By Christine Ball


Each semester Buffalo State College’s psychology department invites one to two guest speakers every semester to talk about general issues as part of the departments Psychology Speaker Series.

“We try to get exposure to what we have on campus,” said Dr. Michael Zborowski a professor of psychology at Buffalo State. “It gives the opportunity to liven our campus and show what we have to offer.”

The discussions focus on issues that everyone can relate to but also have an academic or scholarly discourse.

Last semester the department invited Dr. Pelham of the University of Buffalo and leading authority for Attention Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to talk. The department has invited authorities about jury selection and the impact that Sept. 11 had on people after six months.

This semester Buffalo State College presented “My Brother and Sisters’ Keepers: Volunteerism and Prosocial Behavior” April 15 in the Science Building, Room 213, as part of the speaker series.

Louis A. Penner from the department of psychology at the University of South Florida discussed why and how people choose to perform prosocial behavior especially based on what events are happening in the world such as Sept. 11.
Penner volunteered to come to Buffalo when asked by Zborowski.

“If someone invites me, I’ll go anywhere,” said Penner.

Penner is a world-leading researcher of prosocial behavior.

Penner explained that the study of prosocial behavior became a focus of psychologists in 1960 when Kitty Genovese was assaulted, raped and murdered in front of 37 people in New York City. Psychologists wanted to know why these people did not help. www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/
predators/kitty_genovese/1.html

He explained that:

• volunteering is a planned, long term, non -impulsive decision
• 55% of people over eighteen years old volunteer once a week
• people volunteer an average of 19 billion hour per year
• $226 billion are given by volunteers per year.