The concept of hope has infused human culture for millennia and in modern times challenged psychologists’ attempts to define and measure individuals’ level of hope. The beneficial impact of increasing hope to improve physical and mental well-being is a tested therapeutic intervention. However, little research has explored this matter in a coaching context. As a practicing coach, I regularly encounter issues around hope with my clients. As a consequence an action research project was designed to address my own personal development as a coach, but also to explore the challenges in identifying, improving and measuring levels hope in clients, using Snyder's hope theory (1994, 2002) and the hope scale (Lopez, Snyder and Pedrotti, 2003).
AspinwallL. & LeafS. (2002). In search of the unique aspects of hope: pinning our hopes on positive emotions, future-oriented thinking, hard times, and other people. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4).
2.
AronsonR. (1999). Hope after hope?Social Research, 66(2).
3.
AverillJ.R., CatlinG. & ChonK.K. (1990). Rules of hope. New York: Springer-Verlag.
DenscombeM. (2010). The good research guide. (4th ed.) Maidenhead: OUP.
14.
DeweyJ. (1941). Propositions, warranted assertibility, and truth. The Journal of Philosophy. 38(7).
15.
FinlayL. (2005). Reflexive embodied empathy: A phenomenology of participant-researcher intersubjectivity, The Humanistic Psychologist, 33(4).
16.
FinlayL. (2008). A dance between the reduction and reflexivity: Explicating the phenomenological psychological attitude, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 39, 1–32.
17.
FredricksonB.L. (1998). What good are positive emotions?Review of General Psychology: Special Issue: New Directions in Research on Emotion2, 300–319.
18.
FrankJ.D. & FrankJ.B. (1991). Persuasion and healing. (3rd ed.) Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
19.
FredricksonB.L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden and build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist,56(3).
FredricksonB.L. and BraniganC. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition and Emotion19, 313–332.
22.
GreenwoodD.J. & LevinM. (1998). Action research, science and the co-optation of social research. Studies in Cultures, Organisations and Societies. 4.
23.
GallagherM. & LopezS. (2009). Positive expectancies and mental health: Identifying the unique contributions of hope and optimism. The Journal of Positive Psychology4(6).
24.
GrantA.M. (2009) Workplace, executive and life coaching: An annotated bibliography from the behavioural science and business literature, Coaching Psychology Unit, University of Sydney, Australia.
25.
GrantA.M., PassmoreJ., CavanaghM.J., ParkerH. (2010). The state of play in coaching today: A comprehensive review of the field. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 25: 125–167.
26.
GreenS., GrantA. & RynsaardtJ. (2007) Evidence-based life coaching for senior high school students: Building hardiness and hope. International Coaching Psychology Review. 2 (1).
27.
HaackS. (2009). The meaning of pragmatism: the ethics of terminology and the language of philosophy. Teorema, 28(3): 9–29.
28.
HammersleyM. (2004). Action research: a contradiction in terms?Oxford Review of Education. 30(2).
29.
HammersleyM. (2006). Philosophy's contribution to social science research on education. Journal of Philosophy of Education.40 (2).
30.
HayJ. (2007). Reflective practice and supervision for coaches. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill OUP.
31.
KauffmanC. (2006) Positive psychology; the science at the heart of coaching. In: StoberD.R. & GrantA.M. (Eds.), Evidence Based Coaching Handbook. Hoboken: Wiley.
32.
KauffmanC., BoniwellI. & SilbermanJ. (2010). The positive psychology approach to coaching. In: CoxE., BachkirovaT. & ClutterbuckD.The complete handbook of coaching. London: Sage.
33.
LazarusR. (1999). Hope: an emotion and a vital coping resource against despair, Social Research, 6(2.).
34.
LazarusR. (2002). Toward better research on stress and coping. American Psychologist, 55 (6).
35.
LevinM. (2012). Academic integrity in action research. Action Research. 10(2).
36.
LincolnY.S. (2010). "What a long, strange trip it's been…" Twenty-five years of qualitative and new paradigm research. Qualitative Inquiry16(1).
37.
LisleA.M. (2000). All hail reflexivity, Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 2, 109–129.
LopezS.J., SnyderC.R. & PedrottiJ.T. (2003). Hope: Many definitions, many measures. In: LopezS.J. & SnyderC.R. (Eds.) Positive psychological assessments: A handbook of models and measures. Washington: American Psychological Association.
40.
LynchM. (2000). Against reflexivity as an academic virtue and source of privileged knowledge, Theory, Culture, Society17 (3).
41.
MadduxJ. (2009). Self-efficacy: The power of believing you can. In: LopezC., & SnyderS., The Oxford handbook of positive psychology. Oxford, OUP.
42.
MagalettaP., & OliverJ. (1999). The hope construct, will and ways: their relations with self-efficacy, optimism and general well-being. Journal of Clinical Psychology55(5).
43.
Magyar-MoeJ.L. (2009). Therapists guide to positive psychological interventions. London: Elsevier.
MiceliM. & CastelfranchiC. (2010). Hope: the power of wish and possibility. Theory & Psychology20(2): 251–276.
47.
MurphyP.E., CiarrocchiJ.W., PiedmontR.L., ChestonS., PeyrotM. & FitchettG. (2000). The relation of religious belief and practices, depression, and hopelessness in persons with clinical depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(6).
48.
NeenanM. & DrydenW. (2002a). Life coaching, a cognitive behavioural approach. Hove: Routledge.
ReasonP. (2003). Pragmatist philosophy and action research: readings and conversation with Richard Rorty. Action Research1 (1).
56.
RiskindJ.H. (2006). Links between cognitive-behavioral hope-building and positive psychology: applications to a psychotic patient. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy. 20 (2).
57.
RoloC. & GouldD. (2007). An intervention for fostering hope, athletic and academic performance in university student-athletes. International Coaching Psychology Review. 2 (1).
58.
RortyR. (1993). Putnam and the relativist menace. The Journal of Philosophy. 90 (9).
59.
SeligmanM. (2002). Authentic happiness. New York: Free Press.
60.
SchönD. (1991). The reflective practitioner. Farnham: Ashgate.
61.
SnyderC.R. (1994). The psychology of hope: you can get there from here: London: Free Press.
62.
SnyderC.R. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4).
63.
SnyderC.R., IlardiS., CheavensJ., MichaelS., YamhureL., & SympsonS. (2000). The role of hope in cognitive-behavior therapies. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 24(6).
64.
SnyderC.R., RandK., KingE., FeldmanD., & WoodwardJ. (2002). False hope. The Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(9).
65.
SnyderC.J. & LopezS.J. (2007). Positive psychology: The scientific and practical explorations of human strengths. London: Sage.
66.
StewartI. & JoinesV. (1987). TA Today. Nottingham: Lifespace.
67.
Stratten-LakeP. (1999). Marcel. In: CritchleyS. & SchroederW.R. (Eds.), A companion to continental philosophy. Blackwell, Oxford.
68.
TalisseR.B. (2012). On the pragmatists and truth. In: EdmondsD. & WarburtonN. (Eds.), Philosophy bites back. Oxford: OUP.
69.
TennenH., AffleckG., & TennenR. (2002). Clipped feathers: The theory and measurement of hopePsychological Inquiry. 13(4).
70.
WhiteheadJ. (2009). Generating living theory and understanding in action research studies. Action Research, 7(1).
