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Tuesday, February 16, 2010 (15:31:39) |
| Tags : Volunteering, psychological kick, work |
Volunteering delivers a positive psychological kick |
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| London: Volunteering delivers a positive psychological kick that could even improve the experience of work the following day.
Researchers studied the psychological effects of volunteer work in a sample of 105 people who worked an average five days a week, and volunteered for 6.7 hours each week on average.
"Volunteering can bring many positive experiences such as the satisfaction of needs that aren't met through work - mastering new skills and relating to people socially, and it also helps people to thoroughly disengage from their work," said a researcher.
Participants each completed two questionnaires each day for a period of two weeks; one questionnaire after work, and another before going to bed.
As well as reporting the time they had spent volunteering, they were asked to report their feelings on need satisfaction, psychological detachment from work, learning experiences, and their well-being at work.
Results of the bed-time questionnaires were compared to the following day's after work questionnaire.
The amount of time people spent on volunteer activities was positively related to psychological detachment from work, their learning experiences and need satisfaction.
"The positive relationships we discovered in this study supports the thinking that even demanding and stressful leisure time experiences such as volunteering for fire and rescue services can have positive psychological effects and even bring benefits in the workplace," concluded the . |
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