AUTHOR=Ros Bandos , Kaneko Shinji 

TITLE=Is Self-Transcendence Philanthropic? Graded Response Model Approach

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816793

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816793

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>This study reveals that strong feelings of <italic>altruism</italic> were found to be statistically significant in explaining prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors. However, this was not the case for the latent trait <italic>biosphere</italic> in explaining pro-environmental behavior (e.g., past volunteering in clean-up activities). Regardless of whether they are overseas graduates or not, subjects in this study are more altruistic than biospheric by nature. Using the Graded Response Model (GRM) approach, the study found that the <italic>biosphere</italic> and <italic>altruism</italic> are obviously independent of each other and merging them into one dimension, in this instance referred to as “<italic>self-transcendence</italic>,” makes the construct less reliable. That is why this study in consistence with previous studies could not detect the effect of <italic>self-transcendence</italic> statistically, as it affects both the past volunteering in environmental affairs and the past volunteering in social welfare.</p>