A shared universe › Blog › What hope is, according to psychology · Español
For psychology, hope means having a goal, seeing at least one way to reach it and feeling that you have the strength to follow it. That is how the psychologist Charles R. Snyder described it. Seen like this, hope seems less like something you either have or lack, and more like something you can look after.
In 1991, Snyder and his colleagues published a scale for measuring hope in which they defined it as two things working together: the determination to move towards your goals and the ability to imagine routes for reaching them. He later summed up his theory in a 2002 article called “Hope theory: rainbows in the mind”. Put simply, there are three parts:
When any of the three fails, hope suffers. That is why it helps to know which one is weakening.
The two words are often used as if they meant the same thing, but research looks at them separately. Optimism is usually understood as a general confidence that things will turn out well. Hope, as Snyder saw it, puts the emphasis on what you can do: having goals, seeing ways forward and feeling able to follow them.
A 2004 study by Fred Bryant and Jamie Cvengros compared the two scales and found that they measure related but different things: they fitted better as two connected factors than as a single one.
In everyday life, both are good company. A 2021 meta-analysis of 96 studies and almost thirty-two thousand people living with pain found that both hope and optimism went with less pain, better day-to-day functioning and less psychological distress. These are associations, which do not prove on their own that one thing causes the other, but they paint a consistent picture.
Because hope rests on goals and ways forward, there are small things that help to hold it up. They are not formulas, just ideas you can try:
If you find it hard to get from wishing to the first step, from wish to way offers a calm way of doing it.
Sometimes the goal is still there, but you cannot see any way forward. Then it can help to talk it over with someone: another person often sees ways out that you, worn out, cannot quite make out.
Other times you can see the way, but you have no strength left to take even one step. On those days something very small is enough: a phone call, a short walk, a task you can finish today.
And there are moments when what is lost is the goal itself, as after a death, a break-up or a diagnosis. Finding other goals, perhaps smaller ones, takes time, and it is all right for it to take time.
Having hope does not mean thinking everything will turn out well whatever happens, or playing down what worries you. You can feel fear and hope at the same time.
If you are waiting for a particular piece of news, when you are waiting for news has ideas for getting through those days.
There are times when everything seems closed and no way out is in sight. If that low feeling lasts more than two weeks, if you are struggling to get on with your life or what you try is not helping, the NHS advises seeing a GP. Wherever you live, your family doctor is a good first step, and talking it over with someone you trust helps too. In Spain you can talk to a person at the Teléfono de la Esperanza, 717 003 717, at any time. If you are thinking of ending your life, call 024: it is free, confidential and answered 24 hours a day. If there is immediate danger, call 112. In another country, call your local emergency number or a helpline there.
In A shared universe you can light a star with “What I hope for”: medical results, a job interview, a reconciliation. You write why in a few lines, without saying who you are.
Others will read it and keep you company with a touch or with words of hope. And when the day comes, you can come back and tell them how it went.