Community and Social Benefits Essay Example for Free

Community and Social Benefits Essay The investigation of the reasons by which volunteers involve themselves on specific organizations, and actually stay for a long period of time, or leave groups which they became a part of is the theme of this article. The researcher wanted to provide an explanation that will cover the queries on volunteerism including its effects on the lives of the volunteers, importance in our current society, and the overall impact of these activities in the modern American lives (Strigas, 2006). The general hypothesis of the study is depicted on the title which states that volunteers are offering their free time to specific associations because they believe that such activities will render community and social benefits. The testable and more specific hypothesis, on the other hand, states that volunteers for sport and recreation activities provide their services based on five major motivational factors which include the following: â€Å"social functions for leisure,† â€Å"material,† â€Å"egoistic,† â€Å"purposive factors,† and â€Å"external influences† (Strigas, 2006). In a more formal presentation, the null hypothesis of the study can be presented as ? 1 – ? 2 = 0 where ? 1 comprise the motivational factors of the volunteer that are based on personal needs and interests while ? 2 accounts for the factors that are influenced by social and personal development (Experiment Resources, 2010). In like manner, it can be said that the null hypothesis of the study represents the idea that no relationship exists between personal and societal-based reasons for volunteering. A thorough analysis of the article will reveal that the null hypothesis was actually rejected as shown by the enumeration of evidences that link personal interests of the volunteers and their desire to help the society as some of the factors on why they join various organizations. Furthermore, it was shown that volunteers join organizations because they want to gain self-fulfillment or because they want to win favors from others. The importance of rejecting the null hypothesis (Trochim, 2006) and believing in the original notion that volunteerism is influenced by both personal and societal reasons in order to allow the cohesion of community and society provides framework on the encouragement of volunteerism empowerment in our society today. Consequently, the study emphasizes the importance of testing the hypothesis in order to confirm or disprove the observations of the researcher. Reference Experiment Resources. (2010). The Null hypothesis. Retrieved 03 June 2010, from. http://www. experiment-resources. com Strigas, A. (2006). Research update: making the most of volunteers: a study shows volunteers are giving their time in exchange for community and social benefits. Parks and Recreation. Trochim, W. (2006). Hypotheses. Retrieved 03 June 2010, from http://www. socialresearchmethods. net