Against the background of different psychological conceptualizations of hope, this article elaborates and validates a measure to assess hope as perceived by the general public adapting it from the hope and optimism subscale of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Spirituality, Religion and Personal Beliefs Questionnaire. The results presented here are part of a yearly Internet-based cross-sectional survey in Germany and Switzerland called Hope-Barometer, from which 4 samples of 3 different years with about 17,500 participants have been used. Following the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses as well as convergent validity, discriminant value, and predictive utility, our findings suggest that the six items of the resulting Perceived Hope Scale exhibits robust psychometric properties, and that perceived hope is distinct and broader than dispositional hope, in which it relates not only to cognitive but also to spiritual, religious, and altruistic dimensions.
At first glance, hope and optimism appear to be two almost identical concepts. The predominant cognitive theories maintain that both are based on positive future expectancies regarding goal attainment. However, other approaches recommend distinguishing between hope and future expectancies and sustain that the differences between hope and optimism are of a more substantial nature. The present study investigates the distinction between a new short instrument to measure hope as perceived by the general public, and dispositional optimism as measured by the revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) in a South African sample. After comparing both instruments using confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modelling in Mplus, a number of encouraging results emanated from the data. First, the Perceived Hope Scale (PHS) is a unitary and coherent measure of perceived hope. Second, perceived hope, as measured by the PHS, and optimism and pessimism as measured by the LOT-R, are psychometrically distinguished latent dimensions, optimally specified by their indicator variables. Furthermore, perceived hope represents a fundamental construct in the prediction of health outcomes and well-being and is an important antecedent to optimism and dispositional hope. Perceived hope is thus an important additional facet to consider in investigating well-being.
This introductory chapter presents the antecedents and the purpose that originated the creation of this book on cross-cultural studies on hope. It sketches the existential and multifaceted nature of hope and points to the array of disciplines that, over many decades and even centuries, have studied the phenomenon of hope from various scientific perspectives and in different contexts. Based on the past focus and the current challenges in psychological research on hope, it pleads for an inter- and transdisciplinary approach to the study of hope in diverse cultural contexts. After briefly introducing a cultural perspective on hope, we present the purpose, development, and research focus of the Hope Barometer international research program. We highlight the necessity to conceptualize hope in a trans-disciplinary and culture-sensitive way and then formulate a number of fundamental research questions that guided the empirical studies reported in this book. Assessing hope across cultures requires the development of measures that, on the one hand, prevent bias in the general conceptualization of hope and, on the other hand, permit the analysis of several elements and dimensions of hope, such as different hope targets, sources, and activities. Hope and its various elements and dimensions are partly rooted in diverse culturally tinted worldviews and values, displaying different correlations and predictors of hope across cultures. A succinct overview of the structure and single chapters of the book aims to show up the overall logic that guided its outline.
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