Political Participation in an Action-Theory Model of Personality: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Pro-social basic human values and civic involvement. The moderating role of survival vs self-expression cultural context

“…In the present analyses we tested the assumption that civic involvement (i.e., public, pro-social action aimed at securing the well-being and interests of others and improving the common welfare) can be predicted not only by factors related to skills or personality such as education or self efficacy (see Barnes & Kaase, 1979;Krampen, 1991;Milbrath & Goel, 1977;Miller & Jennings, 1986;Putnam, 1995) but also by priorities within a personal hierarchy of values (see Bekkers, 2005;Patterson, 2004;Roccas et al, 2002;Schwartz, 2006). Thus, we examined values that motivate individual civic involvement over and above demographic, personality and social capital variables.…”

“…socio-demographic variables (Nie et al, 1969;Milbrath & Goel, 1977), a sense of efficacy (Verba & Nie, 1972;Bynner & Ashford, 1994), extraversion and positive self-esteem (Milbrath & Klein, 1962;Davies, 1973); and social capital variables (Milbrath & Klein, 1962;Krampen, 1991;Putnam, 1995). The items included in the European Social Survey allowed us to control the influence of most of these variables in our analyses.…”

“…Many of these works show that, apart from demographic variables such as age, social status and education (Nie, Powell, Prewitt, 1969;Milbrath & Goel, 1977), an individual sense of efficacy and trust in public institutions is among the most important factors increasing the likelihood of individual civic involvement (eg. Barnes & Kaase, 1979;Krampen, 1991;Miller & Jennings, 1986;Schwartz, 2006). The results of numerous studies which have investigated the specific psychological needs and desires behind civic involvement are far from conclusive.…”

Social Butterflies and Politics: Exploring the Link between Sociability and Political Engagement, Online and Off

“…Much early research examined the "link between mass-level personality factors and adherence to democratic norms" (Mondak & Halperin, 2008, p. 337), particularly the ways in which the "authoritarian personality" operated (Adorno, Frankel-Brunswick, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950;Greenstein, 1965;Hennessy, 1959;Janowitz & Marvick, 1953;Lane, 1955;Martin, 2001;Smith, 1997). Over the years, further investigations revealed linkages between a number of personality characteristics-ego strength, gregariousness, extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, empathic concern, conflict avoidance, perspective taking, anomie, dogmatism, pessimism, self-esteem, and tolerance-and a range of political attitudes (e.g., feelings of efficacy, ideological self-identification, and issue opinions) and behavior, such as opinion leadership, organizational involvement, and activism (Bekkers, 2005;Campbell et al, 1960;Gerber, Huber, Doherty, Dowling, & Ha, 2010;Huebner & Lipsey, 1981;Katz & Larzarsfeld, 1955;Knutson, 1973;Krampen, 1991;McClosky, 1958;Sniderman. 1975;Sullivan, Piereson, & Marcus, 1982;Ulbig & Funk, 1999;Watanabe & Milburn, 1988).…”

Once a Peacenik--Always a Peacenik? Results From a German Six-Wave, Twenty-Year Longitudinal Study.

“…Only two of the reported studies, however, included information on political participation, namely studies by Oswald (1999, Oswald & Schmid, 1998 and Krampen (1991Krampen ( , 2000.…”