Re-Examining Altruism, Service Motivation, and Life Purpose Among Undergraduate and Graduate Students

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between measures of students’ self-reported altruism, motivation to serve, and purpose in life. The participants were 583 undergraduate and graduate students from a large, mid-Atlantic university, representing many different majors and professional training programs. An online survey was utilized to assess scores on the three measures and gather demographic data. Four main hypotheses were made for this study: (1) There would be significant positive correlations between all measures, (2) there would be clear differences on all three measures between students who have served compared with those who have not served, (3) there would be a measurable difference between males and females on all measures; and (4) scores for all measures would increase with age. All four hypotheses were either fully or partially supported by the data.