Note: This article is by clinical psychologist Jacqueline Mattis, who discusses the importance of optimism as a therapeutic tool.
In fact, throughout these times, both the dark and bright sides of human nature have manifested themselves, giving many people the finest support and sympathy while others have engaged in acts of violence or greed.
As a scientist and researcher whose work focuses on positive psychology among people facing challenges, I am acutely aware that if there is time to have a conversation about hope, now is the time.
Hope versus optimism
Let's first understand what hope is, as many people confuse optimism with hope.
Charles R. Snyder, the author of The Psychology of Hope, defined hope as the tendency to see desired goals as far as possible and to deal with them through “force-based thinking,” the belief that you or others can achieve goals, and as “pathways of thinking,” the focus on devising methods and making plans to achieve those goals.
Optimism, on the other hand, is a different matter. Psychologist Charles Carver defines optimism as a general expectation that good things will happen in the future. Optimists tend to seek positivity and sometimes deny or avoid negative information. In short, optimism is the expectation of good things, and hope is how we plan and act to achieve what we want.
Here are five key strategies to be hopeful in these challenging times:
1. Achieving goals
Optimistic people do not wait to be rescued; Rather, they imagine and take action; they set clear and achievable plans and goals and believe in the effectiveness of their management, that is, their ability to achieve results; They realize that their path is fraught with difficulties, barriers, and failures. Psychologists like Snyder and others claim that optimistic people can anticipate these barriers and choose the right ways.
Moreover, optimistic people can easily adapt. When their hopes are thwarted, they tend to focus more on their work to achieve their goals.
“Optimistic people tend to believe that desired goals are achievable even if personal resources are exhausted,” says psychologist Eddie Tong. In other words, hopeful people persist even when prospects are unfavorable.
More importantly, the evidence suggests that the belief that one is capable of achieving goals may be more important than knowing how to achieve them.
2. Leveraging the Power of Uncertainty
Many researchers have argued that to find hope, individuals need to perceive the “possibility of success.”
Research shows that many factors of uncertainty in life can help people cultivate hope in difficult times. For example, a 2017 study showed that parents of children diagnosed with multiple sclerosis used the fact that they knew little about the condition in childhood to nourish and maintain their hope.
Parents felt that because of the difficulty of accurately diagnosing childhood MS and the very diverse diagnosis, there was a chance that their children were misdiagnosed and could recover and live a normal life. In short, the uncertain future holds many possibilities, and as such, uncertainty is not a cause of paralysis; Rather, it is a source of hope.
3. Focusing on the positives
Optimistic and hopeful people show similarities and differences in the types of emotional stimuli they care about. For example, Psychologist Lucas Kelberer and his colleagues found that optimists tend to look for positive images, such as images of happy people, and avoid images of people who look depressed.
Optimistic people do not necessarily look for positive emotional information; however, people with high hopes spend less time paying attention to emotionally sad or threatening information.
In a world where we are overwhelmed by the choices of what we read, watch, and listen to, keeping hope does not require us to seek out positive information; it is about avoiding negative images and messages.
4. Socializing with others and avoiding isolation
It is difficult to maintain hope in isolation; research shows that for people working to bring about social change, especially anti-poverty activists, relationships have given them hope, prompting them to pursue their endeavors. Communicating with others has instilled a sense of accountability in activists, acknowledging that their work is essential and that they are part of something greater than themselves.
Relationships are necessary, but health research suggests that the sustainability of hope depends partly on the particular company we keep. For example, Parents of chronically ill children often keep hope by withdrawing or avoiding interaction with negative people who underestimate their efforts to seek positive outcomes. We can remain optimistic if we connect with others who remind us of our responsibilities and the importance of our struggles.
5. Gathering Evidence
Hope also requires trust, as hopeful people put their trust in information, especially historical ones. Research shows that anti-poverty activists have drawn hope from historical examples of people who have been able to make changes as a result of uniting and resisting together.
Accordingly, developing and sustaining hope requires gathering evidence from our lives, our history, and the whole world and using it to guide our plans, paths, and actions. Hope also requires that we learn to use this data to calibrate progress effectively, no matter how small.
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