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Introduction:
Robin Coats 12/3/2014 2:45 PM
Comment [1]: Lots
of
run
ons
The movie Pay it Forward played a major role on the topic chosen for this social experiment. The
major purpose of this experiment is to see if helping others benefits the helper. The way in which this
experiment will be implemented is through conducting tutorials with college students who are struggling
in a particular course. Group study, a form of tutoring, is an excellent strategy to help others who are
struggling with their studies. For example, it can allow the tutors to teach difficult materials and share
their talents with the participants.
The cause for helping others varies because each person has different motives for why they
choose to help someone. According to Albert (2000), there are three different motives for helping others:
the first is altruistic motives such as personal value of right and wrong, which can influence a person to
help another person. The second is instrumental motives, which is to enhance ones overall image, and the
third is intrinsic motives, which is genuine helping behavior much like the parable of good Samaritan (as
cited in Li-Ping Tang et. al, 2008, p. 868). A study shows that helping others makes the helper happy. It
said, "People who volunteer tend to have higher self-esteem, psychological well-being, and happiness,"
Snyder says, "All of these things go up as their feelings of social connectedness goes up, which in reality,
it does. It also improves their health and even their longevity" (Moeller, 2012). Helping others can have
many positive effects. With reference to Aristotle, it is claimed that true happiness is to be found in the
expression of virtue; a happy person is therefore a moral person(Meier & Stutzer 2008).
Methods Section:
I. Participants
The experimental goal is to see the progress of college students after given them tutorials. The first
college student is an electrical engineering major, and needed help in his chemistry class. The second one
is majoring in finance, his problem was not having any notes for calculus class and his average score was
low, which might be influenced on his final grade. The last participant is a pre-kinesiology major, and the
student had difficulties grasping concepts in his college algebra course.
II. Measures
A survey will be given to each participant, to compare their grades before and after giving them tutorials.
The survey will have two parts, the first one is to test the information that each participant has learned,
and the second part will have several questions on the experiment. Also, a table will be attached to the
final report, which summarize the results. It will be similar to table 1.
III. Procedure
Several steps were done throughout this experiment. Firstly, each tutor established a schedule for when
they can meet the participants. Afterwards, each of the participants were given a pretest to assess their
current skills. Then, the tutors would evaluate the weaknesses of each participant. They would start
teaching the certain skills that each participant needed help with, then give each participant a quiz to
Results:
The results of this experiment were as expected. Each participant has improved greatly in his course. Over
the course of two weeks, each tutor met with his or her participants 4 times. During each meeting, notes
and quizzes were provided to each participant in order to explain everything to him or her clearly.
The first participant was struggling in his chemistry class. Four meetings were done with him. In each
meeting a chapter was explained. However, in the last meeting, we discussed all the chapters and a quiz
was given to him.
Before
After
compounds.
- His grades in chemistry smart work were
Before
After
polynomial
range
both quizzes.
on webwork
Abduallh was the third participant; it had an average of 60 in his Pre-Calculus class and he does not have
notes or books to study. Abdullah was disappointed and he will not be able to pass this course if he does
not take a grade in the eighties.
Before
After
the 60s
90 and 98
hundred
Discussion:
From doing this experiment we learned that doing tutorials not only benefits participates, but also the
Reference
Meier,
S.,
&
Stutzer,
A.
(2008).
Is
volunteering
rewarding
in
Itself?
In
Economica
(297th
ed.,
Vol.
75,
pp.
39-59). Wiley.
Smith,
J.
(2004).
Helping
others,
helping
ourselves:
power,
giving,
and
community
identity
in
cleveland,
Tang,
T.,
Sutarso,
T.,
Davis,
G.,
Dolinski,
D.,
Ibrahim,
A.,
&
Wagner,
S.
(2008,
November
1).
To
help or not to help? the good samaritan effect and the love of money on
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25482334