How Hopeful Are You?
Not whether things will go well, but whether you can make them
In everyday speech hope is a feeling. In the psychology of C. R. Snyder it is a way of thinking with two moving parts: the drive to go after what you want, and the ability to find routes when the obvious one is blocked. People can be strong on one and weak on the other - full of energy and short of ideas, or full of plans and short of fuel. This test scores both, plus how clear your goals are.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Answer about how you usually approach the things you want, not about the one goal that happens to be going very well or very badly right now.
What it measures
The two components of the Adult Hope Scale - agency, the willpower to pursue goals, and pathways, the ability to find routes to them - plus goal clarity from the same theory. Unlike the optimism test on this site, which asks whether you expect good outcomes, this one asks whether you see yourself as able to produce them.
Based on: Adult Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991) and hope theory (Snyder, 2002)
Possible results
Agency (willpower)
The drive and self-belief to go after what you want.
Pathways (waypower)
Your ability to find routes to a goal, and new ones when the first is blocked.
Goal clarity
Whether you have goals concrete enough to aim at.
Common questions
What is the difference between hope and optimism?
Optimism is the expectation that things will turn out well; hope in Snyder's sense is the belief that you can make them turn out well - that you have the drive and can find the routes. The two correlate strongly, but hope puts you in the driver's seat, while an optimist can expect good outcomes that depend on luck or other people.
Can hope be learned?
The pathways side in particular. Hope-based programmes teach people to set concrete goals, break them into steps and plan alternatives for likely obstacles, and they have produced modest improvements. Agency tends to follow: seeing progress is what makes people believe in their next attempt.
Is high hope always a good thing?
Mostly, but not unconditionally. Hope is about goals you believe you can reach; when a goal is genuinely out of reach, high hope can keep people investing long after stepping back would be healthier. The most useful form of hope includes the ability to swap a blocked goal for a better one.
Sources
- Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., Sigmon, S. T., Yoshinobu, L., Gibb, J., Langelle, C., & Harney, P. (1991). The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.4.570
- Snyder, C. R. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological Inquiry. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli1304_01
An honest note The questions are Quinthea's own wording adapted from the Adult Hope Scale, so scores are not comparable with its published norms. That scale measures only agency and pathways; the goal clarity bar comes from the wider hope theory and is not a validated subscale. Hope overlaps heavily with optimism and self-efficacy, and most of the evidence comes from American samples. This is not a mental-health measure: if you have felt hopeless for weeks, please talk to a doctor or psychologist.