大学生在承担社会责任、参与志愿活动中发挥了重要作用，因此，大学生道德意识的培养就显得尤为重要，而感恩教育正是其道德教育的重要组成部分。以往关于感恩的研究大多是从受助者的视角来展开的，而很少有人能够从助人者的角度去探讨在提供帮助、进行助人行为的时候是否也会有感恩发生？服务学习是一种让学生参与不同的社会、社区服务活动，使其在服务的过程中体验所学知识、反思所学知识，获得发展的教学模式，更多地关注服务者的个人发展和内在心理需求。这一教学模式恰恰为验证上述命题提供了一个有别于以往研究的自然真实的情境：在服务学习中，大学生作为提供帮助的人（助人者），是否会因服务学习活动而产生感恩呢？鉴于此，本研究通过量化研究与质性研究相结合的方法，探讨服务学习怎样影响大学生的感恩，并在此基础上，深入探讨这种影响的发生机制。研究一以142名大学生为研究对象，采用准实验设计把大学生分为实验组与控制组，通过对实验组开展服务学习项目、控制组进行匹配任务的教学干预实验，来探讨服务学习对大学生感恩的作用。同时，研究还对服务学习组随机选择的25名大学生进行追踪访谈，通过质性的研究方法深入分析探究服务学习中大学生感恩的产生原因。结论如下：（1）服务学习对大学生的感恩具有促进作用；（2）服务学习中，大学生感恩的主要表现形式以宽泛的感恩为主；（3）质性研究结果表明，服务学习中大学生感恩发生的主要原因是社会比较；研究二在研究一的基础上以实验组的83名大学生为研究对象，通过对服务学习中反思日志内容的定量分析以及服务结束后大学生感恩情绪的自我报告进行了分析，进一步验证了服务学习中社会比较对感恩的影响。结论如下：（1）服务学习过程中，大学生社会比较的变化趋势表现为具有波动发展的下降趋势；感恩水平的变化趋势表现为平稳上升；（2）定量研究结果证明，服务学习过程中，大学生的社会比较行为对其当下的感恩水平具有显著预测作用。总的来说，两个研究证实了服务学习确实有助于大学生感恩水平的提高，且这种感恩水平的提高是通过社会比较来实现的，本研究结果一方面为当前的感恩研究提供一个新视角，即不仅是接受帮助才会产生感恩，提供帮助也能促进学生的感恩；另一方面也为我国感恩教育的实效性提供启示——结合服务学习开展大学生感恩教育。

University students play an important role in taking social responsibilities and participating in volunteer activities. Thus, the moral cultivation of undergraduate students seems particularly crucial, of which the grateful education is an important part. Most previous studies on gratitude took the perspective of the help receiver, while few studies examined from the help giver’s view that whether offering help to others would also induce gratitude. Service-learning is an instruction mode in which students participate in diverse community services, and during the process, students experience and reflect the knowledge learned in class and gain development. This teaching mode stresses students’personal development and psychological needs, and provides an authentic context which is different from previous studies for examining the above question: In service-learning, would undergraduate students, as the helpers, experience increased gratitude through offering help?Therefore, the current study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative method to investigate how service-learning would affect the gratitude of undergraduate students and further explore the mechanism of this effect.Study 1 conducted an instruction intervention experiment using quasi-experimental design to investigate the influence of service learning on students’ gratitude, 142 undergraduate students were assigned to an experiment group and a control group, the experiment group participated in service learning project, and the control group performed a matched task. In addition, 25 students from the SL group were randomly selected and interviewed, in order to further explore the reason for students’ experience of gratitude in service-learning. Results were as follows: (1) Service-learning had a positive effect on students’ gratitude.(2) The main form of gratitude displayed in service-learning was broad gratitude. (3) Qualitative analysis showed that the main reason for the induction of gratitude was social comparison.On the basis of study 1, study 2 chose 83 students from the experiment group, by conducting a quantitative content analysis using their reflective journals and analyzing their self-reported grateful emotions after services, the impact of social comparison during service learning on gratitude was examined. Results were as follows: (1) During service-learning, social comparison showed a fluctuant declining trend, while gratitude displayed a steadily increasing trend.(2) Quantitative analysis showed that, in service-learning, social comparison significantly predicted students’ gratitude level.In sum, two studies proved that service-learning could promote the gratitude level of undergraduate students through social comparison. The results provided a new perspective for gratitude studies, that is, gratitude could not only be induced by receiving help, but also by offering help to others; Also, these results provided implications for the effective gratitude education of our country-we suggest gratitude education should be combined with service learning among university students.