The structure of values and sense of coherence hospice volunteers

Introduction: Values are a part of the human world view and they essentially influence individual’s behaviour, choices, development of identity and the perception of events [1]. Schwartz and Bilsky [2, 3] would argue that values even steer these behavior, choices, and evaluation of events. The sense of coherence is a global orientation of an individual. It shows to what extent an individual has a sense that the stimuli are predictable, to what extent he is able to meet the requirements in an energy-efficient way [4].

Aim of the study: Analysis of the structure of values and the sense of coherence of the hospice volunteers.

Material and methods: The sample comprised 74 individuals. The investigational group (medical volunteers) comprised 38 individuals (36 females and 2 males). Of these, 87% were high-school students and 13% were university students. Their experience as volunteers varied as well: 15% of them have been volunteering for at least three years, 53% less than three years but more than one year, 32% less than one year. The control group comprised 36 individuals. The selection to the control group was conditioned by a lack of involvement in any volunteering activity. The study employed the use of Sense of Coherence Questionnaire (SOC-29) by Aaron Antonovsky and the Scheler Value Scale (D-50) by Piotr Brzozowski.

Results: Individuals engaged in medical volunteering (e.g. in a hospice) cannot be discriminated against their sense of coherence when compared with the control group. The two groups differ however substantially with regards to the structure of values. The differences apply to four out of six values examined.

Conclusions: Medical volunteers do not differ from the control group with regards to the general indicator of coherence (p = 0.649) and its components: comprehensibility (p = 0.310), meaningfulness (p = 0.460), manageability (p = 0.497). At the same time, they indicate a lower identification with hedonistic, esthetic and sacral.