Motivation of voluntary plasmapheresis donors

A totally voluntary plasmapheresis program recruits 900 individual donors per year at a cancer institute, where 500 to 900 units of platelets are transfused each month. Staff and donors use a film and brochures to recruit donors from the local community. Television and radio spots, with donor recognition pins, certificates, receptions, and picnics are utilized. Donor motivation was studied by use of: 1) California Psychological Inventory--measures a variety of "normal" personality traits; 2) Study of values--measures theoretical, economic, aesthetic, social, political, religious values; 3) Internal-External Control Scale--measures degree to which a person blames self vs. external events for what happens to him; 4) Faith in People Scale--measures individual's confidence in his fellow man; 5) Anomia Scale--measure of feelings of self-to-others alienation; 6) Mach IV Scale--measure of persons tendency to manipulate others; and 7) Biographical Data Form. Results are presented for 25 male donor subjects studied, as they compare with normative data for the scales used. Donors appeared to have the same traits as do the general population, but appeared lower in Machiavellianism than non-plasmapheresis donors. Prospective study plans include additional subjects to provide appropriate control groups.