Hope and Humor: Using the Hope Scale in Outcome Studies

Abstract

Hope has been identified as a factor measured by the Hope Scale to evaluate effectiveness of treatment in outcome studies. Hope is defined as a goal-oriented cognitive construct comprised of two components, (a) the Pathways component is the individual's sense of planning strategies to reach goals and (b) the Agency component is the individual's determination to implement these goal-focused strategies. Using a Solomon Four-Group design, the relationship of the Hope Scale pretest to the posttest scores was evaluated. This study also explored the use of humor (a source of hope) in elevating total Hope Scale scores, the Agency component scores, and the Pathways component scores. 80 undergraduate students (57 women, 23 men) were ran domly assigned to one of four groups. Analysis indicated that administering the Hope Scale prior to treatment was not significantly associated with posttest scores, and the one-time 15-min. exposure to the humor intervention of reading Far Side comics was not sufficient to elevate scores on the Hope Scale.