Hope 50020 226124080 2008-07-16T22:38:07Z 122.57.159.95 /* History */ {{otheruses}} {{citations missing|date=September 2007}} [[Image:Spes or Hope.jpg|thumb|''Spes'' or "Hope"; [[engraving]] by [[Sebald Beham]], German c1540]] '''Hope''' is a [[belief]] in a positive outcome related to events and [[circumstances]] in one's life. Hope implies a certain amount of [[wiktionary:despair|despair]], wanting, wishing, [[suffering]] or [[endurance|perseverance]] — i.e., believing that a better or positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary. <ref>http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hope hope. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved March 18, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hope </ref> Beyond the basic definition, usage of the term ''hope'' follows some basic patterns which distinguish its usage from related terms: *To wish for something with the expectation of the wish being fulfilled. <ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hope hope - Definitions from Dictionary.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> * Hopefulness is somewhat different from [[optimism]] in that hope is an emotional state, whereas optimism is a conclusion reached through a deliberate thought pattern that leads to a positive attitude. But hope and optimism both can be based in unrealistic belief or fantasy. * When used in a religious context, hope carries a connotation of being ''aware'' of spiritual truth; see [[Hope (virtue)]]. *In [[Catholic]] [[theology]], hope is one of the three [[theological virtues]] (faith, hope, and charity), which are spiritual gifts of God. In contrast to the above, it is not a physical emotion but a spiritual [[divine grace|grace]]. * Hope is distinct from [[positive thinking]], which refers to a therapeutic or systematic process used in [[psychology]] for reversing [[pessimism]]. * The term ''[[false]] hope'' refers to a hope based entirely around a [[fantasy]] or an extremely unlikely outcome. ==History== Examples of hopes include hoping to get rich, hoping for someone to be cured of a [[disease]], hoping to be done with a term paper, or hoping that a [[person]] has reciprocal feelings of [[romantic love|love]]. Hope was personified in [[Greek mythology]] as [[Elpis]]. When [[Pandora]] opened Pandora's Box, she let out all the evils except one: hope. Apparently, the Greeks considered hope to be as dangerous as all the world's evils. But without hope to accompany all their troubles, humanity was filled with despair. It was a great relief when Pandora revisited her box and let out hope as well. It may be worthy to note that in the story, hope is represented as weakly leaving the box but is in effect far more potent than any of the major evils. In some faiths and religions of the world, hope plays a very important role. Buddhists and Muslims for instance, believe strongly in the concepts of free will and hope. Hope can be passive in the sense of a wish, or active as a plan or idea, often against popular belief, with persistent, personal action to execute the plan or prove the idea. Consider a prisoner of war who never gives up hope for escape and, against the odds, plans and accomplishes this. By contrast, consider another prisoner who simply wishes or prays for freedom, or another who gives up all hope of freedom. In ''[[Human, All Too Human]]'', [[Existentialism|existential]] philosopher [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] had this to say about hope: Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man's torment.'' It is also important to consider the relation between Hope and Utopia. [[Ernst Bloch]] in "Principle of Hope" (1986) traces the human search for a wide range of utopias. Bloch locates utopian projects not only in the social and political realms of the well-known utopian theorists (Marx, Hegel, Lenin) but also in a multiplicity of technical, architectural, geographical utopias, and in multiple works of art (opera, literature, music, dance, film). For Bloch hope permeates everyday life and it is present in countless aspects of popular culture phenomenon such as jokes, fairy tales, fashion or images of death. In his view Hope remains in the present as an open setting of latency and tendencies. [[Martin Seligman]] in his book ''Learned Optimism'' (1990) strongly criticizes the role of churches in the promotion of the idea that the individual has little chance or hope of affecting his or her life. He acknowledges that the social and cultural conditions, such as [[serfdom]] and the [[caste system]] weighed heavily against the freedom of individuals to change the social circumstances of their lives. Almost as if to avoid the criticism, in his book ''What You Can Change and What You Can't,'' he is careful to outline the extent that people can hold out hope for personal action to change some of the things that affect their lives. More recently, psychologist Anthony Scioli (2006) has developed an integrative theory of hope that consists of four elements: ''attachment, mastery, survival'', and ''[[spirituality]]''. This approach incorporates contributions from [[psychology]], [[anthropology]], [[philosophy]] and [[theology]] as well as classical and contemporary [[literature]] and the arts.<ref>Scioli, A. (2006). Hope and Spirituality in the Age of Anxiety. In R. Estes (Ed.),Advancing Quality of Life in a Turbulent World. New York: Springer.</ref> Hope is also now used as a common girls name. ==[[Socio-cognitive]] perspective== From socio-cognitive viewpoint, ''hope'' is closely related to cognitive [[decision-making]] and can be considered its critical factor, such as ''[[risk]]'' dependent ''[[danger]]'' . In real situations, human [[agent]]'s decision depends on the comparison of his/her danger perception and the hope indicator, which can be assessed as a value proportional to the probability of an event and its expected outcome/payoff/benefits <ref> Adam Maria Gadomski, Risk Based Reasoning in Decision-Making for Emergency-Management. Proc. of SRA-Europe Annual Conference "Risk Analysis: Opening The Process", Paris, France,1998. see also: [http://erg4146.casaccia.enea.it/IRRIIS-ORG/SRA98a-off.pdf (ppt)]</ref> There also is some evidence to suggest that in adverse situations, hope may be worse than hopelessness for overall well-being. For example, people sentenced to [[life imprisonment]] without the possibility of parole adjust better to their situation than prisoners who retain the possibility of parole. Similarly, patients who underwent a permanent [[colostomy]] showed higher life satisfaction 6 months after the operation than those who underwent a potentially reversible colostomy.<ref>{{Cite news | issn = 0362-4331 | last = Krakovsky | first = Marina | title = Hope Can Be Worse Than Hopelessness | work = The New York Times | accessdate = 2007-12-31 | date = 2007-12-09 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_23_hope.html?ref=magazine }}</ref> ==See also== {{wikiquote}} *[[chance]] *[[risk]] ==References== {{reflist}} {{Emotion-footer}} [[Category:Positive mental attitude]] [[Category:Emotion]] [[Category:Positive psychology]] [[ar:الرجاء]] [[gn:Ta'arõ]] [[cs:Naděje]] [[da:Håb]] [[de:Hoffnung]] [[ko:희망]] [[io:Espero]] [[it:Speranza]] [[he:תקווה]] [[nl:Hoop]] [[new:आशा]] [[ja:希望]] [[no:Håp]] [[pl:Nadzieja (psychologia)]] [[pt:Esperança (filosofia)]] [[ro:Speranţă]] [[ru:Надежда]] [[scn:Spiranza]] [[fi:Toivo (kristinusko)]] [[tr:Umut]] [[uk:Надія]] [[zh:希望]]