• Corpus ID: 48635742

A Member of the Positive Psychology Family

@inproceedings{Snyder2012AMO,
  title={A Member of the Positive Psychology Family},
  author={Robert Lance Snyder and Kevin L. Rand and David R. Sigmon},
  year={2012}
}

• R. Snyder, K. Rand, David R. Sigmon
• Published 2012

A new theory typically begins with the proponents offering a model that supposedly is more heuristic than the prevailing, older view. Our development of hope theory began in this manner. So, what was the accepted scholarly view of hope that we sought to alter? The perception that one’s goals can be attained was a common thread in the scholarly work that defined hope in the 1950s through 1960s (Cantril, 1964; Farber, 1968; Frank, 1975; Frankl, 1992; Melges & Bowlby, 1969; Menninger, 1959; Schachtel, 1959). Our hypothesis was that this view, although shared by many previous scholars, did not fully capture that which is involved in hopeful goal-directed thought. At this beginning stage, we sought a definition of hope that was at once more inclusive and relatively parsimonious. Although we sensed that this new view of hope was possible and necessary, we were not sure what that model would be. Our breakthrough came when we followed a suggestion made by a former colleague, Fritz Heider, that we ask people to talk about their goal-directed thoughts. After participating in informal interviews about their goal-directed thought processes, people repeatedly mentioned the pathways to reach their goals and their motivation to use those pathways. Recall the previous view of hope as “the perception that one can reach desired goals”; it was as if people were suggesting that this overall process involved two components of goal-directed thought—pathways and agency. With some listening on our part, a new theory was born. Simply put, hopeful thought reflects the belief that one can find pathways to desired goals and become motivated to use those pathways. We also proposed that hope, so defined, serves to drive the emotions and well-being of people. Having given this very brief history of that which has come to be called hope theory, in the remainder of this section we will describe the various aspects of this theory in detail.