Authors: David B Feldman Diane E Dreher
Publish Date: 2011/08/31
Volume: 13, Issue: 4, Pages: 745-759
Abstract
Despite extensive research demonstrating relationships between hope and well being little work addresses whether hope is malleable We test a singlesession 90min intervention to increase college students’ hopeful goaldirected thinking as defined by Snyder et al in Pers Soc Psychol 60570–585 1991 To date this study represents the only test of hope’s malleability in fewer than five sessions and contributes to the small but growing literature regarding positivepsychology interventions This intervention is especially relevant to college students given the increasing psychological distress and lack of perceived control noted among this population Lewinsohn et al in J Abnorm Psychol 102110–120 1993 Twenge et al in Pers Soc Psychol Rev 8308–319 2004 Ninetysix participants were assigned to the hope intervention or one of two comparison/control conditions—progressive muscle relaxation or no intervention Assessment occurred prior to intervention pretest following intervention posttest and at onemonth followup Participants in the hope intervention showed increases in measures of hope life purpose and vocational calling from pre to posttest relative to control participants They also reported greater progress on a selfnominated goal at onemonth followup Counterintuitively although hope predicted goal progress hope did not mediate the relationship between intervention condition and goal progress Implications of these findings and future directions are discussed
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