S A R A R. S T A A T S AND M A R J O R I E A.
S T A S S E N
HOPE: AN A F F E C T I V E COGNITION
(Received 10 July, 1985)
ABSTRACT. Hope is here operationalizedas a predominance of expected future posi-
tive feelings over future expected negative feelings. Hope, comprised of both desire and
expectation, involves the interaction of affect and cognition. Modifications of Brad-
burn's Affective Balance Scale were used to measure hope and happiness. Four graphic
rating scales were used to measure psychological well-being, perceived health, satisfac-
tion, and happiness. Hope, measured by the Expected Balance Scale correlated as ex-
pected with the other measures. A factor analysis further supported the robustness of
the hope variable. Hope is offered as an important personality dimension worthy of con-
tinued research.
Understandably, social scientists have concentrated on negative moods,
emotional states, and destructive personal dispositions. Sadness, unhappiness,
and hopelessness are problems of great salience whereas individuals do not
seek help for happiness, personal sense of well-being or feelings of hope.
Currently, happiness is a rapidly developing research area. The groundwork
has been laid by many. Assessments of social indicators at the national level
(Andrews and Withey, 1976; Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers, 1976) have
provided rich information on well-being and quality of life, especially as it
relates to demographic variables. However, only a small portion of the vari-
ance in these studies is accounted for by demographic variables. Typically,
subjective variables such as positive affect, quality of life, and sense of well-
being are better predictors and are all concerned with what philosophers have
called happiness (Campbell, 1980).
Happiness was defined by Bradburn (1967) as the difference between posi-
tive and negative affect. His Affective Balance Scale (ABS) has proved to be a
useful measure and considerable research supports the validity and reliability
of his scale (Costra and McCray, 1980; Diener, 1984; Staats, 1985).
Happiness is generally conceived of as a mild emotional state of mood
resulting from an emotional reaction. Existing research on happiness, well-
being, and quality of life has focused on the immediate present or the recent
past. The mood of happiness may also be considered as a readiness or antici-
Social Indicators Research 17 (1985) 235-242. 0303-8300/85.10
(~ 1985 by D. Reidel Publishing Company.
236 S A R A R. S T A A T S A N D M A R J O R I E A. S T A S S E N
pation of positive emotion. This suggests that happiness is not only related to
present and recent past events but also to expected or hoped for positive
events.
Hope or positive future expectation is the focus of the present study.
Gerontologists have sometimes used the term morale in discussing such a state
in older persons. George and Bearon (1980)discuss some of these definitions
and measurements of morale. Good spirits in spite of the adversities of age is
the sense of some definitions while optimism is included by others (Kutner,
Fanshel, Togo, Langner, 1956). We prefer the term hope to morale. Whereas
morale is generally group referenced as defined in English and English (1958),
hope is an individual characteristic. The present authors also observe that
happiness is not only related to present and recent past events but also to
expected or hoped for positive events and that hope is an important deter-
minant of subjective well-being. This is consistent with the work of Seligman
(1975) and Beck (1967) who have related depression and unhappiness to
uncontrollable negative events and to lack of positive expectations about the
future.
Hope implies both a cognitive aspect, i.e., expectation of a future event
and an affective aspect, i.e., the things that we hope for are pleasant events or
good outcomes. We are not here so much concerned with the primacy of
cognition or of affect (Lazarus, 1984; Zajonc, 1984), but rather the natural,
real-world interaction of both. The present paper represents a preliminary
attempt to measure hope using a modification of the Bradburn ABS.
METHOD
Bradburn's ABS required persons to indicate whether or not they had experi-
enced any of five positive or five negative feelings in the past few weeks.
Warr, Barter, and Brownbridge (1983) modified and increased the length of
Bradburn's ABS. Their scale, a modified affective balance scale (MABS), was
used with a 5-point Likert response mode as a measure of happiness (Table I).
A parallel form of the MABS, called the Expected Balance Scale (EBS)
was designed to measure hope. In the EBS the instructions were "In the
next few weeks do you expect...?" Otherwise the survey was identical to the
MABS. The MABS and the EBS were administered in counterbalanced order.
Four other variables were globally assessed by graphic rating scales that
were scored from 1-10. These variables were happiness, satisfaction, estimated
HOPE 237
TABLE I.
Modified affective balance scale.
Name Sex Age _ _
This is a survey about how people feel. In the last few weeks indicate how you have felt.
Circle 1 if you have not felt that way at all, circle 5 if you have felt that way to a great
extent, and 2, 3, or 4 to indicate a moderate degree.
In the last few weeks:
1 2 3 4 5 1. Have you ever been annoyed with someone?
1 2 3 4 5 2. Have you ever felt very lonely or remote from other
people?
1 2 3 4 5 3. Have you ever felt that things were going your way?
1 2 3 4 5 4. Have you ever felt very worried?
1 2 3 4 5 5. Have you ever felt very pleased because you have good
friends?
1 2 3 4 5 6. Have you ever been afraid of what might happen?
1 2 3 4 5 7. Have you ever felt particularly excited or interested in
something?
1 2 3 4 5 8. Have you ever felt depressed or very unhappy?
1 2 3 4 5 9. Have you ever been full of energy?
1 2 3 4 5 10. Have you ever felt very tired?
1 2 3 4 5 11. Have you ever felt so restless that you couldn't sit long
in a chair?
1 2 3 4 5 12. Have you ever felt that you were really enjoying your-
self?
1 2 3 4 5 13. Have you ever felt very cheerful?
1 2 3 4 5 14. Have you ever felt like crying?
1 2 3 4 5 15. Have you ever felt on top of the world?
1 2 3 4 5 16. Have you ever felt confident about the future?
1 2 3 4 5 17. Have you ever felt bored?
1 2 3 4 5 18. Have you ever felt pleased about having accomplished
something?
p h y s i c a l h e a l t h , a n d p s y c h o l o g i c a l well-being. The i n s t r u c t i o n s p r i n t e d above
a five i n c h line r e a d , " B e l o w is a ~ scale. Please rate y o u r p r e s e n t state
of ~ b y p u t t i n g a c h e c k m a r k o n t h e scale." B e l o w t h e line, a zero was
p r i n t e d o n t h e left a n d t h e w o r d s " g r e a t e s t p o s s i b l e " o n t h e right. Data w e r e
c o l l e c t e d fall o f 1984 f r o m 190 w h i t e p a r t i c i p a n t s o f w h o m 98 w e r e male
a n d 92 w e r e f e m a l e . Their m e a n age was 20.04. The p a r t i c i p a n t s were i n t r o -
d u c t o r y p s y c h o l o g y s t u d e n t s or r e s i d e n t s o f t h e N e w a r k , Ohio area. This is a
c i t y o f 5 5 , 0 0 0 s u r r o u n d e d b y a rural area. M o s t o f t h e s t u d e n t s w e r e em-
p l o y e d o n at least a p a r t - t i m e basis.
238 SARA R. STAATS AND MARJORIE A. STASSEN
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HOPE 239
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Happiness and hope were both measured by modifications of Bradburn's
ABS, the only difference being the time reference of the past few weeks ver-
sus the next few weeks. The mean MABS score was 4.61 and the mean EBS
score was 9.47. This result is not only statistically significant but the size of
the effect is noteworthy. It has been observed that normal adults indicate
high levels of positive feelings such as global satisfaction, happiness, or well-
being (Goldings, 1954; Diener, 1984), and that happiness or well-being scores
are relatively stable across time (Andrews and Withey, 1976; Kammann,
Christie, Irwin, and Dixon, 1979). Hope may moderate this tendency for
happiness to be stable since hope is not only a present feeling but also-a
cognition about the future that influences behavior (Staats, 1985).
The intercorrelation of the EBS and other measures is presented in Table
II. The EBS is logically related to the other measures which supports its
validity. The correlation of 0.58 between the EBS and the ABS is elevated
by a method effect. The correlation of 0.27 between the EBS and the global
happiness measure is not contaminated by a method effect and is a fair
measure of the variance shared by the two constructs. Hope and happiness
are related but are identifiably different as constructs. Hope and happiness
are both positive feelings but hope has the additional cognitive aspect of
expectation.
Satisfaction is generally considered to have a comparison based frame of
reference and thus a stronger cognitive component than does happiness.
Table II shows that hope does have a higher correlation (0.41) with satis-
faction than with global happiness (0.27).
A principal components factor analysis was performed on the positive
and negative sub-scales of hope and happiness along with the other measures.
Following Varimax rotation, the loadings in Table III were obtained. The
cognitive aspect of hope, Positive Expectations, emerged as the first factor,
explaining 21.1 percent of the variance. A second factor having to do with
feeling good explained 20.0 percent of the variance. The third factor, defined
by past and expected negative affect, accounted for 18.4 percent of the
variance and is subject to a method effect. The ffmal factor, Female, should
not be over interpreted in view of the low, non-significant rs observed in
Table II, but does support those who have described the happy person as
female.
240 SARA R. STAATS AND MARJORIE A. STASSEN
TABLE III.
Rotated Facor Loadings
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4
Positive Feeling Health Negative Female
Expectations and Happy Affect: Past
& Expected
Happy 0.20 0.59 - 0.18 0.45
Satisfaction 0.82 0.25 - 0.13 - 0.03
Past positive 0.42 0.54 0.25 0.21
Past negative - 0.17 0.04 0.90 0.00
Expect positive 0.89 0.04 0.14 - 0.01
Expect negative 0.33 - 0.19 0.78 - 0.10
Health - 0.06 0.73 0.07 - 0.31
Well-being 0.24 0.71 - 0.32 0.08
Sex number (0 = M, 1 = F) - 0.07 - 0.04 - 0.02 0.87
1.90 1.77 1.66 1.22
The Bradburn model has demonstrated validity but presents several serious
difficulties. Positive and negative affect are probably not independent as
Bradburn (1969) maintained but represent a summation of intensity and
frequency (Fordyce, 1983; Diener, 1985). The Bradburn sub-scales are
markedly skewed. The difference score approach (positive affect - negative
affect) leads to various undesirable effects such as restriction of range and
confounding of the two elements (Cronbach and Furby, 1970). For these
reasons, a new measure of hope is being developed (Staats, 1985). This
measure will ask students to rate independently how much they would wish
a particular future occurrence and the extent to which they would expect this
to occur. The multiplication of the wish value by the expect value will
generate a measure of hope.
Few researchers have investigated hope or future expectations. Michalos
(1983), using a five-year expectation global item, found that this variable
was the weakest predictor in his model. Aside from content differences be-
tween his global item and the EBS, we suspect that the time referent is a
primary cause for this discrepancy. Degree of certainty regarding the future
becomes greater as the future becomes more imminent. Further, most univer-
sity students operate under a short time frame and the next few weeks are
much more salient in their thinking than the next five years. Therefore, we
predict that items with a short future reference will be powerful predictors
HOPE 241
and as the time length increases there will be a diminishing o f the rehtion-
ship between expectations and other variables.
Further work in the area o f hope is warranted. The idea that the future
is going to get worse has been related to clinical depression b y Beck, Kovacs,
and Weissman (1975). Hope, on the other hand, has the adaptive function o f
energizing and directing behavior through positive expectations. The present
research shows that hope correlates with satisfaction and subjective well-
being and to a lesser degree with happiness. Hope emerges from this research
as a robust variable.
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242 SARA R. STAATS AND MARJORIE A. STASSEN
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