The concept of hope in various psychological perspectives

Abstract

This article aims at reviewing the most important concepts of hope and categorising themby similarities and differences, and it draws attention to the consequences of particular definitions ofthis concept. There are three groups of approaches to hope: the first gathers concepts that explain thefunctions of hope, but does not clearly define its essence; the second collects the concepts defininghope as a personality trait, an individual’s disposition or his set of beliefs, and the third, includes theconcepts characterizing hope as an affective state, emotion, or feeling. The classification proposed inthis article is to introduce a certain order that makes it easier for the reader to become familiar withvarious psychological concepts of hope. The suggested division also indicates the course of changesin the way of thinking about the notion of hope that has taken place and continues to take place in thefield of psychology. An additional purpose in the current article is to raise reflection on issues thatshould be addressed in subsequent works on defining hope in psychology.