Service-Learning and Psychology: Lessons From the Psychology of Volunteers’ Motivations

Service-learning programs have been specifically designed to promote prosocial values and attitudes in an educational context (among other goals). In this chapter, the authors discuss program of research on voluntarism, focusing on the motivational dynamics underlying participation in volunteer service, and they consider some of the implications of research for service-learning experiences and programs. In discussions of service-learning programs and activities, it is important to consider that students are often required to offer service to the community. Moreover, the mixed-motive helper seems more likely to create a relationship in which there is a psychological connection between the two people and one marked by closeness rather than distance. Similarly, service-learning programs have focused on the principle of action-reflection, suggesting that these larger issues and values involved are introduced after the activities have begun. In this way, internalization can best be conceived and the transmission of vital prosocial values, attitudes, and behaviors to successive generations successfully accomplished.