V. Micro-theories: association membership, participation, and VolUnteering

The micro-theories relevant to this Part of Chapter 8 are presented at length in Handbook Part IV and will not be repeated here. Chapter 37 gives an overview of the most comprehensive theories and models that have been tested empirically. Very substantial portions of the variance (40-60%+) in volunteering and participation can be explained by the best of these theories.

Rochester’s (2013) recent book is one example of renewed interest in theories about volunteering and voluntary action (see also Rochester, Paine, and Howlett 2010). Rochester (ibid. Chap. 8) discusses three paradigms of volunteering, as different contexts all of which are needed for a “round earth” map of volunteering---a dominant “nonprofit paradigm” involving VSPs, a “civil society paradigm” involving self-help and mutual aid in associations, and a “serious leisure paradigm,” involving arts, culture, sports and recreation activities also in associations.

Smith (2015f) prefers a different but related approach. He distinguishes five analytical types of volunteering, based on the external context of each type, as follows, with types #2 and #4 corresponding to Rochester’s three paradigms, but adding #1, 3 and 5 below:

1. Informal Volunteering (IV), where there is no relevant external group or organization as a context and role guiding the individual’s volunteer activity (see Handbook Chapter 10A);

2. Formal Association Volunteering (FAV), where the individual is acting in a role as a volunteer member or participant in an external association (see most chapters of the Handbook);

3. Formal Board Volunteering (FBV), where the individual is acting in a role as a volunteer member or participant in a policy-making board, commission, or similar elite unit of some larger organization, whether a nonprofit organization or not (not the subject of a Handbook chapter, given insufficient research literature);

4. Formal Service-Program Volunteering (FSPV), where the individual is acting in a role as a service-providing volunteer as part of some Volunteer Service Program (VSP), that is a non-autonomous, volunteer department of some larger, parent organization in any sector of society (see Handbook Chapters 10B and 29, and parts of other chapters);

5. Stipended Service Volunteering (SSV), where the individual is acting in a role as a service-providing volunteer as part of some Volunteer Service Program (VSP) but receives significant payments, either financially or in-kind, which still leave a net cost to the volunteer relative to the market value of the activity performed (as in the U.S. Peace Corps or domestic SSV program, such as VISTA; see Handbook Chapters 11A and 11B).

VI. Micro-theories: gEneral Human behavior

Psychologists, sociologists, and other social scientists have been seeking general theories of individual human behavior for the past 80 years or more. An example of an early proto-theory in psychology is Lewin’s pseudo-equation for behavior: B= f (P, E), where B=Behavior, P=Person, and E=Environment (Lewin [1936] 2008). It is not clear whether Lewin sought to quantify his pseudo-equation, which seems more like a heuristic device. In sociology, Homans’ (1961) exchange theory is a more recent but still early example. In political science, Almond and Verba’s (1963) civic culture model of political participation is an early example.

In Handbook Chapter 31, Smith with van Puyvelde briefly review various recent theories and models in four social-behavioral sciences and some fields of biology that are converging toward a common theoretical approach to explaining human individual behavior. In the past two years, Smith (2015c) has used his view of such convergence to construct S-Theory (Synanthrometrics). S-Theory is presented as a comprehensive, quantitative, interdisciplinary, and consilient theory of human behavior and proposed as a new Standard Human Science Model.

S-Theory is exceedingly complex and therefore difficult to summarize effectively in this chapter. It posits a Basic Behavior Equation (BBE) in various forms that are hypothesized to explain and predict the complexity of nearly all instances of individual human behavior, including sociality and voluntary action. S-Theory can be summarized in a Brief Basic Behavior Equation (Brief BBE) in deterministic form (Smith 2015c: Proposition P2). This equation asserts that human behavior (P’ below) results from the joint effects of three Mega-Independent Variables (Mega-IVs): the individual’s Body (B), external Environment (E), and Psyche, psychological system, or mind (, pronounced as psi or sigh), as follows:

(Eq. 1) P’ = B x E x 

The most comprehensive version of the BBE in S-Theory (Smith 2015c: Proposition P4), termed the General BBE/Comprehensive Version (General BBE/CV), contains the following 19 Key Macro-Independent Variables (Macro-IVs) that collectively are hypothesized to explain and predict nearly all human behavior (P below):

Eq. 2) P (Position or behavior)= [seven Relevant-Body IVs (BIF, CAP, ASC, BGR, CBC, BSR, SBF)] + [five Relevant-Environment IVs (PPM, EDF, SBS, CE, GBP] + [seven Psyche IVs (M, A, G, I, C, π, S)]

or a bit more simply:

(Eq. 3) P = [BIF + CAP + ASC + BGR + CBC + BSR + SBF] + [PPM + EDF + SBS + CE + GBP] + [M + A + G + I + C + π + S]

P5: The following are the contents (and brief labels) for all 19 Key Macro-IVs comprising the three Mega-IV types:

(A) Seven Relevant-Body (R-B) Key Macro-IVs:

(1) BIF = Body Internal Functioning-health at present

(2) CAP = Conscious Alertness Phase at present (Alert-Awake, Distracted-Awake, Transitional, Light Sleep, Deep Sleep, Stupor/Coma)

(3) ASC = Altered State of Consciousness (e.g., drunk, drugged, hypnotized, in shock, sexually aroused, enraged, or psychotic), if any [a Threshold IV]

(4) BGR = Behavior Genetics Relevant (various genetic behavior-dispositions relevant at present to a given behavior DV)

(5) CBC = Current Body Chemistry-neurology (including especially the following)

(a) CEO = Current External-origin (non-human-DNA-based) Organisms and chemicals (e.g., bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, allergens, poisons, etc.)

(b) CHS = Current Hormones and Secretions

(c) CNC = Current Neuro-Chemistry

(d) CNP = Current Neuro-Physiology

(6) BSR = Body-linked Socio-cultural Roles indicated at present (e.g., age, gender, race-ethnicity, abnormal height or weight, facial disfigurement, body deformity, varieties of able vs. disabled [blind, deaf, mute, paraplegic, quadriplegic, amputee, birth defect victim, brain-damaged, physiological psychotic], etc.).

(7) SBF = Superficial Body Features (especially including the following)

(a) BE = Body Emissions (excretions, external secretions, odors, sounds) at present

(b) BSA = Body Surface Appearance features (hair on head and body, skin color and texture, tattoos, scars, pimples, moles; visible deformities, abnormalities, etc.) at present

(c) CAB = Clothing and Adornments on the Body at present (technically a part of the MIcro-Environment/MIE, but listed here for practical reasons), if any [a Threshold IV]

(B) Five Relevant-Environment (R-E) Key Macro-IVs, some of which refer to the MIcro-Environment (MIE):

(1) PPM = Physical Permissiveness of the MIcro-Environment/MIE (extent to

which the MIE limits normal, gross, motor activity of the body)

2. EDF = Environment Driver Factors (objectively-present, noxious or dangerous stimuli or situations in the MIE that are likely to influence the individual to escape the MIE or to ameliorate/eliminate these stimuli if either is feasible; for instance, sufficient cold, heat, wind, moisture, noxious gas, sound, brightness of light, other extreme radiation, unpleasant smells, etc.; also, dangerous animals, people, situations, etc.)

2. SBS = Socio-cultural Behavior Setting (a socio-culturally meaningful situation or behavior setting that is physically-objectively present [vs. perceived by the individual] in the MIE or larger sociocultural environment, with associated-linked normative expectations for behavior)

2. CE = Control (that is objectively likely over the) Environment, especially the MIE, by the individual)

(5) GBP = General Bio-Physical environment (including the Natural Non-human

Biological environment/NNB, the Built-Artificial Environment/BAE, and the

Human Population Environment/HPE).

(C) Seven Psyche () Key Macro-IVs:

(1) M = Motivations/dispositions

(2) A = Affects/emotions

(3) G = Goals/outcomes

(4) I = Intellectual capacities/skills

(5) C = Cognitions/schemas/perceptions

(6) π (pi) = Pain level felt, if any [a Threshold IV]

(7) S = Self (both the conscious and unconscious, unique, organizing pattern

of the other six Psyche IVs, which are termed the Life Stance IVs/LS, M, A, G, I, C, π)

If or when S-Theory receives sufficient empirical confirmation and/or expert approval, this theory may be seen as a proposed New Standard Socio-Behavioral Science Model or NSSSM (using the term Standard Model as in particle physics). This NSSSM seeks to make sense of the huge number and variety of variables that significantly affect human behavior. But unlike the SSSM, the New SSSM, based on S-Theory, gives biological and psychological variables their rightful place in this model.

The NSSSM is intended to replace the narrower Standard Social Science Model (SSSM) identified and discussed by Tooby and Cosmides (1992). Edward Wilson (1999:204-207) has suggested some key elements of a NSSSM, all of which S-Theory includes as consilience. The NSSSM also implements the central interdisciplinary recommendation of the Gulbenkian Commission on the Social Sciences (Mudimbe 1996). The author would prefer to use the label New Standard Human Science Model (NSHSM), because the word Human is much more appropriately interdisciplinary than the word Social.