Unit 6: Hope and optimism

Throughout this course you are introduced to some of the ways you can boost your happiness and wellbeing, and that of your children, using six key themes that have been shown to improve wellbeing through the way we think about the past, present and future potential.

The fifth of these six themes is illustrated in the diagram below.

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A diagram with three boxes across the top saying past, present and potential. Below these boxes are six circles, grouped in pairs. Below the box saying past, the two circles say character srengths and gratitide. Below present, the circles say savouring and kindness. Below potential, the circles say hope ans meaning. All of the boxes and circles are greyed out except for potential and hope.

For this fifth theme, you are shown some practical activities that you can try at home. The benefits of these have all been supported scientifically and can be attempted by yourself during the course. They can also be adapted to work with children of all ages within the home. Being a good role model to our children is also a great way to help enhance their wellbeing.

We have hope when we expect or anticipate that we will attain what we desire.

If we have a tendency to look to the future with such a hopeful or positive outlook, then we are likely to be described as being optimistic. Optimists have a built-in attitude to be hopeful all the time and consider the possibilities of good things happening in life.

This tendency to take a hopeful approach to the future is summed up by the popular metaphor as seeing a ‘glass as half full’ rather than a ‘glass half empty.

Positive psychology suggests that it is possible to develop your capacity to take an optimistic outlook on life. It defines optimism as a set of beliefs and qualities that help individuals to focus on the positive aspects of life rather than the negative ones, showing resilience and personal strength.

Embracing optimism doesn’t make us immune to worries and stress, rather it teaches us to see the bigger picture regarding what is going wrong and still be hopeful that it can be turned right. Being able to approach difficulties, such as enduring lockdowns during the pandemic, with an optimistic outlook can help us to be more resilient and bounce back more quickly.

The diagram below highlights some of the benefits of hope and optimism.

It is clear that there are benefits to cultivating hope and optimism.

However, it is important to consider that sometimes people can be overly optimistic in a way that is in contrast to the reality around them.  This is often known as ‘blind optimism’ or having ‘false hope’ and could lead to people making unwise decisions.

Positive psychologists would encourage people to aim for realistic hope and optimism, appreciating any risks in a situation as well as actively looking for any positive opportunities to improve the potential outcome.

If you find that you feel that you are less optimistic in life that is perfectly normal, and the world is full of optimists and pessimists. Often this will have been of benefit to you and perhaps helped you to cope, to be prepared, and to not feel surprised when things in life go wrong.

In the long term, however, you may feel that it would be of benefit to explore some exercises from positive psychology as research has found that hope and optimism are not static attributes and that you can learn ways to improve them.

Look at the first diagram below, which demonstrates how the explanatory styles of an optimist and a pessimist react in a different way to an unsuccessful job interview

Now look below at how the explanatory styles of an optimist and pessimist react to a successful job interview.

Now that you have developed a clearer understanding of the benefits of developing a more optimistic outlook, we explore some ideas that you can use both on your own and with your family, that have been shown to train your mind to become more hopeful.

It has been suggested by Seligman (2002) that we learn our explanatory styles as children, by the adults that are around us.  We tend to imitate the voices that we hear the most, like our parents, caregivers, teachers, etc. As a child, when we hear an optimistic voice, we internalise that message and believe it to be true, and so this makes the child view the world in a more optimistic way.

Likewise, this idea also works the opposite way too.  For example, if a teacher tells a child that they are hopeless at reading, the child might grow up believing this and may refuse to read books as an adult, as they feel it would be hopeless to do so.

Assuming the possible effects of praise/criticism, it is important to consider how our explanatory style might affect the people around us in our home and family.

We can do this in the following ways that are demonstrated in the diagram below.

The old saying goes, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’

The psychologist Richard Snyder (1991) created a model of hope based on this saying. The Will is the thing you’d like to achieve, and The Way is how you will achieve it.

Now that you have attempted some activities, you might like to complete the hope questionnaire again to see if you have noticed any changes. 

Please note that it may take a sustained effort over time to see any dramatic changes.

Follow the scoring information given at the bottom of the questionnaire to discover how optimistic/hopeful you are.

You can download this writable PDF version  of the questionnaire if you prefer to save it to your device and/or print it out.

In the next and final unit, you explore how meaning and purpose can help you and your family to build a more positive future.

Now go to Unit 7: Meaning and purpose, where you explore the last of our six principles.

References

Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., Kashdan, T.B., Heaven, P.C. & Barkus, E. (2015) 'Hope and emotional well-being: A six-year study to distinguish antecedents, correlates, and consequences', The Journal of Positive Psychology, 10(6), pp.520-532.

Conti, R. (2000). 'College goals: Do self-determined and carefully considered goals predict intrinsic motivation, academic performance, and adjustment during the first semester?', Social Psychology of Education, 4(2), 189-211.

Erez, A. & Isen, A. M. (2002) 'The influence of positive affect on the components of expectancy motivation', Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(6), 1055–1067. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.6.1055.

Forgeard, M.J.C. & Seligman, M.E.P. (2012) 'Seeing the glass half full: A review of the causes and consequences of optimism', Pratiques Psychologiques, 18(2), pp.107-120.

Michael, S.T. (2000) 'Hope conquers fear: Overcoming anxiety and panic attacks', Handbook of Hope, pp. 301-319, Academic Press.

Schiavon, C.C., Marchetti, E., Gurgel, L.G., Busnello, F.M. & Reppold, C.T. (2017) 'Optimism and hope in chronic disease: a systematic review', Frontiers in Psychology, 7, p.202.

Snyder, C. R., Shorey, H. S., Cheavens, J., Pulvers, K. M., Adams, V. H., & Wiklund, C. (2002) 'Hope and Academic Success in College', Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 820-826.https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.94.4.820.

Snyder, C.R., Harris, C., Anderson, J.R., Holleran, S.A., Irving, L.M., Sigmon, S.T., Yoshinobu, L., Gibb, J., Langelle, C. & Harney, P. (1991) The will and the ways: development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(4), p.570.

Snyder, C.R., Sympson, S. C., Ybasco, F. C., Borders, T. F., Babyak, M. A., & Higgins, R. L. (1996) 'Development and validation of the State Hope Scale', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 321−335.