Justin D. Hackett

Personality and motivational antecedents of activism and civic engagement.

This article conceptually links theory and research on volunteerism to different forms of political activity, specifically activism and civic engagement. Multiple perspectives and measures of personality as antecedents of volunteerism, activism, and civic engagement are outlined, including individual differences in motivations, interpersonal orientations, and traits. Next, self-report data from 624 people involved in AIDS service organizations (as clients, volunteers, staff, or supporters) are utilized to empirically explore the best personality predictors of AIDS activism and civic engagement. Other-focused rather than self-focused motivation better predicted AIDS activism and civic engagement. The only measure of interpersonal orientation consistently related to these outcomes was communal orientation; as well, only the trait of extraversion was related to both outcomes. In analyses testing the predictive power of constellations of personality measures, other-focused motivation better predicted AIDS activism and civic engagement than the other measures of motivation, interpersonal orientation, and traits. Finally, meditational analyses supported a developmental sequence in which other-focused motivation leads to specific activism, which, in turn, encourages broader civic engagement. The discussion focuses on theoretical implications for understanding the impact of personality on different forms of citizenship behaviors and of the applicability of the Volunteer Process Model for studying political activity and civic engagement.

Further to the right: Uncertainty, political polarization and the American “Tea Party” movement

The Tea Party entered U.S. politics in a time of economic uncertainty, positioning itself far to the right of the conservative movement. Its highly conservative position has allowed it to provide a clear self-definition that contrasts with more moderate and liberal political views. To examine the Tea Partys influence on American political prototypes, we manipulated the comparative context in which participants received an extreme pro-normative message from a Tea Party group. Conservatives (N = 47), primed with self-uncertainty, supported the extreme position, indicating more conservative views for both themselves and similar others when primed with an intergroup versus an intragroup context. Results are discussed in terms of the ability for extreme ingroup factions to polarize prototypes under self-conceptual uncertainty.

Differentiating Common Predictors and Outcomes of Marijuana Initiation: A Retrospective Longitudinal Analysis

This quasi-experimental secondary analysis, funded by NIDA, employed data from a national sample of 1,968 US adolescents, collected from 1999 to 2003, self-classified as resolutely anti-marijuana on the first two yearly assessments (T1 and 2). At T3, respondents remained resolute non-users, or had moved to vulnerable non-use or use. Analysis of variance indicated that users at T3 were significantly heavier users of tobacco and alcohol, and reported significantly less intense parental monitoring, than those who did not initiate marijuana use. Furthermore, categorizing non-users as either resolute or vulnerable revealed behavioral patterns that otherwise would have been unidentified. Implications for prevention are discussed.

Activism as a pathway to global citizenship

Abstract We examined the influence of prior work with activist issues on the antecedents, identification, and outcomes of global citizenship. Participants rated their engagement with activist issues and measures related to global citizenship identification antecedents and outcomes. The results showed that engagement with activist issues predicted global citizenship through the perceptions of one’s normative environment and global awareness. Activism also indirectly predicted prosocial values and behaviors related to global citizen identity through antecedents and global citizenship identification. The results highlight the prosocial outcomes of participation in activist movements.

Values anchoring: Strengthening the link between values and activist behaviors

Activist behaviors have been offered as ways to confront societal issues and concerns. This study examined the moderating influence of a new construct, values anchoring, between conservation values and conservation activism and between self-transcendence values and self-transcendence activism. Values anchoring proposes that values exist along a continuum ranging from personal concerns to social groups. Anchored more in personal concerns, values are important and the connection between personal values and behaviors is clear. Anchored more in social groups, values should be determined by the saliency of particular groups and their associated values. Relationships were strengthened when values were anchored more in personal concerns. The theoretical impact of values anchoring on the relationship between personal values and activist behaviors is discussed.