In search of the unique aspects of hope: Pinning our hopes on positive emotions, future-oriented thinking, hard times, and other people

Abstract

We have three sets of concerns about Snyder's hope formulation as it is presented in the target article. First, the lack of integration with several closely related constructs and well-validated theoretical frameworks that examine similar processes is problematic for several reasons. Second, the cognitive conceptualization of hope seems to be missing some of the central and defining positive emotional aspects of hope, and the hope model does not correspond well to current research on the role of emotion in self-regulation. Third, several other aspects of Snyder's approach, such as its relative neglect of beliefs about the future, its emphasis on individual agency and problems that are amenable to personal control, its portrayal ofhope as fragile, and its relative neglect of interpersonal aspects of hope, seem to correspond poorly to the nature of hope and thus to unnecessarily limit the concept and the situations to which it can be applied. Addressing such questions is essential to developing a more complete account of nature and function of hope and to further developing of the promising interventions described in the target article.