Character Strength and Happiness among Environmental and Educational Volunteers in a Collectivistic Culture

Volunteers participate in charitable activities sincerely without any certain expectations. Concerning this volunteerism, this study aims to investigate the influence of character strength on happiness in environmental and educational volunteers. Employing Seligman's happiness scale as a measurement instrument (α = 0.615) and Peterson and Seligman's (α = 0. 976) Value in Action - Inventory of Strength (VIA-IS) as a measurement instrument to determine character strength, 99 volunteers working in environmental and educational fields of voluntary organizations were recruited. The inclusion criteria for recruiting these participants included male or female participants over 18 years old, active at the organizations for at least six months, unmarried, and living in Yogyakarta. All obtained data were analyzed by using a Spearman correlation analysis technique and a regression analysis technique. The results of this study showed that some of the most influential types of character strength on happiness were leadership ( r = 0.354, p = 0.000), appreciation of beauty and excellence ( r = 0.337, p = 0.001), gratitude ( r = 0.311, p = 0.002), forgiveness ( r = 0.305, p = 0.002), and open-mindedness ( r = 0.301, p = 0.002). In addition, types of character strength significantly influencing happiness are closely related to collectivistic culture.


INTRODUCTION
Islam is a religion that teaches its followers rahmatan lil alamin (peace for all creatures). This concept guides every believer to encourage the importance of compassion that can create prosperity for humans and the universe in general. The compassion is vast and limitless as well. Al-Faruqi (1995) suggests that anything under or below the sky is the responsibility of every human being. Humans should be willing to help each other to maintain their responsibilities properly.
One of the human responsibilities to help each other is volunteerism. Volunteerism is a long-term, planned, prosocial behavior that benefits others (Penner, Some studies report that character strength can affect happiness. A study by Park and Peterson (2006) observing 680 children aged 3-9 years found that character strength positively correlates with happiness. In this study, character strengths with the strongest associations are love, zest or vitality, hope, and gratitude.
In addition, a study conducted by Peterson, Ruch, Beermann, Park, and Seligman (2007) observing 445 individuals in Switzerland and 12.439 individuals in the USA demonstrated that character strength positively correlates with happiness in both Americans and Swiss. In Americans, the character strengths with the highest correlation with happiness are love, hope, curiosity, zest/vitality, and gratitude. Meanwhile, in Swiss, the character strengths most significantly correlated with happiness are love, hope, curiosity, zest, and perseverance.
Studies conducted by Park and Peterson (2006) and Peterson et al. (2007) above are conducted in countries with individualistic cultures. It is interesting to understand whether character strength also has a high correlation with happiness in individuals with collectivistic cultures such as Indonesia. If there is a high correlation between the two, what are the types of character strengths of the Indonesians that closely correlate with happiness?
Several studies in the context of Indonesian culture, especially Minang and Javanese culture, have been well documented. Investigating the Minang ethnic group living in West Sumatra and Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi), Indonesia, Akmal and Nurwianti (2012) revealed that character strength can affect the happiness of the Minang ethnic group or there was a positive relationship between character strength with happiness in the Minang ethnic group. In this ethnic group, the prominent character strength roles that appeared are gratitude, kindness, fairness, integrity, and citizenship.
Another study by Wijayanti and Nurwianti (2010) focussed on the Javanese ethnic group living in East Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, and Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi), Indonesia. They investigated people aged 18-55 with a minimum education in school or equivalent school. The results showed a relationship between character strength and happiness in the Javanese group. In other words, character strength affects the happiness of the Javanese ethnic group. Statistically, character strength significantly contributes to happiness (48.6%). In this study, character strength with the most prominent role in happiness included gratitude, kindness, citizenship, fairness, and integrity. Riyadi, Apriliani, and Yuwono (2013) examined academic and administrative staff of Javanese ethnic groups related to character instilled in their children so that their children could develop into happy individuals. The results showed that the character that the parents believe plays a vital role in their children's happiness. The types of character are taqwa (piety) and obedience to God (24.4%), honesty (23.1%), discipline and hard work (22.3%), goodness, politeness, humility (11.8 %), independence and confidence(7.1 %), harmonious and good interpersonal skills (4.2 %), commitment and responsibility (2.9 %), devotion (2.5 %), love of learning and intelligence (1.3 %), and love of almsgiving (0.4 %).
It is interesting to study whether individuals, who currently and already have taken higher education and have been recruited as volunteers, also show the same thing in the context of character strength and happiness. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship between character strength and happiness in educational and environmental volunteers. This study also determines which types of character strength contribute most to happiness. Hypotheses proposed in this study are that character strength positively correlates with volunteer happiness and that character strength associated with collectivistic culture is the most significant contribution to volunteer happiness.

Participants
This study's participants were volunteers actively working in environmental and educational fields. These volunteers were aged 18-25 and assumed to have entered adulthood, as Hurlock (2016) stated. Their gender was either male or female. They also had unmarried status with consideration that they had not been burdened with significant responsibility for family needs. In addition, they were volunteers who were active in voluntary activities for at least six months with an assumption that they had shown their sincerity in helping others. Finally, they were active students, and some were graduate students. In this study, the researchers used a purposive sampling method with specific criteria, as demonstrated above (Nasution, 2003).

Measurement
A measurement instrument used to collect data on character strength was the Value in Action -Inventory Strength (VIA-IS), which was designed based on the construct of character strength theory formulated by Peterson and Seligman (2004). This instrument was intended to measure 24 items of character strength, including spirituality, creativity, prudence, self-regulation, forgiveness, humility, hope, humor and curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective, bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality, love, kindness, social intelligence, citizenships, fairness and leadership, appreciation of beauty, and gratitude.
The original version of VIA-IS consisted of 240 items intended to measure 24 items of character strength. Ten items were measured for each character. This study used the adaptation version formulated by Oriza and Nurwianti (2010), which comprised 172 items. This instrument used a Likert scale with six answer choices. The instrument already had good property characteristics. Reliability and validity calculations were conducted for each character's strength. The reliability coefficient for 24 items of character strength ranged from 0.603 -0.844. The alpha coefficient for all the measurement instruments of character strength was 0.978. A method of testing the validity with other internal consistency criteria was to correlate the total score in each dimension with the overall total score. The results of these correlations found that the correlation coefficient between each strength with the total score of character strength ranged from 0.861 -0.532 (significant at LOS .01 [p < .001]).
The second measurement instrument was the happiness scale. This happiness scale refers to the theoretical construct of authentic happiness by Seligman (2005), consisting of positive emotions toward the future, positive emotions toward the past, and positive emotions toward the present. This scale consisted of 27 items categorized into 11 favorable items and 16 non-favorable items. This instrument used a Likert scale with four answer choices. This scale had a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.893.

Analysis Data Technique
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) application for Windows version 18 was used to measure correlation tests, primarily to conduct normality and linearity tests. The data could be considered normal if the significance of the data was p > 0.05, indicating that the data were normally distributed. This study also conducted linearity tests to determine relationships between the variables of character strength and happiness. The linearity test was performed by searching equation lines of the independent variables and the dependent variables. The relationship between the two variables was considered linear if its probability value was less than 0.05. In comparison, the relationship between the two variables was considered non-linear if its probability value was above 0.05. The correlation tests of the data used values indicated by Pearson if an assumption test of the data proved normal. If the data were not normal, Spearman was used for data analysis. The data of correlation tests could be considered significant if its significance was p < 0.05. In addition, the researchers analyzed to determine the types of character that significantly contributed to happiness. The contribution was tested by using multiple regression analysis. SPSS for Windows version 18 was used in the data analysis.

Result of the Assumption Test
The assumption test results on the happiness and character scale strength are presented below. The results of the analysis are presented in Table 1 and Table 2. As presented in Table 1, the analysis results show that the happiness scale is abnormal, while the character strength scale is normal.  Table 2 demonstrates that character strength and happiness are linear. Because of incomplete requirements to conduct Pearson's product moment analysis, the normal and linear data, the hypothesis test used was a non-parametric analysis technique in the form of Spearman's product moment. A reason for using the last-mentioned analysis technique was that the data that was not normal and non-linear required the researchers to use the non-parametric analysis technique.

Results of Hypothesis Test
Furthermore, the hypothesis test results, including the Spearman productmoment correlation test and the multiple regression test to determine the types of character strength with the highest correlation with happiness in the volunteers, are presented below. As shown in Table 3, the analysis results show a positive relationship between character strength and happiness. The contribution of character strength to happiness is 34.9%. As shown in Table 4, the analysis results show character strength with the highest contribution to happiness, including leadership, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, forgiveness, and open-mindedness.

DISCUSSION
This study aimed to determine the relationship between character strength and happiness in a collectivistic culture by observing the environmental and educational volunteers. The results showed that character strength was empirically and positively associated with happiness in the educational and environmental volunteers. Character strengths with the highest contribution to happiness are leadership, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, forgiveness, and open-mindedness.
This study defines leadership as the character strength with the highest influence on volunteer happiness. This study's results align with a study by Isa, Tenah, Atim, and Jam (2019), concluding that leadership affects employee happiness at work. The results also follow a study by Kaluza, Boer, Buengler, and Dick (2019), stating that leadership character can increase happiness for leaders. Based on this study, the leadership characteristic that significantly influences individual happiness is constructive leadership, such as orienting on changes and relations. Meanwhile, destructive leadership has a negative relationship with happiness. In addition, other studies that specifically examine the relationship between leadership character and happiness for leaders are relatively rare. Most previous researchers conducted studies on how leadership influences happiness in employees rather than in individuals who are leaders. A study by Wallo and Lundqvist (2020) indicates that leadership can increase employee happiness. Forms of leadership behavior that can increase employee happiness is leadership that can provide support to employees such as motivation, stimulation, trust, being a role model for them, and being flexible in adjusting leadership styles according to the circumstances and needs of employees. Furthermore, Semedo, Coelho, and Ribeiro's (2019) study shows that leadership behavior can contribute to employee happiness at work. Leadership is authentic, demonstrating linearity between behavior and what a leader believes in to show the consistency of behavior or attitudes. In line with previous studies, Alnuami (2018) classifies that three factors determine employee happiness: leadership style, organizational structure, and organizational culture. The leadership style that can increase employee happiness is the transformational leadership style. In addition, this study is also supported by the findings of Matheos (2017), arguing that leadership can affect employee happiness. It is stated that leadership behavior, organizational culture, and job satisfaction are factors that determine employee happiness.
It should be noted that the subjects of this current study are volunteers whose role is to lead their communities. As Peterson and Seligman (2002) expressed, leadership functions include encouraging other individuals or groups to work, maintaining good relations with other individuals or groups, and preparing and evaluating group activities. Volunteers who work optimally by maintaining their leadership will get happiness for what they have worked. This current study indicates that leadership contribution to volunteer happiness is 12.5%.
Furthermore, the results of this study also reveal that the following type of character strength that influences volunteer happiness is the appreciation of beauty and excellence. The results support a study by Martínez-Martí, Hernández-Lloreda, and Avia (2016), explaining that appreciation of beauty and excellence significantly affects happiness. The results also strengthen a study by Martinez-Marti, Theirs, Pascual, and Corradi (2020), demonstrating that appreciation of beauty and excellence can improve subjective well-being and individual mental health. In line with the studies, Subhashini (2020) also found that appreciation of beauty and excellence is one of the character strengths that can predict individual happiness. Individuals can overcome their obstacles or difficulties when they have character strength that can improve their mental health.
It should be noted that the participants of this current study are individuals whose job makes them easily appreciate others. Therefore, volunteers are accustomed to performing functions of appreciation of beauty and excellence. The functions of appreciation of beauty and excellence, as described by Peterson and Seligman (2004), include realizing and appreciating beauty, being able to understand special things of individuals in their communities, and having skills in various fields of life (arts, mathematics, natural sciences, and everyday life experiences). This current study shows that the contribution of appreciation of beauty and excellence is 11.4%.
In addition, gratitude is the third character strength that influences volunteer happiness. The emergence of gratitude as a character strength that affects happiness can be considered consistent. This means that in various empirical studies, gratitude appears as a character strength that produces happiness. The results of this current study consistently support some previous studies conducted by Park and Peterson (2006), Peterson et al. (2007), Akmal and Nurwianti (2012), Wijayanti and Nurwianti (2010), and Riyadi et al. (2013), concluding that gratitude is a character strength that significantly influences the happiness. In addition, the results of this study are also in line with a study by Mead, Fisher, Tree, Wong & Kemp (2020) demonstrating that gratitude is the strongest predictor of happiness. Gratitude can encourage individuals to think positively about problems they have. Furthermore, Fitroh, Kurniawan, Azizah, and Pratama (2016) found that one of the character strengths, gratitude, can influence happiness in Bugis ethnic teenagers. This shows that 46% of teenagers are often grateful, 28% are always grateful, 23% are sometimes grateful, and 3% are never grateful.
The results of this current study also support a theory developed in social psychology about an empathic joy hypothesis. This theory explains that a reason for individuals to help others is because of the positive feelings they feel. Individuals will feel that helping others is a reward because they can give happiness and joy to others (Batson, Batson, Slingsby, Harrell, Peekna & Todd, 1991). In this study, the volunteers showed pleasure when they spread a positive influence by helping others. The contribution of gratitude to volunteer happiness is 9.7%. Furthermore, the fourth character strength that influences volunteer happiness is forgiveness. The results of this study support the results of previous studies by Batik, Bingöl, Kodaz, and Hosoglu (2017), Chan (2013), and Rienneke and Setianingrum (2018). In line with the previous studies, the results are also consistent with a study by Tehranci, Doost, Amiri, and Power (2018) stating that forgiveness is one of the predictors of happiness. Happy individuals are known to have protective factors against depression. Furthermore, a study by Wulandari and Megawati (2020) noted that forgiveness could increase adolescent happiness.
It should be noted that the subjects of this study are volunteers who met various individuals with different backgrounds. Diverse attitudes and behavior of communities can occur. Some of them can behave unfavorably. Therefore, forgiveness is needed in their performance. The contribution of forgiveness to happiness in this study is 9.3%. Thus, this shows that forgiveness works well for happiness. Functions of forgiveness, according to Peterson and Seligman (2004), are accepting the weakness of others, having no revenge, forgiving others' mistakes, and providing opportunities for others to improve themselves.
The last character strength that significantly influences happiness is openmindedness. This current study's results align with a study by Lambie (2014), arguing that open-mindedness affects well-being. Cherif, Wood, and Watier (2021) found that open-mindedness is one of the character strengths that predicts happiness. Through an experimental method, the study showed that treated groups (receiving an email containing a motto about character strength) have a higher level of happiness than control groups without treatment. Furthermore, a study by Gander, Hofmann, Jennifer, Proyer, and Ruch (2020) in their longitudinal study explains that open-mindedness is one of the character strengths that can increase happiness. Also, the character strength is relatively stable over time. In addition, a study conducted by Antinori, Olivia, and Smillie (2017) shows that individuals with a level of open-mindedness will influence how they perceive their life.
It should be noted that a volunteer is an individual who has to be flexible with other people. Individuals with a high level of open-mindedness tend to be flexible in thinking and developing creativity. This character, in turn, can lead to the individual's well-being. The contribution of open-mindedness to happiness in this study is 9.1%. Individuals who are open-minded, as expressed by Peterson and Seligman (2004), tend to think from all points of view, considering any evidence or probability fairly and drawing conclusions carefully. The openness to possibilities makes the volunteers not surprised when they meet with different ways of thinking and behaving.
It is interesting to observe the dynamics of character strength's influence on the volunteers' happiness in the context of collectivistic culture. Oishi and Diener (2001) mention that cultural values significantly influence individual happiness. Individuals with collectivistic cultures will be pleased when they can establish harmonious relationships and contribute kindness to others. The undergraduate and graduate students active in voluntary activities can express harmonious relationships and contribute kindness to others in their field of either education or the environment.
The results of this current study indicate that the volunteers have character strengths relevant to the collectivistic culture. In their selves, the leadership grows and develops, encouraging and guiding their supported communities to grow and develop either in pro-educational or pro-environment activities. In themselves, appreciation of beauty and excellence develops by showing appreciation for the participation of their supported communities. They also develop gratitude by allocating time to thank their supported communities. Besides, they also develop forgiveness by considering others' faults unimportant and having the responsibility to make others happy. Openmindedness grows within themselves by thinking that there are many ways of thinking from different communities. The five types of character strengths above are relevant to the collectivistic culture.

CONCLUSION
This study concludes that character strength has a significant influence on volunteer happiness. Some of the most influential types of character strength are leadership, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, forgiveness, and openmindedness. Then, types of character strength affecting happiness are usually related to collectivistic culture. Other character strengths influencing happiness are integrity, social intelligence, citizenship, humor, love of learning, curiosity, perspective, love, kindness, vitality, hope, and fairness. The research findings imply that institutions that manage volunteers should do these two things. First, in the recruitment process, it is essential to choose volunteers with strong character strength in leadership, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, forgiveness, and open-mindedness. Suppose a character is not strong in leadership, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, forgiveness, and open-mindedness. In that case, volunteer managers must educate about leadership, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, forgiveness, and openmindedness.