H
ope is defined as the determination to achieve goals (agency) plus the belief that many pathways can be generated. Agency is the belief that one can begin and sustain movement along the envisioned pathway towards a given goal.Agency thoughts serve to motivate the person. Pathways thinking reflects an individual’s perceived ability to formulate plausible goal routes (Snyder, 2002).
This explanation of hope is very different from the dictionary definition of ‘hope’
(positive expectation, desire, longing).
Hope is thought to energize goal-directed striving, particularly when the
attainability of goals is at least somewhat in doubt and when the goal is viewed as very important (similar to all expectancy-value theories). People with high levels of hope often set more difficult goals, but are more likely to achieve them. They probably break the goals down into smaller subgoals. This is used in CBT where therapists facilitate both agency thoughts (efficacy thoughts) and pathways thoughts (breaking down complex goals into achievable steps). Remoralization, the facilitation of hope, is the common pathway in therapy.
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High scores on hope correlate with self-esteem, positive emotions, effective coping, academic achievement, and physical health (reviewed in Peterson, 2000; Snyder, 2002). Hope also buffers against interfering, self-deprecatory thoughts and negative emotions and is critical for psychological health. People who are hopeful focus more on the prevention of diseases (for example, through exercising); they have higher levels of success in their performance and academic achievement.
Overall, the explanatory style model of optimism and Snyder’s hope model suggest that we can change to a greater extent than the dispositional model of optimism.
Explanatory style explains most of the mechanism through which we are optimistic. It is also least focused on the future and all models have cognitive and emotional elements, and all address motivation. Its focus on causality and how goals can be achieved is similar in concept to agency within hope theory.
Future research should focus on clarifying the structure of optimism. Are optimism and pessimism direct opposites of each other along the same continuum? Does having one automatically mean you cannot have the other? Recent research suggests that the polarization is not as clear-cut as this and whether or not optimism is the opposite of pessimism, or two distinct constructs still remains a question today (Scheier and Carver, 2009).
More research is needed to understand the developmental antecedents of optimism, especially within a child environment. Research has shown that there is a clear link between childhood socioeconomic status and later optimism, even if the adult’s
socioeconomic status changes. So what is it about the early environment that is so crucial for optimism development? Parent transmission (modelling, teaching coping styles) is an important topic for future research, as is the development of interventions targeted at increasing optimism, both in early and adult life (Scheier and Carver, 2009: 663).
Summary
Reflecting on the learning objectives you should now understand the concept of optimism, explanatory style and hope. More specifically, you should know:
■ Definitions of hope, optimism and explanatory style.
■ That until the last few decades, optimism was seen as a deficit, rather than a good thing.
■ The main difference between the two concepts of optimism involves the argument between trait versus learned ability.
■ There are many health benefits from engaging in optimistic thinking as well as positive illusions.
■ Pessimism isn’t always a bad thing (for example, defensive pessimism).
■ Hope theory posits that people need agency and pathways to experience hope.
Suggested Resources
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/home_learning/
optimismformentalhealth.html
Engage with technology and download the following mood monitor application link from Apple’s ‘home learning’ section. Alternatively, check out ITunesU for free psychology lecture downloads.
http://c.r.snyder.socialpsychology.org/
Leading positive psychologist Richard Snyder tragically passed away in January 2006. Thanks to colleagues of his at the Social Psychology Network, you can access his profile with links to his work at the above address.
F u r t h e r q u e s t i o n s f o r y o u
1 Which type of ‘IST’ are you? An optimist? A pessimistic? A defensive pessimist?
2 Which theory of optimism do you relate to? Why?
3 Is it better to think things are going to turn out well, and avoid worrying? Or should we expect the worst and not be disappointed?
4 Is hope always a good thing?
Personal Development Interventions
1 Cultivating optimism
One of the ways that we can start to build and cultivate optimism is by engaging in the Best Possible Selves exercise (Sheldon and Lyubomirsky, 2006). This exercise requires you to sit, undisturbed, in your favourite writing space, alone from the madding crowd. You are asked to do this exercise, for 20 minutes, for three consecutive days.
Think about your life in the future. Imagine that everything has gone as well as it possibly could. You have worked hard and succeeded at
accomplishing all of your life goals. Think of this as the realization of all of your life dreams. Now, write about what you imagined.
Now reflect on your future goals and then list several ways that you could achieve them. These larger goals can be broken down into smaller, more achievable subgoals. Keep motivating yourself to pursue your goals and reframe any obstacles you meet as challenges to be overcome (adapted from Boniwell, 2008: 23).
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2 Increasing self-esteem
This exercise is designed to help enhance your self-esteem. Based on Nathan Branden’s sentence-completion exercise, you are asked to conduct the following exercise for the next week. If you relate to this task check out Branden’s 31-week self-esteem programme in his book, the Six Pillars of Self- esteem (Branden, 1994).
For this task, we would like to you to set aside 2–3 minutes in the morning before you head off to your daily routine and when you are alone, complete the following sentences. Make sure you do them quickly, without thinking too much and try and come up with no less than six endings and no more than 10.
If I bring more awareness to my life today . . .
If I take more responsibility for my choices and actions today . . . If I pay more attention to how I deal with people today . . . If I boost my energy level by 5 per cent today . . .
At the end of the week, reflect on the endings and try and see what patterns emerge. Once you have done this, complete the following:
If any of what I wrote this week is true, it might be helpful if I . . .
(Branden, 1994: 310–11)