ABSTRACT
SUMMARY. Students in Abnormal Psychology who pursued a service-learning opportunity worked with troubled youth in the juvenile justice system. Consistent with an a priori hypothesis, results revealed the following pattern: (a) service-learning students and traditional students exhibited similar levels of academic performance early in the semester; and (b) as the semester progressed, and service-learning students became more involved in course-related service, they showed increasingly superior academic performance relative to traditional students. As hypothesized, service-learning students were more likely than traditional students to perceive themselves as: (a) achieving personal development in the area of social responsibility and (b) learning to apply course concepts to new situations.
