I'm an activist, you´re a volunteer? are we the same people? An intent of psychologically meaningful classification of social participation

DELFINO, G.; ZLOBINA, A.; DAVILA, M. C.

San Antonio

Congreso; 41th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP); 2018

International Society of Political Psychology

The literature on social engagement frequently employs the terms ?activist? and ?volunteer? interchangeably. However, there may be important differences in the goals they pursue, the models or ?dreams? for the society (change versus cohesion) they endorse, and even individual differences in their motivations or values. We explore self-attributed roles (?activist? and ?volunteer?) among 140 persons actively engaged in social participation related to social injustice and inequality (NGOs, associations, movements, etc.), and relate these roles to the participants? priorities, values, ideologies, emotional reactions about the problem they try to address, and the sense of moral obligation. Cluster analysis (hierarchical cluster analyses and then k-means cluster analyses) allowed identify four groups: ?low role profile?, ?pure volunteer?, ?pure activist?, ?highly engaged? (both roles are highly self-ascribed). ANOVA analyses evidenced that these groups differ on a number of characteristics: ?pure activists? are more on the political left than ?pure volunteers? and experience greater anger. ?Activists? and ?highly engaged? score significantly higher than ?pure volunteers? on social change priorities, emotions of guilt and indignation, values of universalism, the sense of moral obligation, and less on system justification. We discuss the theoretical, social, and practical implications (recruitment, motivation, maintenance of the members) of these findings.