Welcome!

You are here because you are interested in learning more about research relating to the research participation you recently completed.

Thanks again for sharing information about your feelings, attitudes, beliefs, and experiences around volunteering.

The two surveys you took part in this semester were designed with two primary purposes in mind.
One, we sought to learn if a brief volunteering experience would have an impact on a person's self concept and their perceptions of volunteering and responsibility to help others. We measured these concepts at a time early in the semester and another time about 4-6 weeks later. Students in some classes were exposed to material in their texts that was focussed on helping behavior and motivations for that. Other students had that exposure as well as a requirement for choosing a volunteer engagement in the community. The minium engagement was a total of 8 hours, but students could do more if they chose. A third set of students had no course material devoted to the subject of helping nor any required volunteer engagement.

We hypothesized that even a brief experience with volunteering (even if 'required' for class participation) would have a greater impact on a person's self concept than either only a text book exposure to the subject or no class focus on helping subjects. We also expect that a persons attitudes toward helping may change in simliar ways. The data you provided may help us determine if our hypothesis was supported.

The document attached to this site is an example of a similar research effort that has already been completed. Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely, Dr. Boeckmann, Dr. Lampman, & Dr. Petraitis -
                 University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Psychology.

Research Study on Volunteering and Self Concept