Thesis Type: Postgraduate
Institution Of The Thesis: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology, Turkey
Approval Date: 2015
Thesis Language: English
Student: ZEYNEP ŞAKLAR
Supervisor: Nuray Sakallı Uğurlu
Abstract:The main objective of this study was to investigate the role of justice dispositions on volunteer participation, volunteering level and type of volunteering (activism or service volunteering). The current literature provides only a few researches focusing on the relationship between justice antecedents and volunteering where most of the results indicated a significant difference between volunteers and non-volunteers regarding justice dispositions. With the influence of these studies, a more personality focused research was designed and the justice sensitivity concept was examined under two perspectives: self-concerned justice sensitivity (JSVICTIM) and other concerned justice sensitivity (JSOTHER).Volunteer motivations, sense of social responsibility, self-efficacy and demographic variables were also examined. The data was collected from volunteers (N = 109) and non-volunteers (N=121) where the overall mean age was 25.8. It was expected that volunteers would be significantly more sensitive to injustices towards others than non-volunteers and JSOTHER would predict volunteer participation significantly after controlling for volunteer motivations, social responsibility, self-efficacy and demographic variables. The results indicated that although volunteers had significantly higher JSOTHER scores than non-volunteers, JSOTHER was not a significant predictor for volunteer participation after controlling the above mentioned variables. Besides, male volunteers had significantly higher JSOTHER scores than male non-volunteers where no such effect was seen for female participants. Secondly, activists and service volunteers did not differ in their JSOTHER scores as expected. However, the hypothesized moderation role of JSOTHER for the effect of self-efficacy on level of volunteering did not found statistical support. The study findings, possible causes and limitations were discussed.