{"id":37000,"date":"2024-04-19T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T01:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=37000"},"modified":"2024-04-27T22:03:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-27T22:03:43","slug":"hope-is-not-the-same-as-optimism-a-psychologist-explains-%e2%88%92-just-look-at-mlks-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/hope-is-not-the-same-as-optimism-a-psychologist-explains-%e2%88%92-just-look-at-mlks-example\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope is not the same as optimism, a psychologist explains \u2212 just look at MLK\u2019s\u00a0example"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kendra Thomas<\/a>, Hope College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 3, 1968, standing before a crowded church, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. painted his vision for justice. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the Promised Land<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cI may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-two hours later, he was assassinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King\u2019s prophetic words express the virtue of hope amid hardship. He was not optimistic that he would reach the \u201cPromised Land,\u201d yet he was hopeful about the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conversation, \u201chope\u201d and \u201coptimism\u201d can often be used as synonyms. But there\u2019s an important gap between them, as psychology research suggests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most common tools to measure optimism<\/a> asks people how much they agree with statements such as, \u201cIn uncertain times, I usually expect the best.\u201d Those who strongly agree are regarded as highly optimistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But optimism can rely on a sense of luck over action. Self-help books on optimism are lined with hacks \u2013 like imagining your greatest possible self or focusing on the best-case scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My psychology research<\/a> studies how people perceive hope and justice. Long-term hope is not about looking on the bright side. It is a mindset that helps people endure challenges, tackle them head-on and keep their eyes on the goal \u2013 a virtue that King and other community leaders exemplify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Uniformed<\/a>
National Guard troops block off a street in Memphis during a civil rights march on March 29, 1968. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. soon returned to the city and was assassinated. Bettmann via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We, not me<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hope is often defined in psychological research<\/a> as having strong will to succeed and plans to reach a goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope is stronger than optimism at predicting<\/a> academic success<\/a> and people\u2019s ability to cope with pain<\/a>. Plenty of scientific evidence suggests that hope improves individuals\u2019 health<\/a> and boosts their well-being<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But branding hope as a self-improvement tool cheapens this long-established virtue. Hope has benefits beyond the self<\/a>. Thus, many psychologists are expanding the study of hope<\/a> beyond personal success. My research team defines this \u201cvirtuous hope<\/a>\u201d as striving toward a purposeful vision of the common good \u2013 a hope often shaped by hardship and strengthened through relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many leaders, including King, have channeled that lesson to inspire change. Centuries of spiritual and philosophical work describe hope as a virtue<\/a> that, like love, is a decision, not a feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The myth of time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

King wasn\u2019t known for looking on the bright side or expecting the best from others. He faced repeated waves of criticism, and, at the time of his death, fewer Americans approved<\/a> of him than of the Vietnam War<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cLetter from a Birmingham Jail<\/a>,\u201d King lamented the optimism of moderate white Americans who said they supported his goals but took little action. There is a \u201cstrangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills,\u201d he wrote. \u201cActually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He chastised society for believing that improvement would simply happen on its own. When he said, \u201cThe arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice<\/a>,\u201d he was not describing its natural trajectory, but what people have the power to change. You cannot expect greener pastures if they are not tended today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
The Revs. Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr. greet supporters as they are released from jail in Birmingham, Ala., on April 20, 1963. Chris McNair\/Archive Photos via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

King was not alone in leveraging virtuous hope for justice. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire described hope as an \u201cexistential imperative<\/a>\u201d that promotes action. Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison, called hope a \u201cpowerful weapon<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forged in adversity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What makes hope a virtue is not its ability to promote happiness and success but its commitment to a greater good beyond the self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I study virtuous hope in a South African Zulu community, where there are few reasons for optimism. South Africa has the world\u2019s steepest inequality<\/a>. Unemployment is high<\/a>, and social mobility<\/a> is low. This is the part of the country where HIV is most widespread<\/a>, with the percentage near 50%<\/a> in some communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We studied several people seen as embodying hope<\/a>, based on their reputation and community suggestions. These individuals demonstrated an unwavering focus on striving for a better future, often unglued from expectations of personal success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One local farmer nominated by his community struggled to buy seeds for his crops but still helped others apply for grants to buy them. Even when his own future was uncertain, he was not hoarding. He described his hope as a commitment to help others. His hope is not a positive expectation but a moral commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our interviewees did not describe hardship as a suppressor of hope but as its context to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One unemployed young woman said she had applied for jobs for four years and would continue, though she was not na\u00efve about the tough future. She said applying for jobs and reading to her child were her acts of hope. Her hope didn\u2019t expect a quick improvement, yet it warded off paralysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of our interviewees anchored their hope in their Christian faith, as did King. King often referenced<\/a> St. Paul, one of the first Christian writers, who wrote<\/a>, \u201cSuffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Now this hope does not disappoint us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope, in other words, plays the long game: enduring suffering with integrity. Like King\u2019s, it manifests in hardship and is refined in adversity. Hope enables communities to march for justice and democracy<\/a> even while tasting the danger of dictatorship, apartheid or oligarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope knows it may take another generation to reach the Promised Land, but it acts today to bend the moral arc<\/a> toward justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kendra Thomas<\/a>, Associate Professor of Psychology, Hope College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kendra Thomas, Hope College On April 3, 1968, standing before a crowded church, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. painted his vision for justice. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the Promised Land,\u201d he said. \u201cI may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":37001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450,38],"tags":[3846,196,5822,15461,15462,9202,228,6610,4691,4911],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37000"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37015,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37000\/revisions\/37015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}