This document summarizes research on optimism and hope. It discusses dispositional optimism, which is the belief that good things will happen more than bad things. Optimism is associated with positive outcomes like life satisfaction, while pessimism is linked to depression. The document also examines explanatory styles, which are how people explain events. Optimists tend to see problems as external, temporary, and limited in scope. Researchers have developed scales to measure optimism, including the Life Orientation Test. The document also defines hope as the perception of successful agency and pathways to goals. High hope is associated with benefits like achievement and low depression. Researchers have created scales to measure hope, including the Adult Dispositional Hope Scale and Adult State Hope Scale.

1. Tulika Sarkar
Student ID - b42eb747e77211e9a444cfe6ea9c349b
Affiliation - Banaras Hindu University

2. Acknowledgment
• I would like to thank the course ACADEMIC WRITING for
providing me with this assignment which will help me in the
future.

3. Tulika Sarkar
Optimism and Hope

4. OPTIMISM
Optimism is a form of positive thinking that includes the belief that you are responsible for your own
happiness, and that more good things than bad will continue to happen to you. Optimists believe that bad or
negative events are rare occurrences and that it is not their fault when something bad happens but is due to
something external.
Carver and Scheier -Dispositional Optimism
Charles Carver and Michael Scheier coined the term ‘dispositional optimism’ to describe their approach –
the global expectation that good things will be plentiful in the future and bad things scarce.
They argued that optimism is associated with, and leads to, securing positive outcomes whereas pessimism
is associated with greater negative outcomes (Scheier and Carver 1992, Scheier, Carver and Bridges
2001). For example, in studies of young adults, optimism has been found to be associated with greater life
satisfaction (Chang, Maydeu-Olivares & D’Zurilla, 1997) whereas pessimism has been found to be associated
with greater depressive symptoms (Chang et al 1997).
Carver and Scheier see optimism as dispositional. They have found that optimists report fewer physical
symptoms, better health habits and better coping strategies. Even among a group who had experienced the
bad outcome of being diagnosed with breast cancer (Carver et al 1997) found that optimistic personality
types experienced less distress, engaged in more active coping and were less likely to engage in avoidance or
denial strategies.

6. Optimistic Explanatory Style: Making
Sense of Bad Events
Imagine two students who receive the same poor grade on an exam. The first student thinks,
“I’m such a failure! I always do poorly in this subject. I can’t do anything right!” The second
student thinks, “This test was difficult! Oh well, it’s just one test in one class. I tend to do well
in other subjects.” These students are exhibiting two types of what psychologists call
“explanatory styles”. Explanatory styles reflect three attributions that a person forms about a
recent event. Did it happen because of me (internal) or something or someone else
(external)? Will this always happen to me (stable) or can I change what caused it (unstable)?
Is this something that affects all aspects of my life (pervasive) or was it a solitary occurrence
(limited)? Pessimistic people tend to view problems as internal, unchangeable, and pervasive,
whereas optimistic people are the opposite. Pessimism has been linked with depression,
stress, and anxiety (Kamen & Seligman, 1987), whereas optimism has been shown to serve as
a protective factor against depression, as well as a number of serious medical problems,
including coronary heart disease (Tindle et al., 2009). Optimistic mothers even deliver
healthier, heavier babies (Lobel, DeVincent, Kaminer, & Meyer, 2000)! Optimism seems to
have a tremendous number of benefits; consider several detailed below.

7. Scales: Can optimism be measured?
Scheier and Carver (1985) introduced their index of optimism, the Life Orientation Test (LOT),
as introducing positive (“I’m always optimistic about my future’) and negative (“I rarely count
on good things happening to me”) expectancies. The LOT has displayed acceptable internal
consistency( alpha 0.76 in original sample) and a test retest correlation of 0.79 over one
month. In support of its concurrent validity, the LOT correlated positively with expectancy for
success and negativity with hopelessness and depression.
After years of extensive research using the LOT, a criticism arose about its overlap with
neuroticism. In response to this concern, Scheier, Carver and and Bridges (1994) validated a
shorter, revised version of the LOT known as the LOT-Revised (LOT-R). The LOT-R eliminated
items that caused the neuroticism, trait anxiety, self mastery, and self esteem, optimism as
measured by LOT-R has shown superior capabilities in predicting various outcomes markers
related to superior coping.

9. HOPE
Snyder, Irving & Anderson (1991, as cited in Snyder, 2000, p.8) define hope as
“a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (a) agency
(goal-directed energy) and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals)” .
Hope theory can be subdivided into four categories:
Goals that are valuable and uncertain are described by Snyder (1994, as cited in Snyder, 2000, p.9) as
the anchors of hope theory as they provide direction and an endpoint for hopeful thinking.
Pathway thoughts refer to the routes we take to achieve our desired goals and the individual’s
perceived ability to produce these routes (Snyder, 2000).
Agency thoughts refer to the motivation we have to undertake the routes towards our goals.
Barriers block the attainment of our goals and in the event of a barrier we can either give up or we can
use our pathway thoughts to create new routes.
Goal attainment has been found to be associated with positive emotions (Snyder et al, 1996), whereas
goal blockages are related to negative emotions (Diener, 1984); however this is not always the case.

11. High hope individuals do not react in the same way to barriers as low hope individuals,
instead they view barriers as challenges to overcome and use their pathway thoughts to plan
an alternative route to their goals (Snyder, 1994 as cited in Snyder, 2000 p. 10).
High hope has been found to correlate with a number of beneficial constructs including,
academic achievement (Snyder et al, 2002) and lower levels of depression (Snyder et al,
1997). Meanwhile low hope is associated with negative outcomes including a reduction in
well-being (Diener, 1984).
Measurement Tools to Measure Hope
Researchers have developed measurement tools that assess levels of hope as well as agency
and pathway thoughts. But what are the purposes of such assessments?
Snyder, (1995) has suggested several uses, including predicting outcomes among a sample and
providing extra support for those who are low in hope, (e.g. in an educational setting where
hope has been identified as predicting achievement).

12. 1. The Adult Dispositional Hope Scale
The first assessment tool designed to measure hope in respect of Snyder’s theory was the
Adult Dispositional Hope Scale (ADHS) (Snyder et al, 1991). This scale taps into dispositional
hope in adults aged over 15 years.
It is a self report questionnaire that contains twelve questions, four that tap agency thoughts
(e.g. Q2. I energetically pursue my goals), four that tap pathways thoughts (e.g. Q1. I can
think of many ways to get out of a jam). Items are scored on an eight point Likert scale.
The scale creates three scores, a hope score that is created by summing the agency and
pathway items or two separate scores that measure agency and pathways independently by
totalling their respective items.
Total hope scale scores range from a minimum of 8 to a maximum of 64, while agency and
pathway scores range from a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 32 with high scores reflecting
high levels of hope (Snyder et al, 1991).

13. 2. The Adult State Hope Scale
As a result of this drawback Snyder et al, (1996) developed the Adult State Hope Scale (ASHS), which
assesses goal directed thinking in any given moment or situation (Lopez et al, 2000). This scale is a six
item self report questionnaire that is designed to tap into state hope in adults. The scale has three
agency items (Q6. At this time, I am meeting the goals that I have set for myself) and three pathway
items (Q5. I can think of many ways to reach my current goals).
Items are scored using an 8 point Likert scale and scores are created for overall hope by summing all
the items and by summing the even numbered items to get an agency score and all the odd-
numbered items to get a pathway score.
3.The Adult Domain Specific Hope Scale
A further shortcoming of the ADHS (Snyder et al, 1991) and the ASHS (Snyder et al, 1996) is that they
measure general hope that is not independent of different life domains. A person may be high in
hope in relation to their career but have low hope in relation to relationships.
In this case the dispositional or state hope measures discussed above would fail to pick up upon the
discrepancies that manifest in this persons hope profile. As a result of this Sympson, (1999 as cited in
Lopez et al, 2000, p.61-63) has developed the Adult Domain Specific Hope Scale (DSHS) that
measures an individual’s level of dispositional hope in six specific areas, which are social, academic,
family, romance/relationships, work/occupation and leisure activities (Lopez et al, 2000).

14. THANK YOU