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J Happiness Stud (2012) 13:745759 DOI 10.1007/s10902-011-9292-4
RESEARCH PAPER
David B. Feldman Diane E. Dreher
Published online: 31 August 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract Despite extensive research demonstrating relationships between hope and well being, little work addresses whether hope is malleable. We test a single-session, 90-min intervention to increase college students hopeful goal-directed thinking (as dened by Snyder et al. in, Pers Soc Psychol 60:570585, 1991). To date, this study represents the only test of hopes malleability in fewer than ve sessions and contributes to the small but growing literature regarding positive-psychology interventions. This intervention is especially relevant to college students, given the increasing psychological distress and lack of perceived control noted among this population (Lewinsohn et al. in, J Abnorm Psychol 102:110120, 1993; Twenge et al. in, Pers Soc Psychol Rev 8:308319, 2004). Ninety-six participants were assigned to the hope intervention or one of two comparison/control conditionsprogressive muscle relaxation or no intervention. Assessment occurred prior to intervention (pre-test), following intervention (post-test), and at one-month follow-up. Participants in the hope intervention showed increases in measures of hope, life purpose, and vocational calling from pre- to post-test relative to control participants. They also reported greater progress on a self-nominated goal at one-month follow-up. Counterintuitively, although hope predicted goal progress, hope did not mediate the relationship between intervention condition and goal progress. Implications of these ndings and future directions are discussed.
Keywords Hope theory Goals Goal-specic hope Single-session intervention
Positive-psychology intervention College students Purpose in life
The college years should be among the most hopeful in students lives, yet recent years have witnessed unprecedented levels of distress among American college students (Lewinsohn et al. 1993; Twenge 2000). Record numbers are seeking counseling (Michael et al. 2006), and experiencing lowered academic achievement, inability to make important
D. B. Feldman (&) D. E. Dreher
Department of Counseling Psychology, Loyola Hall, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USAe-mail: [email protected]
Can Hope be Changed in 90 Minutes? Testingthe Efcacy of a Single-Session Goal-Pursuit Intervention for College Students
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decisions, and increased dependence on parents (NSSE 2007; Hofer et al. 2008). Moreover, todays college student has a more external locus of control than 80% of those in the...