What is Hope in Psychology

• Hope correlates with high academic and athletic performance, greater physical and psychological well-being, better self-esteem, and increased relationships.
• Hope can enhance well-being over time.
• Hope results in the person viewing stressful situations as a challenge rather than a threat.
• Hope can be seen as creating a buffer against chronic anxiety.
• Hope is a motivational factor that sustains actions toward long-term goals.
• Hope is positively related to overall life satisfaction.
• Hope motivates individuals to maintain their positive involvement in life despite any limitations they may have.

With hope therapy, instead of dwelling on the unpleasant factors, it incorporates positive self-talking, thinking of the future in a more positive way, and connections with supportive networks.

Historically, psychology tried to treat mental illness by reducing negative symptoms. Positive psychology focuses on increasing well-being.

• Hope and optimism. Optimism is a positive attitude about a future event that is probable while being hopeful is more realistic. A hopeful individual recognizes that life may work out differently, but continues to remain positive.
• A potential pitfall of hope is that people can repeatedly fail to change aspects of their behavior, leading to a cycle of failure characterized by unrealistic expectations.
• Hope is not the same as wishful thinking. Wishful thinking does not involve any plan on how to accomplish change, while hope involves a commitment to seeking future outcomes.
• Desire and hope. Desire is more open-ended and less directed than hope. Hope can evoke a future-oriented willingness to achieve a goal.
• The biggest enemy of hope is an inability to affect the kind of change people desire in their lives.

AHS is a 12-item measure of hope for people over 15 years of age.
Two sub-scales of the 12-item measure of hope are:

• Agency thinking (goal-directed energy). Scores can range from 4 to 32 points. The higher numbers reflect a higher amount of goal-directed energy.
• Pathways thinking (planning to accomplish goals.) Scores also range from 4 to 32 points. The higher numbers indicate a greater ability for planning to achieve goals.

4 of the 12 items measure pathways thinking, 4 items measure agency thinking, and 4 items are fillers.

The State Hope Scale was designed to assess an individual's momentary goal-directed thinking.

It has a 6 item self-report, and respondents have to rate items based on how they think about themselves. (from 1 - definitely false to 8 - definitely true.)

HHI is developed to measure a total, non-time oriented sense of hope.
The Herth Hope Index consists of three dimensions:

• Temporality and future - creating goals and a positive outlook on life and not a fear of the future.
• Positive readiness and expectancy - a sense of direction.
• Interconnectedness - a sense of giving and receiving love instead of a feeling of isolation.

• The Children’s Hope Scale (CHS) is designed to measure the overall hopeful thinking in children between the ages of 8 - 16.
• The Herth Hope Scale (HHS) is designed to capture the multidimensional aspects of hope. It measures three dimensions of hope: cognitive-temporal, affective behavioral, and affiliative-contextual.
• The Miller Hope Scale (MHS) was developed to measure hope in individuals who survived a critical illness. The items are divided into three components: Satisfaction with self, others, and life; Avoidance of threats to hope such as withdrawal from life; Anticipation of a future.

Hope interventions focus on improving happiness, well-being, and positive cognition.
It is very valuable for the following types:

• People who are experiencing a loss of control - the skidding effect.
• People who are experiencing a sense of hopelessness from failure or loss - the bruising effect.
• People who seem to have tried everything but find themselves back where they started - the boomerang effect.
• Individuals who feel like no one understands them and find it difficult to connect with others - the alien effect.

• Create a hope map to develop clear and exciting goals and actions that will help in the pursuit of the goal, identifying and overcoming possible barriers, and maintaining motivation.
• Keep a hope journal. Writing about challenges, what gives hope, and what could potentially give hope can highlight the factors that can interfere with developing a more hopeful outlook.
• Explore beliefs about hope. What does it mean to have hope? What are the benefits of having hope?
• Think about internal movie. Write a short internal movie in which a chosen goal is the main character. Visualise the obstacles that may occur during the process of achieving that goal to encourage finding alternative pathways around and through challenges.