Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria

Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor

doi:doi:10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20

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Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria

Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor

Published in Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 5)

Received: 19 August 2015 Accepted: 30 October 2015 Published: 17 November 2015

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Abstract

Volunteerism has been widely defined as a long-term, planned pro-social behavior that benefits strangers, and which occur within an organizational setting (e.g, Penner, 2002). This definition seems to divorce volunteering from by-stander intervention in an emergency situation, which does involve helping strangers. The present paper contends that this definition of volunteerism does not consider cultural imperatives. For example, the paper argues that the indigenous help practices attendant in a collectivist society such as Nigeria do not always locate strangers, and could fellow up help efforts from an emergency to a long-standing non-emergency end. The paper, therefore, posits that any meaningful research and discussion on volunteerism in Nigeria should give credence to cultural foundations of prosocial behaviour such as kinship and in-group empathy. This, hopefully, will improve the possibilities of crime control, terrorism reduction and poverty alleviation.

Published in	Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 5)
DOI	10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20
Page(s)	230-233
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Volunteerism, Kinship, Empathy, Help, Prosocial Behaviour

References

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Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor. (2015). Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria. Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(5), 230-233. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20

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Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor. Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2015, 3(5), 230-233. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20

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AMA Style

Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor. Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria. Humanit Soc Sci. 2015;3(5):230-233. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20

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@article{10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20,
  author = {Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor},
  title = {Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria},
  journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
  volume = {3},
  number = {5},
  pages = {230-233},
  doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20150305.20},
  abstract = {Volunteerism has been widely defined as a long-term, planned pro-social behavior that benefits strangers, and which occur within an organizational setting (e.g, Penner, 2002). This definition seems to divorce volunteering from by-stander intervention in an emergency situation, which does involve helping strangers. The present paper contends that this definition of volunteerism does not consider cultural imperatives. For example, the paper argues that the indigenous help practices attendant in a collectivist society such as Nigeria do not always locate strangers, and could fellow up help efforts from an emergency to a long-standing non-emergency end. The paper, therefore, posits that any meaningful research and discussion on volunteerism in Nigeria should give credence to cultural foundations of prosocial behaviour such as kinship and in-group empathy. This, hopefully, will improve the possibilities of crime control, terrorism reduction and poverty alleviation.},
 year = {2015}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria
AU  - Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor
Y1  - 2015/11/17
PY  - 2015
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PB  - Science Publishing Group
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AB  - Volunteerism has been widely defined as a long-term, planned pro-social behavior that benefits strangers, and which occur within an organizational setting (e.g, Penner, 2002). This definition seems to divorce volunteering from by-stander intervention in an emergency situation, which does involve helping strangers. The present paper contends that this definition of volunteerism does not consider cultural imperatives. For example, the paper argues that the indigenous help practices attendant in a collectivist society such as Nigeria do not always locate strangers, and could fellow up help efforts from an emergency to a long-standing non-emergency end. The paper, therefore, posits that any meaningful research and discussion on volunteerism in Nigeria should give credence to cultural foundations of prosocial behaviour such as kinship and in-group empathy. This, hopefully, will improve the possibilities of crime control, terrorism reduction and poverty alleviation.
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Author Information

Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor

Department of Psychology, Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

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Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor. (2015). Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria. Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(5), 230-233. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20

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ACS Style

Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor. Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2015, 3(5), 230-233. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20

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AMA Style

Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor. Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria. Humanit Soc Sci. 2015;3(5):230-233. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20,
  author = {Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor},
  title = {Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria},
  journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
  volume = {3},
  number = {5},
  pages = {230-233},
  doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20150305.20},
  abstract = {Volunteerism has been widely defined as a long-term, planned pro-social behavior that benefits strangers, and which occur within an organizational setting (e.g, Penner, 2002). This definition seems to divorce volunteering from by-stander intervention in an emergency situation, which does involve helping strangers. The present paper contends that this definition of volunteerism does not consider cultural imperatives. For example, the paper argues that the indigenous help practices attendant in a collectivist society such as Nigeria do not always locate strangers, and could fellow up help efforts from an emergency to a long-standing non-emergency end. The paper, therefore, posits that any meaningful research and discussion on volunteerism in Nigeria should give credence to cultural foundations of prosocial behaviour such as kinship and in-group empathy. This, hopefully, will improve the possibilities of crime control, terrorism reduction and poverty alleviation.},
 year = {2015}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Cultural Imperatives of Prosocial Behaviour: A Redefinition of Volunteerism in Nigeria
AU  - Chiedozie Okechukwu Okafor
Y1  - 2015/11/17
PY  - 2015
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20
DO  - 10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20
T2  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JF  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JO  - Humanities and Social Sciences
SP  - 230
EP  - 233
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-8184
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.20
AB  - Volunteerism has been widely defined as a long-term, planned pro-social behavior that benefits strangers, and which occur within an organizational setting (e.g, Penner, 2002). This definition seems to divorce volunteering from by-stander intervention in an emergency situation, which does involve helping strangers. The present paper contends that this definition of volunteerism does not consider cultural imperatives. For example, the paper argues that the indigenous help practices attendant in a collectivist society such as Nigeria do not always locate strangers, and could fellow up help efforts from an emergency to a long-standing non-emergency end. The paper, therefore, posits that any meaningful research and discussion on volunteerism in Nigeria should give credence to cultural foundations of prosocial behaviour such as kinship and in-group empathy. This, hopefully, will improve the possibilities of crime control, terrorism reduction and poverty alleviation.
VL  - 3
IS  - 5
ER  -

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