Unit 10
Unit 10
10.2 INTRODUCTION
Sudha is doing her graduation and wants to get into a decent job after
completion of her graduation degree. What makes the case of Sudha unique is
that she comes from a family where she is the first girl to study upto graduation
level. In her community, girls are not allowed to study and do jobs to earn
money. However, Sudha despite her hard situation since the beginning of her
education, looks forward to completing her graduation and join a good job to
be financially independent.
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Dr. Shalini Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Ramanujan College, University of
*
Delhi, Delhi
Positive Cognitive To achieve her dreams, she takes determined steps and follows a charted out
States and Processes path to achieve what she has thought out for her life.
The above case provides an example of optimism and hope in Sudha. Optimism
and hope are two vital elements for maintaining positive mental health. Positive
mental health is a key to happiness and satisfaction in life. It is state of wellness
where individuals can function fully and deal effectively with the challenges
of life. Hope and optimism both may seem to be very similar and overlapping
constructs, based upon positive future expectancies; however, there are
differences in how they have been conceptualized by theorists. In this Unit, you
will learn about these two positive constructs in detail.
10.3 OPTIMISM
Optimism is a cognitive expectancy for desirable events or things to happen
in future. On the other hand, pessimism denotes expectancy for undesirable
outcomes to happen. Optimism is also characterized as a disposition or trait,
which people are endowed with in varying degrees. It is considered to be a
relatively stable and enduring trait, which guides how people perceive and
address particular situations.
The early understanding and usage of the term was either neutral or negative, as
evident from the works of eminent philosophers and psychologists like Descartes,
Freud, Hegel, and Nietzsche (Domino & Conway, 2001). This was because of
dominant negative outlook towards human nature in the field of psychology
at that time. With advancements in research in psychology and dominance of
humanistic school of thought towards the end of twentieth century, there was a
change in perspective towards the concept of optimism.
Based on contemporary research, there are two dominant approaches and
theoretical models to optimism: Dispositional Optimism Model by Scheier and
Carver (1985) and Optimism as an Explanatory Style by Seligman (1990).
10.6 HOPE
Hope is an interdisciplinary concept studied in different disciplines like
Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Nursing/Medicine and
Theology. In philosophy, it is studied as a spiritual virtue; in nursing literature,
hope is associated with survival and coping. Psychology conceptualizes hope
as goal achievement. Hope, according to Staats (1989), is “the interaction
between wishes and expectations.” Stotland (1969) investigated the function
of expectancies and cognitive schemas in the development of hope, which he
defined as a set of important goals with a high perceived possibility of realization.
According to Gottschalk (1974), hope is having positive expectations about
particular favorable consequences, and it motivates a person to overcome
psychological challenges.
A number of conceptual frameworks have been proposed by theorists
like Nekolaichuk (1999), Scioli et al (1997), and Snyder (1994). Within a
172 multidimensional framework, Nekolaichuk et. al. (1999) suggest a hope model
that highlights three dimensions of hope: personal spirit (an individual dimension), Optimism and Hope
risk (a contextual dimension), and authentic caring (a relational dimension).
According to Scioli (1997), individuals realize hope through four dimensions:
mastery (goals), survival (coping), attachment (trust) and spirituality (faith).
Several other perspectives to hope such as, “hopeful thinking or cognition”
(Snyder, 2000), “positive emotional experience” (Fredrickson, 2009), as a
“character strength” (Peterson and Seligman, 2004) and also a “transcendental
phenomenon” (Emmons, 2005, Vaillant, 2008) have been proposed.
From a Positive psychology perspective, hope involves positive feelings
like optimism, but it is also a cognitive- motivational state that comprises of
individual’s beliefs about the self and one’s actions that shapes attainment of
desirable results. Developed by Professor Charles Richard Snyder (1994), the
concept of hope is conceptualized to consist of three components: (i) goals, (ii)
thoughts about means or pathways to achieve specific goals, and (iii) thoughts
about the agency or abilities to attain those goals. Hope is believed to be the
sum of ‘pathways’ and ‘agency’ components. In other words, hope is the
combination of perceived abilities to choose routes towards desirable goals and
the perceived motivation to make use of those routes. It indicates the person’s
belief that s/he will be able to find the path towards the desired goals and utilize
these pathways for attainment of goals. As evident from the definition, Snyder
emphasized hope to be a cognitive-motivational phenomena, and emotions to
be a byproduct of these thoughts. Hope theory predicts that unhindered goal
pursuit should result in positive emotions, but goal impediments may result in
negative emotions.
Snyder (2000) believed hope to be a multi-dimensional concept which can act
both like a stable personality trait and contextual state. As a trait, people can
have individual differences in the extent to which they possess the trait. People
high on hope are thought to use different means to reach their goals, they have
more clarity about the alternate routes and are more likely to have a strong
belief about accomplishing their goals, as compared to people who are low on
hope (Bailis and Chipperfield, 2012).
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Positive Cognitive
States and Processes 10.12 UNIT END QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the two dominant perspectives in optimism.
2. Discuss Snyder’s Model of Hope citing relevant examples.
3. Elaborate on the various benefits of hope.
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