Theories of Hope

Hope is About Having Possibilities

Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson suggests that hope opens people to new creative possibilities in times of crisis. Fredrickson argues that with great need comes a wide range of ideas and positive emotions, such as happiness and joy, courage, and empowerment, drawn from four different areas of oneself, including the cognitive, psychological, social, and physical perspectives.

Smiling elderly man with white hair and glasses.

Hope is a Narrative

Contemporary philosopher Richard Rorty believes hope is a meta-narrative, or stories people create that serve as a promise or reason for expecting a better future.

Smiling elderly man with glasses and white beard.

Hope is a Motivating Force

Psychologist Everett Worthington suggests that hope is more than Pollyannaish optimism or the assumption that positive outcomes are inevitable. Instead, Worthington argues that hope motivates perseverance toward goals or end states, even when one doesn’t believe a positive outcome is likely. He said that hope doesn’t mean taking for granted that things will work out. Instead, hope is a mindset that helps one work towards one's goals, even when facing significant obstacles and adversity.

Hope is the Pursuit of Goals

Psychologist Charles Snyder and his colleagues suggest that hope has several components:

1) Goals are valuable and are anchors of hope theory because they provide direction and an endpoint for hopeful thinking.

2) Pathway thoughts are the routes people take to achieve their desired goals and their perceived ability to produce these routes.

3) Agency thoughts refer to people’s motivation as they undertake the routes toward their goals.

4) Barriers block the attainment of goals. People either give up, or they can use their agency thoughts to create new routes.

Hope as Perception

Philosophers like Michael Milona (Pictured) and Katie Stockdale, treats hope as an emotion that involves a normative perception of practical reasons rather than a mere calculation of goodness. In this view, hoping resembles a sensory illusion: just as you can see an optical illusion while knowing it is false, you can feel the pull of hope and experience reasons to act even if your rational mind doubts they exist

Hierarchy of Hope

Michelle Scallon and John Liptak (Pictured) created the Hierarchy of Hope, a model that helps people use cognitive flexibility to create a new purpose in their lives after significant changes. When life moves in a new direction, it may be due to external, global events or internal changes you actively make. The Hierarchy of Hope shows how to use cognitive flexibility to identify ways to leverage your turning points as catalysts for creating new meaning in your life while meeting your needs.