Healthcare Professionals’ Lay Definitions of Hope

Although lay beliefs about hope have been studied extensively in college student populations, little is known about how working professionals understand hope. Accordingly, the present study examined lay beliefs about hope among healthcare workers through the prism of two prominent models of hope. A directed content analysis of healthcare professionals’ qualitative responses indicated that the top seven most prevalent lay beliefs about hope were: cognition, implicit goal, agency thoughts, future orientation, likely, affect, and pathway thoughts. Consistent with the dominant perspective in the hope literature, Snyder’s Hope Theory, the three key ingredients of hope—agency thoughts, pathway thoughts, and goals—were all present, albeit to varying degrees. Aspects of Herth’s hope model, another prominent conceptualization, were less supported by our findings. When examining whether agency thoughts or pathway thoughts were more prevalent, there were no significant differences. When examining whether cognition or affect were more prevalent, there was a significant difference such that lay theories of hope typically reflected cognitive rather than affective processes. We discuss implications for existing hope models, implications for healthcare professionals, and future research avenues.