Basic Hope as a World-View: an outline of a concept

Jerzy Trzebiński , Mariusz Zięba

Abstract

After Erikson`s (1963, 1964) conceptualization, a new theory of basic hope is proposed. Basic hope is considered a fundamental constituent of an individual`s world view, mostly unconscious and learned very early. It consists of the belief in two characteristics of the world: its higher order and sense and its general positivity towards a human being. Basic Hope Inventory (BHI) was developed to measure the strength of basic hope. The first data indicates that basic hope correlates positively with adaptive reactions to personal loss and with constructive long-term consequences of it and that these correlations are autonomous from optimism and hope for success (Snyder, 1994). Basic hope seems to predict positive effects in psychotherapy, it correlates positively with well-being and negatively with anxiety, depression and psychosomatic symptoms.