RELATION BETWEEN TEMPERAMENT, ABILITY TO COPE WITH SOCIAL SITUATIONS, TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL GENDER AND THE READINESS TO SHOW PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

The aim of this study was to investigate if people who show prosocial behavior (volunteers who are engaged in palliative care) differ in their personality traits from those who do not express such a behavior. Psychological gender roles, social competences and temperament features were measured with the questionnaires. Sixty eight individuals took part in this study (35 palliative volunteers and 33 controls). Volunteers were expected to be more androgynous, have more feminine stereotype characteristics, have a higher social competences and a lower level of emotional reactiveness than participants from the control group. Results: The study results have showed that the volunteers scored higher on feminine scale than participants from the control group. This was valid for both women and men, and resulted in higher number of androgynous individuals among men and a higher number of feminine gender typed individuals among women. Additionally it was also found that emotional reactiveness in volunteers depends on the biological sex: the volunteer women have lower level of this characteristic than the volunteer man and also than the control men. No difference in social competences between the volunteers and the control group was found. In summary this study shows that decision about engagement in palliative care depends on the level of stereotypical feminine characteristics, the level of emotional reactiveness and the level of endurance.