Denna kvantitativa studie har sitt fokus på faktorer som motiverar valet av att bli socionom. Individuella faktorer inkluderar studenternas bakgrund, intressen och tidigare erfarenheter, medan strukturella faktorer innefattar utbildningens utformning och arbetsmarknadens förutsättningar. En enkät skickades ut till nio lärosäten i Sverige och besvarades av 214 socionomstudenter i terminerna 1, 2, 6 och 7. Enkäten användes som ett verktyg för att mäta studenternas attityder och motivation till utbildningsvalet. Attitydfaktorer operationaliserades med hjälp av mätinstrument och tidigare forskning vilket resulterade i olika variabler. För att specificera vilka variabler som skulle ingå formulerades fyra hypoteser som hjälpte till att vägleda analysen och uppnå studiens syfte.  Det insamlade materialet presenterades med hjälp av olika statistiska analysmetoder i SPSS, såsom Kruskal-Wallis, Chi-två, Anova och Mann-Whitney U test. Resultaten analyserades vidare med hjälp av våra teoretiska referensramar, habitus- och kapitalteori, Wounded healer och en modell över förklaringsfaktorerna i utbildningsval.  Studiens resultat visar att individuella faktorer, särskilt altruism och personliga erfarenheter, har en signifikant inverkan på socionomstudenternas utbildningsval. Det framkommer att kvinnliga studenter i högre utsträckning väljer socionomutbildningen av altruistiska motiv än manliga studenter. Dessutom observerades det att graden av altruism varierar bland terminerna, där studenterna blir mindre altruistiska ju längre fram i utbildningen de kommer.

The purpose of this dissertation is twofold: first, this research aims to contribute to the understanding of the roots of public service motivation and explore whether it is appropriate to ground the public service motivation concept in institutional theory; second, this research will analyze the relationship between altruism, public service motivation, empathy levels, and prosocial behavior. The field of public administration has witnessed a proliferation of research in public service motivation, both internationally and across the United States. A substantial amount of research has been conducted at the federal and state levels on public service motivation, leaving the local level of government largely underrepresented. Researchers have developed and refined measurement techniques for the public service motivation construct and have extensively examined the consequences of public service motivation as they pertain to public management techniques and approaches. However, the role institutions play in the development of public service motivation is largely unexamined. Additionally, the impact of public service motivation on prosocial behavior has not been thoroughly examined. This research attempts to fill these gaps in the literature. Using data derived from survey responses from 903 employees of ten local governments in Mississippi, this research examines an underrepresented group in public service motivation literature. This research analyzes the role that various institutional antecedents play in the development of public service motivation among local government employees, finding that four out of the seven institutional antecedents studied were significant: educational level, parenting status, parental modeling, and spirituality. It also analyzes the impact of public service motivation, empathy, and altruism levels on the prosocial behavior of local government employees in society. Results show that public service motivation is positively correlated to prosocial behavior; whereas empathy and altruism are not statistically significant.

This master’s thesis is a qualitative research project that explored the transformation of multiple individuals who initially learned for self-interested purposes, but later had a shift in their desire to learn so as to benefit others. The author collected rich narratives that described this phenomenon and provided insight into the following question: what is the experience of a learner who transitions from learning out of self-interest to learning out of altruistic purposes? The author found the following five major themes across six participants as they transitioned to more altruistic learning: humility, self-efficacy, resources, success and agency. These themes give insight into the shift of an altruistic learner’s perspective as they shifted from self-interested desires to altruistic desires. In doing so, these learners find the most significant meaning in learning by helping influence the recipient in a meaningful way and not just accomplishing the task. The implications of this research can better help educators understand principles of altruistic learning and thereby create opportunities for others to become altruistic learners.

Altruism is loosely defined as a desire to help others as well as acts and behaviors towards that end, particularly when no expectation of personal gain or reward exists (Batson, Fultz, Schoenrade & Paduano, 1987). It seems likely that individuals who choose to pursue acareer in counseling might be doing so out of some altruistic interest; in other words a desire to come to the aid of others in distress. It has been noted as well that some individuals may enter the counseling profession based more on self-interest; for example, as "wounded healers" hoping to work on personal issues (Wheeler, 2002). Some researchers (Shapiro &Gabbard, 1996) hypothesize that overstated altruism may lead to burn-out and fatigue among some counselors whereas those who have limited altruism may have difficulties empathizing with clients. Despite the apparent relevance of altruism to counseling as a profession, very few studies have investigated the level of altruism among those in the field. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between altruism and personality variables in beginning counseling students. It is currently unclear to what extent altruism is a state (situational) vs. a trait (inherent). Grasping a greater sense of what constitutes altruistic behavior among beginning counseling students may benefit researchers in understanding the potential difficulties Shapiro & Gabbard (1996) suggest; i.e., burn-out, limited empathy or even self-gratification. The population in this study was 87 students entering a Master's degree in Counselor Education at a large, public institution in the Southeastern Unites States. The subjects completed the following assessments at orientation to their program: The Robinson-Heintzelman Inventory (an instrument designed to study altruism vs. self-interest in counselor education students), the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B). It was hypothesized that higher scores on altruism would correlate with the intuitive and feeling dimensions of the MBTI and low scores on wanted inclusion, wanted affection and expressed control on the FIRO-B. The hypotheses were not supported in this study; the only finding of statistical significance was the correlation between the thinking dimension of the MBTI and the total score on the RHI. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

The current study examines the roles of expectancy disconfirmation and pseudo-altruistic behaviors as communication strategies to increase receiver compliance, and their effects on perceptions of the source, including credibility and likeability ratings. While adding to the previous research, this investigation examines the effects on compliance when pseudo-altruistic practices are employed in a sales situation. Additionally, subjects’ compliance responses in the treatment groups are analyzed for relationships between compliance and several possible mediators, including participant’s evaluations of the source, and feelings of obligation and guilt. A focus group was held to discuss the face validity of the scenarios. Additionally, a pilot study was conducted to verify the operationalization of the independent variable, and to reveal any items that needed to be modified before the actual study was conducted. 141 undergraduate students were assigned to one of six treatment groups, and responded to the scenario and questionnaire. Five-point Likert type scales were used for the source factor and compliance items, and seven-point semantic differential scales were used for the items which measured source perceptions. Additionally, an optional open-ended item was employed for subjects to explain the motives behind their decisions. Analysis of the data showed that participants in the pseudo-altruistic treatment conditions were more likely to return to Store or Dealership A, or tipped the server more than usual. They also rated the source as more expert and of higher character in the treatment groups that the neutral, control groups. This increase in compliance was consistent across all three scenarios. Regression analyses also revealed that source factors including concern, helpfulness, unexpected behavior, expertise, character, honesty, and likeability predicted 26% of the compliance variance. In conclusion, subjects were more likely to comply in the pseudo-altruistic treatment condition, regardless of the scenario. Their compliance is attributed to feelings of liking and higher ratings of the source, which facilitated reciprocal altruism and benefited the salesperson or server for their selfless behavior.

Research suggests that counselor educators continue to debate whether general personality characteristics, relationship building skills, or other knowledge or skills are important in selecting the most effective counselors (Crews et al., 2005). Further, counselor educators continue to rely on measures that have limited ability to predict counseling competence or success in graduate programs. Such measures include GRE and GPA scores along with heavy reliance on the personal interview that is well-known for bias. Moreover, research supports that there is a need for assessments that will assist in determining the most effective counselors and emphasize the importance of measuring those characteristics that have a solid empirical link to client outcomes. The purpose of this study was to bridge the gap in the literature and to measure counselor characteristics that have are grounded in current outcome literature. Outcome research has suggested that counselor empathy is one of the strongest predictors of client outcome. Therefore, two constructs were explored in this study that are linked to empathy: Loevinger‘s (1976) Theory of Ego Development and Altruistic Caring as measured by the Heintzelman Inventory (Robinson, Kuch, & Swank, 2010). The sample consisted of 81 graduate-level counselor trainees in their first or second semester of practicum at a large South Eastern university. Results revealed no statistically significant relationship between variables. However, further exploratory analysis yielded a statistically significant relationship between a component of altruistic caring, specifically early career choice in the counseling field (4.1% of the variance explained), and client outcome. Implications for counselor educators are presented along with areas for future research.

In this applied microeconomics dissertation, we study the effect of religiosity and life events on risk preferences and how happiness affect altruism. We begin with the first chapter by examining the relationship between high-risk health behavior and religiosity. Religious beliefs can impact an individual's behavior, including their future health. The 2021 CDC analyses shows that sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are still common, with an estimated 1 in 5 people in the US having an STI, and 13% of persons in the US with age 12 years old and above consuming any illicit drugs. We estimate the effect of religiosity on high-risk health behavior using panel data from the General Social Survey and construct a high-risk health behavior index using the CDC high-risk behaviors. The religiosity index was developed by combining religiosity dimensions such as religious service attendance, prayer frequency, and religious affiliation. Ordered probit was performed to test the relationship between high-risk behavior and religiosity. The result indicates that religiosity is negatively associated with high-risk health behavior and is statistically significant. We confirmed that religious people are less likely to be involved in risky behaviors, especially for Catholics. We also find that individuals who switch religion are more likely to engage in high-risk health behaviors. In the second chapter, we examined the relationship between health and happiness and how happiness impacts altruism. The previous economics literature has shown that altruism can create a warm glow or cause happiness; we tested instead whether happy people are more altruistic. Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) covering the period of 2002, 2004, 2012, and 2014, we employed a two-stage least square approach and performed OLS and ordered probit regression. We use health as an instrumental variable for happiness. Overall, the results indicate that happiness is associated with volunteer work and giving to charity and provide a basis for policy development to focus on promoting factors that contribute to happiness and wellbeing in order to foster pro-social behavior such as volunteering and donation to charity. Lastly, on the third chapter, we investigate how life events affect risk aversion using the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP) Data. Our fixed effects estimation suggests that experiencing childbirth and losing parents decrease individuals' risk-taking propensity, while getting separated from a spouse or partner increases the willingness to take risks. We also find that changing jobs increases the willingness to take risks, and individuals who become self-employed tend to take more risks. Furthermore, we examine the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET) and find that for family-related events that are relatively beyond control, such as experiencing childbirth or the death of a child, parent, or spouse or partner, people tend to become more risk-averse. On the other hand, people tend to become less risk-averse for circumstances that are relatively within control, such getting married, separated, and divorced.

The news media is the most common way for individuals to obtain information about a vast range of events. The purpose of the present study was to better understand what factors predict people's news media patterns, including mental health, personality factors, and propensity for altruism. This study investigated whether certain media patterns correlate with higher pathology in viewers. Participants were asked to complete an informal survey in which they provided information about their news patterns in general, and then specifically about their news media pattern when obtaining information about the Haitian crisis. The Haitian crisis served as an example of a crisis event broadcasted by a wide variety 9f news media outlets including local news, cable news, magazines, and internet sources. Additional measures in the study include the Symptom-Checklist-90 (SCL-90) self-report scale as a measure of psychopathology, the Civic Moral Disengagement Scale (CMDs), and the self-report Altruism Measure. It was predicted that participants who accessed news about the disaster through sources that presented a political agenda rather than just reporting the news, would score higher on psychopathology and lower Qn altruism. Although there was no significant correlation between news media patterns and psychopathology, a correlation between news media patterns and altruistic behavior was found. Personality factors were also significantly correlated to altruistic behavior and media choice. The findings of this study open the doors to further studies in the field of media, personality, and altruistic behavior. Implications of the findings, as well as need for further research are discussed.

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