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WHEN we consider human well being, hope should be of interest to everyone. Because there is relatively little research to draw on, my speculations about hope derive largely from personal and clinical experience. With a modest number of exceptions (e.g., Averill, Catlin, and Kyum, 1990; Breznitz, 1986; Mowrer, 1960; Schachtel, 1959; Smith, 1991, 1992; Snyder, et al. 1991, in press; and Stotland,1969), there has been a great reluctance on the part of psychologists to address the concept of hope. Greater interest seems to lie in the negative aspects of our mental life, especially helplessness (e.g., Seligman, 1975), hopelessness, and despair, probably because of the clinical interest in depression.
It is all but impossible to speak of hope without considering its main negative counterparts, despair, helplessness, hopelessness, and depression, which specify overlapping and contrasting states of mind. In our efforts to come to grips with what it means to hope and despair, we need to sort out the subtle differences and similarities in what these terms connote. Let us first consider what it means psychologically to hope and to despair.
To hope is to believe that something positive, which does not presently apply to one's life, could still materialize, and so we yearn for it. Although desire (or motivation) is an essential feature, hope is much more than this because it requires the belief in the possibility of a favorable outcome, which gives hope a cognitive aspect and distinguishes it from the concept of motivation, per se.
A fundamental condition of hope is that our current life circumstance is unsatisfactory-that is, it involves deprivation or is damaging or threatening. We are concerned about what is going to happen and hope that there will be a change for the better. But because the future is uncertain, we cannot know what is going to happen with any confidence. And if what we want or need is foreclosed, hopelessness would be an alternative state of mind. Yet we need to hope, sometimes desperately, and usually manage to do so under even the bleakest of circumstances. Therefore, hope must be a vital psychological resource in our lives; without it, there would be little to sustain us.
A common scenario of hope is a disabling or life-threatening illness in oneself or...