteering creates opportunities where they gain specific skills or improve on their existing knowledge and experience (Holladay & Gwozdek, 2018). Despite the motivation, the concept that unites all the volunteers is that the process of volunteering is considered both rewarding and challenging.

The choice of becoming a volunteer is motivated by personal ties to the cause and also considering volunteering as an essential way to build a resume. On various occasions, people develop an interest in volunteering for specific activities since they have a personal tie to the cause. Specific cause calls for volunteering since at some point they experienced hardship that needs to the addressed from the volunteering activity (Holladay & Gwozdek, 2018). Therefore, the developing empathy from being in such a situation motivates the individual to give back and make a difference in the lives of those going through the hardships. Also, people volunteer to build resumes. The process of building the resume is encouraged in the condition that the volunteer develops managerial skills or learns new languages in their positions that might be required when applying for official jobs.

What Inhibits People from Volunteering

While the research indicates that most of individuals develop an interest in volunteering, a section of the population lacks the interest to volunteer. There are three major reasons that makes most individuals avoid the interest to get involved in any volunteering activities. For instance, lack of adequate time and inflexible volunteer schedules contribute to the inability to have an interest in volunteering (Holladay & Gwozdek, 2018). Volunteering is mainly a charitable act and people never get compensated however, most individuals would consider actively engaging in the practices that would promote their abilities to get compensation after completing the assignments (Hansen & Slagsvold, 2020). Therefore, they only have time to volunteer in their free time which is challenging. Also, a lack of adequate information and non-interesting volunteering roles inhibit most people from engaging in a volunteering activity.

Most of the individuals who would potentially volunteer for the project lack adequate information to describe the vacancies and roles in the charitable organizations. Also, the available vacancies in charitable organizations lack interesting descriptions or benefits thus discouraging most people from developing an interest in participating in the voluntary organizations (Holladay & Gwozdek, 2018). The other outstanding reason why people never develop an interest in volunteering is the condition that there are no people who ask them to volunteer. Lack of the people to encourage one to volunteer and contribute to specific projects shows the reasons that inhibit one's interest in volunteering.

Overcoming Barriers to Volunteering

In the volunteering practices, there are four major barriers encountered in the process of volunteering. For instance, a lack of a fitting role is considered a barrier to volunteering. Most of the young individuals enrolled in the volunteering societies are the most affected population since they lack relevant and entertaining roles in the organizations. They lack opportunities that are suitable and interesting (Holladay & Gwozdek, 2018). Therefore, to overcome the barrier of lacking satisfying role, the volunteer managers would consider engaging groups that faces the barrier of lacking effective roles thus they would consider finding ways to help them work with their interests and skills. also, the lack of reasons to volunteer is a significant barrier to volunteering. Some individuals fail to get the interest of why they should volunteer (Hansen & Slagsvold, 2020). Therefore, solving the challenge of why others fail to understand the reasons why they should be involved in volunteering can be avoided by combatting the stereotypical images for the highlights and adequate information on the volunteering project would help build interest in volunteering.

Empathy Altruism Hypothesis Negative State Relief

The application of the empathy-altruism hypothesis indicates that an individual’s feelings to empathize with one another are effective in producing an altruistic motivation used to increase the welfare of the affected individual. The hypothesis encourages the empathizing individual to feel sympathetic, compassionate, and tender (Holladay & Gwozdek, 2018). Atrium on the other hand is applied to define the motivational state that aims at improving the welfare of the other. Therefore, the empathy altruism hypothesis is applied essentially to understand the details of why an individual should engage in voluntary activities.

Empathy Joy Hypothesis

Empathy joy hypothesis on the other hand refers to the condition that for an individual to help one another, the possible outcome is positive feeling development that is associated with the altruistic behavior. The process of helping one another is considered a reward since it develops an individual’s joy and happiness when a helping behavior is committed. Therefore, the theory is also applicable significantly in realizing some influential activities that should be applied to help promote the individual’s ability to engage in volunteering practices (Hansen & Slagsvold, 2020). therefore, the theory encourages one to develop the spirit of help when one requires the services or help.

Recommendation of How to Recruit More Volunteers

United Way has occasionally experienced a challenge in recruiting more volunteers into the teams. The volunteers are essential to the organization and effective ways should be adopted to help recruit a greater number of volunteers to the team. For instance, the first approach is to ask. Asking is obvious though overlooked. The officials should consider asking people to volunteer (Holladay & Gwozdek, 2018). Asking people to join the organization passes the information and clarifies the desired interests of the team that most individuals might have not the invitations should be extended across the communication channels of United Way. Getting specifics is also an essential way that United Way can apply to recruit more members to the team. For instance, the team should not generalize on calling the volunteers but focus on making them act specifically on completing specific objectives when they join the team (Hansen & Slagsvold, 2020). Therefore, describing specifics would help the team realize an essential interest that is required to promote the detailed activity encouraged by the charitable organization.

References

Hansen, T., & Slagsvold, B. (2020). An “Army of Volunteers”? Engagement, Motivation, and Barriers to Volunteering among the Baby Boomers. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 1-19. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01634372.2020.1758269

Holladay, C. M., & Gwozdek, A. E. (2018). Assessment of Michigan Dentists' and Dental Hygienists' Perceptions Toward Obtaining Continuing Education Credits for Volunteering in Community-Based Clinics. American Dental Hygienists' Association, 92(4), 43-50. https://jdh.adha.org/content/jdenthyg/92/4/43.full.pdf