The role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement

Perceived loss of control of ones’ political environment breeds cynicism and lowered self-motivation for future political action, all of which are marked indicators of learned helplessness. This leads to disengagement of a country’s people in political activity, thus leaving the government unaccount...

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Main Authors: Loh, D., Berezina, E *
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Indonesia 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1363/
http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1363/1/Eliza%20Berezina%20The%20Role%20of%20Personality%20and%20Self-Motivation%20in%20Political%20%28Dis%29Engagement.pdf
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author Loh, D.
Berezina, E *
author_facet Loh, D.
Berezina, E *
author_sort Loh, D.
building SU Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Perceived loss of control of ones’ political environment breeds cynicism and lowered self-motivation for future political action, all of which are marked indicators of learned helplessness. This leads to disengagement of a country’s people in political activity, thus leaving the government unaccountable and unregulated, while allowing corruption and selfserving policies to plague the nation’s well-being. Therefore, this study aimed to better understand the associations among political apathy, learned helplessness, age, and personality traits. It was hypothesized that learned helplessness, age, and personality traits would be significant predictors of political apathy. Participants were 200 Malaysian individuals (91 males, 109 females, M = 32.93, SD = 13.91) who completed questionnaires including the MiniInternational Personality Item Pool, Self-Motivation Scale, and Voter Involvement Scale. Learned helplessness and Neuroticism were positively correlated with political apathy, whereas Extraversion and Intellect showed negative correlations with political apathy. Age, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness showed no significant relationships with political apathy. Extraversion was the most significant predictor of political apathy, followed by intellect. Thus, the insights yielded from this study may allow for its accumulated knowledge to be informedly applied to reach an artificial resurgence in political engagement.
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spelling sunway-13632020-09-15T05:55:08Z http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1363/ The role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement Loh, D. Berezina, E * BF Psychology JA Political science (General) Perceived loss of control of ones’ political environment breeds cynicism and lowered self-motivation for future political action, all of which are marked indicators of learned helplessness. This leads to disengagement of a country’s people in political activity, thus leaving the government unaccountable and unregulated, while allowing corruption and selfserving policies to plague the nation’s well-being. Therefore, this study aimed to better understand the associations among political apathy, learned helplessness, age, and personality traits. It was hypothesized that learned helplessness, age, and personality traits would be significant predictors of political apathy. Participants were 200 Malaysian individuals (91 males, 109 females, M = 32.93, SD = 13.91) who completed questionnaires including the MiniInternational Personality Item Pool, Self-Motivation Scale, and Voter Involvement Scale. Learned helplessness and Neuroticism were positively correlated with political apathy, whereas Extraversion and Intellect showed negative correlations with political apathy. Age, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness showed no significant relationships with political apathy. Extraversion was the most significant predictor of political apathy, followed by intellect. Thus, the insights yielded from this study may allow for its accumulated knowledge to be informedly applied to reach an artificial resurgence in political engagement. University of Indonesia 2020 Article PeerReviewed text en cc_by_nc_4 http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1363/1/Eliza%20Berezina%20The%20Role%20of%20Personality%20and%20Self-Motivation%20in%20Political%20%28Dis%29Engagement.pdf Loh, D. and Berezina, E * (2020) The role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement. Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia, 24 (1). pp. 87-98. ISSN 2355-794X http://doi.org/10.7454/hubs.asia.2070220 doi:10.7454/hubs.asia.2070220
spellingShingle BF Psychology
JA Political science (General)
Loh, D.
Berezina, E *
The role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement
title The role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement
title_full The role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement
title_fullStr The role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement
title_full_unstemmed The role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement
title_short The role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement
title_sort role of personality and self-motivation in political (dis)engagement
topic BF Psychology
JA Political science (General)
url http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1363/
http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1363/
http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1363/
http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1363/1/Eliza%20Berezina%20The%20Role%20of%20Personality%20and%20Self-Motivation%20in%20Political%20%28Dis%29Engagement.pdf