In 2014 in the United States, an estimated 62.8 million people, or 25.3% of the population volunteered their time and money to a nonprofit organization, spending around 7.9 billion hours of volunteer time ("Volunteering in 2014("Volunteering in ," 2015. Volunteerism accounts for a significant portion of the workforce, particularly among nonprofit organizations that rely heavily on community support to provide necessary, yet usually unprofitable services. Despite the importance of volunteer practices, volunteer retention is a pervasive issue and can be a time-consuming and costly endeavor for the organization. The current paper provides a review of behavior analytic literature to discuss how behavior science is suited for empirically investigating the origins and maintenance of volunteer behavior. Furthermore, although behavior systems analysis has not specifically addressed volunteerism, this analytic approach could be beneficial to investigate ameliorating volunteer retention on the large scale. The conclusion explores research suggestions and likely implications of expanding behavior analysis further into this domain.

Psi chi central office P.o. box 709 chattanooga, tn 37401-0709 (423) 756-2044 www.psichi.org ABoUT PSI CHI Psi Chi is the International Honor So ci ety in Psychology, found ed in 1929 for the pur pos es of encouraging, stim u lat ing, and maintaining ex cel lence in schol ar ship, and advancing the sci ence of psy chol ogy. Mem ber ship is open to gradu ate and under gradu ate men and women who are mak ing the study of psy chol ogy one of their major interests and who meet the min i mum qual i fi ca tions. Psi Chi is a member of the As so cia tion of Col lege Honor So ci et ies (ACHS) and is an affiliate of the Ameri can Psy cho logi cal As so cia tion (APA) and the Association for Psy cho log i cal Science (APS). Psi Chi's sister honor society is Psi Beta, the na tion al honor society in psychology for com mu nity and junior colleges. Psi Chi functions as a federation of chap ters located at over 1,100 senior col leg es and universities in the U.S., Canada, and Ireland. The Psi Chi Central Office is lo cat ed in Chatta nooga, Ten nessee. A Board of Directors, com posed of psy chol o gy faculty who are Psi Chi members and who are elect ed by the chapters, guides the affairs of the or ga ni za tion and sets pol i cy with the ap prov al of the chap ters. Psi Chi serves two major goals-one immediate and visibly re ward ing to the in di vid u al member, the other slower and more dif fi cult to accomplish, but of fer ing greater rewards in the long run. The first of these is the Society's ob li ga tion to pro vide ac a dem ic rec og ni tion to its in duc tees by the mere fact of mem ber ship. The sec ond goal is the obligation of each of the Society's local chapters to nurture the spark of that ac com plish ment by offering a climate congenial to its creative de vel op ment. For ex am ple, the chapters make ac tive at tempts to nourish and stim u late pro fes sion al growth through pro grams de signed to augment and en hance the reg u lar cur ric u lum and to provide prac ti cal ex pe ri ence and fellowship through af fil i a tion with the chapter. In addition, the or ga ni za tion provides programs to help achieve these goals including re gional and Society con ven tions, research award and grant competitions, cer tifi cate rec og ni tion programs, chapter awards, and Society ser vice projects. JoURNAL PURPoSE STATEMENT The twofold purpose of the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research is to foster and reward the scholarly efforts of un der grad u ate psychology students as well as to provide them with a valuable learning experience. The articles pub lished in this journal represent primarily the work of the under graduate student(s). Faculty mentors, who deserve recog nition, are identified by an asterisk next to their name or on a separate byline. Because the articles in this journal are primarily the work of undergraduate stu dents, the reader should bear in mind that: (1) the studies are possibly less complex in design, scope, or sampling than professional publications and (2) the studies are not limited to sig...

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