Handbook of hope: theory, measures & applications

426 Pages·2000·5.795 MB·English

by  C R Snyder

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Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin.
Ronda Cannon (261) Lewis A. Curry )342(
Department of Psychology Department of Health and Human Perfor-
Washington State University mance
Vancouver, Washington 98696 University of Montana
Missoula, Montana 59812
Roseanne Ciarlelli (57)
Graduate Training Program in Counseling Myra Quails Elder (167)
Psychology Primary Care Unit at the QuiUen VAMC
Psychological Research in Education Mountain Home, Tennessee 37684
Department
University of sasnaK Timothy Elliott (373)
Lawrence, Kansas 66045 Department of Rehabilitative Medicine
University of Alabama
Jen Cheavens (151,201,321) Birmingham, Alabama 35203
Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy-
chology David B. Feldman (109, 389)
Department of Psychology Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy-
University of sasnaK chology
Lawrence, Kansas 66045 Department of Psychology
University of sasnaK
Lisa Coffman (57) Lawrence, Kansas 66045
Graduate Training Program in Counseling
Psychology R. K. Floyd (123, 223)
Psychological Research in Education Graduate Training Program in Counseling
Department Psychology
University of sasnaK Psychological Research in Education
Lawrence, Kansas 66045 Department
~
XVI!
xviii Contributors
University of sasnaK University of sasnaK
Lawrence, sasnaK 66045 Lawrence, Kansas 66045
Kelli P. Gariglietti (223) Diane McDermott (185,223)
Graduate Training Program in Counseling Graduate Training Program in Counseling
ygolohcysP Psychology
Psychological Research in Education Psychology and Research in Education
Department Department
University of sasnaK University of sasnaK
Lawrence, sasnaK 66045 Lawrence, sasnaK 66045
Amber Gum (201) Scott T. Michael (151,301)
Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy- Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy-
chology chology
Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
University of sasnaK University of sasnaK
,ecnerwaL sasnaK 66045 Lawrence, sasnaK 66045
Sarah Hastings (185) Christina Moon (341)
Graduate Training Program in Counseling Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy-
ygolohcysP chology
lacigolohcysP Research in Education Department of Psychology
Department University of sasnaK
University of sasnaK Lawrence, sasnaK 66045
,ecnerwaL sasnaK 66045
Kevin Rand (223)
Stephen S. Ilardi (109) Department of Psychology
Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy- Northern Kentucky University
chology Highland Heights, Kentucky 41099
Department of Psychology
University of sasnaK Alicia Rodriguez-Hanley (39)
Lawrence, sasnaK 66045 Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy-
chology
Lori M. Irving (261) Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology University of sasnaK
Washington State University Lawrence, Kansas 66045
,revuocnaV Washington 98686
Richard S. Saunders (109)
Monica Kurylo )373( Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy-
Department of Rehabilitative Medicine chology
University of Alabama Department of Psychology
South Birmingham, Alabama 35203 University of sasnaK
Lawrence, sasnaK 66045
Shane J. Lopez (57, 123, 223)
Graduate Training Program in Counseling Elisabeth Sherwin (223)
ygolohcysP Department of Psychology
Psychology and Research in Education Georgia Southern University
Department ,orobsetatS Georgia 30460
Contributors xix
C. R. Snyder ,1( ,52 ,93 ,98 123, 223, Julia D. Taylor (89, 109, 151,355)
243, 341,389) Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy-
Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy- chology
chology Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology University of sasnaK
University of sasnaK Lawrence, sasnaK 66045
,ecnerwaL Kansas 66045
Jon C. Ulven (123)
Marion Stone (57) Graduate Training Program in Counseling
Graduate Training Program in Counseling Psychology
ygolohcysP Psychological Research in Education
lacigolohcysP Research in Education Department
Department University of sasnaK
University of sasnaK Lawrence, sasnaK 66045
Lawrence, Kansas 66045
Lisa Wyatt (57)
Susie Sympson (167, 285) Graduate Training Program in Counseling
Graduate Training Program in Clinical Psy- Psychology
chology Psychological Research in Education
Department of Psychology Department
University of sasnaK University of sasnaK
,ecnerwaL Kansas 66045 Lawrence, sasnaK 66045
droweroF
There si something pleasing about writing a foreword to a book concerning hope.
Like the topic itself, this foreword looks ahead to what will come, and it does so
with interest and anticipation. This koobdnaH of epoH details the results of years of
productive work by C. Rick Snyder and his associates on what had previously been
a neglected topic within psychology.
Past generations of psychologists distrusted anything that hinted at wishful think-
ing. Influenced directly by Freud's somber writings and more distantly by such
thinkers sa Sophocles and Nietzsche, psychologists believed that the accurate per-
ception of reality was the hallmark of the healthy individual and that only the most
modest expectations about the future passed muster sa realistic. Anything else was
regarded sa denial, and it was the explicit task of the therapist to beat down this
denial to expose individuals to the facts of the matter. The problem with this goal
si that the facts are mutable, at least when they reside in the future. People's beliefs
about the future help make it so by setting into motion self-fulfdling processes. Grim
expectations verify themselves, but so too do those that are hopeful.
Psychologists have finally come to this realization, and there has been a recent
flurry of books and articles that address the power of positive thinking. Professor
Snyder has been one of the prime movers in this change of attitude, and it must be
gratifying to him and to his associates to have, at long last, company in their
endeavor. The importance of the koobdnaH of epoH si therefore twofold: First, it si
current, and second, it represents sustained work. Hope si not a simple topic, and it
deserves more than glib popularization. Snyder's work on hope gives us a psychol-
ogy of will sa sophisticated and coherent sa previous psychologies that focused on
thought, feeling, and action. Indeed, hope si the glue that holds together the rest of
the human condition sa well sa the energy that moves us ahead.
xxi
xxii Foreword
What will the reader find in the koobdnaH of ?epoH It is a serious contribution,
addressing the three concerns that mark scientific psychology at its best: theory,
research, and application. One can pick and choose among the chapters, to be sure,
and I suspect that many readers will look first at one of the chapters dealing with
modes of psychotherapy and how hope is integral to the business of healing through
words. But I recommend that readers also take a look at the why (theory) and how
(research) of Snyder's approach to hope. The applications are only as sound sa their
foundation in science, and this foundation is solid.
This handbook does things that I believe any thoughtful approach to positive
psychology needs to do. The koobdnaH of epoH is not an "everything si beautiful"
book. It talks about how hope can be dashed. In discussing how hope can be cul-
tivated or renewed, it cautions us about the associated difficulties. Finally, the book
is frank about what is not known and where there are limitations in theory and
research.
At the same time, this book is often a fun read. There are numerous case exam-
pies, and these are neither forced nor provided after-the-fact. Furthermore, hope
theory is not presented sa a finished product, and there is ample discussion of what
might come next in theory, research, and application. Some of these directions will
be profitable, and others not, and that si what psychology is all about.
Readers not familiar with the psychology of hope should read this book care-
fully. Readers already familiar with hope theory will still find much that si new here.
I was intrigued by the discussion of how to ascertain degrees of hope from narra-
tives and by the applications of hope theory to particular populations: the young,
the old, the traumatized, the physically ill, and the psychologically troubled. Even
the Jayhawk basketball team receives attention here!
Especially powerful si the concluding chapter by Snyder and David Feldman, in
which they discuss hope in broad societal terms. Psychologists necessarily focus on
individuals, and most of this koobdnaH of epoH fits such a characterization. Nonethe-
less, individuals operate within a social milieu, and hope at the individual level si
only sa valid sa the hope that exists at the social level. It is doubtful that there has
ever been a culture totally devoid of hope, but across times and places we can cer-
tainly discern degrees to which hope si prominent or not. Gallup polls suggest that
many of us at present are hopeful, and I can only wish that this hope translates into
efforts to make hope a legitimate stance for all of us. Snyder and Feldman suggest
how this might happen.
Early in the koobdnaH of ,epoH the myth of Pandora is recounted, and the point
si made that the myth is silent about where hope actually went once its companion
evils were unleashed on the world. I believe that I can tell the rest of the story: Hope
took up residence in Lawrence, Kansas, and now it has taken to the road between
the covers of this book.
rehpotsirhC nosreteP
Ann Arbor, Michigan
ecaferP
This koobdnaH of epoH simply would not have happened without a small army of
graduate students who, over the past decade, have come into my office one by one
and suggested yet another angle from which we could view hope. In that sense, what
has come to be called hope theory has been like a gemstone that, when held to the
light, sends shimmers of ideas about yet other possible implications or experiments.
I have produced previous theories about reactions to personal feedback, uniqueness
seeking, excuse making, and reality negotiation, but none of those have continued
to produce the sufficiently intriguing questions to get me revved up for yet another
experiment.
Hope theory has been a great energizer at a time in my life when I have needed
it. For the past seven years I have had a severe, unrelenting, and undiagnosed chest
pain that si with me from my first waking moments to the time that I slip off into
sleep. Although I have been taking powerful pain killers, I think that none of those
pills matches the positive effects of my getting lost in theory and research and work-
ing with my students. At age 55 (by the time this book is published), I still enjoy
the theory and bench science to the same degree that I did as a brand new 27-year-
old assistant professor here at Kansas. And so, I have much for which to be thank-
ful.
The members of my latest hope research group are a joy, and I probably do not
tell them that enough. I know that all of these people will do well and succeed mag-
nificently in their careers, and just saying that makes me a little sad and evokes a
tinge of missing them even before they are gone. On a plane trip about a month
ago to the American Psychological Association Convention, the person next to me
asked what I did for a living. Before I even was aware of forming an answer, I told
her that I trained clinical psychologists in theory and research. And indeed, that is
.~176
XXII!
xxiv Preface
what I do. When this latest cohort of young scholars graduate and leave me, sa they
always do, I will take some solace in the fact that a new set of students will be enter-
ing our program, and I may have the privilege of working with some of them. It si
a wonderful carousel, with me staying on, my waves of "old" students jumping off
to start their lives, and some new students stepping aboard to enjoy (I hope) the ride
before they get off. Part of this bears remarkable similarity to watching my children
drive away from home when it was only yesterday that I was teaching them to ride
their bikes. I believe that psychologists call it "letting go."
I will tell you something that may sound like false modesty, but trust me, it is
not. I am not a very smart person, never have been, never will be. I occasionally
have some creative ideas and I work hard, but that is about sa much praise as I
deserve. This is why I find it so fascinating to be around graduate students (and col-
leagues, of course!) who are brighter than I am. There is much to learn from such
people. It was this latter thought that sparked my idea for this handbook on hope
theory and its applications. I wondered what we could say as we dissected the hope
topic, and then put it back together in the form of a handbook. Thus, a full dose of
credit goes to the present chapter authors sa they pushed the hope concept yet far-
ther and farther. Who are these chapter authors? Most of them are my present and
past graduate students, of course, and colleagues who have worked with me on hope
theory research.
I suppose that it si against the rules for editors to say that they really like the con-
tents of their edited books, but in this case, I would be lying if I implied otherwise.
The praise, however, goes to this array of young psychologists who produced not
your usual handbook. Instead of repeating old conclusions that could be derived from
previously published materials, the authors took some chances, had some fun, and
produced a highly readable and yet scholarly set of essays on hope theory. I am im-
mensely grateful to them for not being satisfied with "refried" hope theory notions.
What they have given us is an agenda for research on hope for many years to come.
The handbook is divided into six sections. In Section I, I write a chapter giving
my personal take on how hope theory got started. In Section II, two chapters
describe the rise and fall of hope--that is, how hope develops normally in children
and how it tragically can die for some people in their childhood or adult years. In
Section III, one comprehensive chapter gives an overview of the various instru-
ments for and approaches to measuring hope. In Section ,VI five chapters deal with
how hope theory relates directly to the processes of helping people in general. Sec-
tion V is by far the largest in the handbook, and this fact reflects my great interest
in humankind in all of its varieties. Therefore, in this section of 11 chapters, hope
theory is applied to benefit various people: from children to adolescents to the
elderly; minorities; athletes; persons with eating disorders; trauma survivors; those
who suffer from depression, anxiety, or panic; AIDS and breast cancer patients; and
a disabled young woman who defied all odds to take back her life. Finally, in Sec-
tion VI, we close with a chapter that suggests that hope should be more available
for everyone.
Preface xxv
Toward the end of this book project, I can look back at how many people were
there along the way to help. My faculty colleagues in the Kansas Graduate Training
Program in Clinical Psychology were their usual supportive, friendly, and empow-
ering selves. My two department chairpersonsmDennis Karpowitz and later Greg
Simpsonmprovided mental and tangible support. My dean, Beverly Davenport-
Sypher, also was her typical upbeat, helpful, and one might even say "hopeful" self
as she gave support, including money for our hope laboratory. Martha Dickinson,
the best administrative assistant I have ever had, helped in so many ways on the hand-
book and then retired! I trust it was not this project that made her retire. To my new
and most excellent assistant, Bonnie Shaffer, I already owe a debt of gratitude.
Last, there is my crew of family who constantly were moving around and in and
out of our house. Occasionally, they would stick their heads through the doorway
to my office sa if to see (I suppose) whether I still was alive. As always, I thank them
for letting me write my latest book when they (at least the httle ones) would rather
that I go outside and run through the sprinkler or engage in some other Midwest
pleasures.
I feel extremely fortunate to have all these supportive people around me. When
asked to give a biography of myself for a brochure that advertises an upcoming talk
I will be giving on hope at the Eastern Psychological Association, I looked over
some previous biographies of invited speakers in which some amazing accomphsh-
ments and enormous numbers of books, articles, and talks were listed. For my biog-
raphy, I opted for the self description that "I am hving proof that there still is a place
in psychology for a person who is not very smart?' Imagine, then, the possibilities
for a person like you, the reader, who really does have some mental firepower. Per-
haps that si a good point on which to welcome you to this volume about hope.
C. R. Snyder
Lawrence, Kansas
:sisehtopyH erehT sI Hope
C. R. Snyder
It is the nature of an hypothesis, when once a man has conceived it, that it
assimilates every thing to itself, sa proper nourishment; and, from the first
moment of your begetting it, it generally grows stronger by every thing you
see, hear, ,raer or understand.
--Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy )9571(
FROM THE TALE OF PANDORA TO
THE 20TH CENTURY
If you were to ask people today whether hope si good or bad, most probably would
say that it is good. There are, of course, others historically who have held similar
positive views about hope. Writers within the Judeo-Christian tradition, for exam-
ple, have placed hope sa one of the triumvirate of virtues along with faith and char-
ity (see Muyskens, 1979). Saint Paul and Martin Luther held hope, along with love,
sa the essence of what si good in life. Although other favorable views of hope could
be presented, history has been rather negative about it.
Turning to the dark side of hope, let us start with the oldest and most well-
known story of hope--the tale of Pandora. The mortal Prometheus had stolen fire
from the gods, angering Zeus. Pondering how to extract revenge, the gods launched
a plan based on reverse psychology. Here is how it played out. Fashioning the maiden
Pandora, they sent her earthward with a dowry jar. That is right, a jar. Evidently,
the Greek word for jar (which was seen sa a storehouse of consciousness) was mis-
understood in the translation of the myth in late Roman times (Hesiod, 1993).
Back to the story, Pandora was given strict instructions never to open this jar upon
arriving at earth. Pandora could not resist the temptation and disobeyed immedi-
ately sa the gods knew she would. As she lifted the lid, out spewed a plague to damn
humans forever. For the body, there were gout, rheumatism, and colic; for the mind
there were spite, envy, and revenge. Horrified at this unleashing of evil, Pandora
hurried to close the lid. She did not notice hope stuck under the lip of the jar. Inter-
koobdnaH of epoH
Copyright (cid:14)9 2000 bv Academic Press. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
4 C.R. Snyder
estingly, mythology si vague on whether hope actually escaped (Smith, 1983). If one
were to use the typical historical view of hope, however, it must have escaped given
the great majority of writers who describe it sa an evil force (similar to the others
escaping from Pandora's jar).
Sophocles portrayed hope sa a human foible that only served to stretch out suffer-
ing (centuries later, Nietzche uttered a virtually identical damnation of hope). Plato
chastised those who listen to the voice of hope, calling it a "foolish counselor)' Euri-
pedes labeled it sa a "curse upon humanity." Francis Bacon, in a culinary analogy,
said, "Hope si a good breakfast, but a bad supper." Similarly, Benjamin Franklin
warned, "He that lives upon hope will die fasting)' This common view held that
hope was lla illusion, lacking substance. It seduced humankind with a false promise.
Perhaps the most succinct summary of the cynicism about hope was rendered by
Shakespeare in The Rape of ,ecercuL sa he wrote, "And so by hoping more they have
but lesse."
HOPE TOWARD THE 21ST CENTURY
Tillich (1965) more recently tried to reconcile the opposed views of hope by rea-
soning that: "Hope si easy for the foolish, but hard for the wise. Everybody can lose
himself into foolish hope, but genuine hope si something rare and great" .p( 17).
Surely, foolish hope si bad, isn't ?ti Even this seeming verity si questionable when
considering the fact that even "foolish" hope may yield positive outcomes. For
example, the healings of revivalist preachers and snake oil salesmen surely would fall
under "false hope," but they have had occasional documented successes (Frank,
1973). Yet the uncertainty regarding the source of the hope effects, even the occa-
sional positive ones, has led many members of the medical community to view lla
nonphysical cures--such sa hopemas quackery. In this view, "hope" cures are cate-
gorized sa placebo-like, with the implication that they are ingenuine and not legiti-
mate forms of treatment. A small group of physicians (e.g., Frank, 1968, 1973, 1975;
Locke & Colligan, 1986; Menninger, 1959; Pelletier, 1977; Siegel, 1986; Simonton,
Matthew-Simonton, & Creighton, 1978), however, took the radical view that posi-
tive emotions, including hope, are part of lla forms of healing. This view clearly still
si held by the minority in medicine, nonetheless.
During the late 1950s to the 1960s, hope was examined under the guise of more
formal, scientific approaches. Both psychiatrists (e.g., Frank, 1968; Franld, 1963;
Melges & Bowlby, 1969; Menninger 1959; Schachtel, 1959) and psychologists (e.g.,
Cantril, 1964; Farber, 1968; Mowrer, 1960; Stotland, 1969) agreed on the premise
that hope was based on positive snoitatcepxe for goal .tnemniatta Although promising,
their work did not capture the support of the wider scientific community who
remained skeptical about hope (Frank, 1968).
From the mid-1970s onward, there was a surge of psychological research and
writings related to stress, coping, and illness. Research began to suggest that nega-