Applied social psychological research on the formation process of volunteer networks in environmental problems

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The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of networks on the systematization of a volunteer group, and to investigate how these networks affect the member's behavior and attitudes.In order to examine the former purpose, leaders and founders of volunteer groups were asked what kinds of network they had used from the stage of group foundation until the present. The interview survey revealed that intimate relationship among individuals was important at the stage of formation. Next, at the stage of development, it was found that existing loose network and new network were used. It became clear that volunteer groups used the various networks depending on each process of the organization.Next, to investigate the relation between networks and the behavior and attitude of the group member, questionnaire survey was conducted for the volunteer groups' members. Consequently, it was revealed that strong ties were an important factor for volunteers' behaviors and attitudes as indicated by the correlations between inter-group strong ties and most sub-items of the volunteers' behavior and attitudes, as well as from the correlations of the inter-group strong ties with expansion behavior. On the other hand, intra or inter-group weak ties were significantly correlated with only a few variables. As mentioned above, it became clear that group members decided their attitudes and behaviors in response to the influence of each networks.