Hope and Depression

Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between hopeful thinking and major depressive disorder. Hope is a positive psychology construct that comprises goals, agency thinking, and pathways thinking and has been associated with psychological and physical well-being and psychosocial outcomes. Depression is inversely correlated with hope and is characterized by a host of symptoms and psychological correlates, including feelings of sadness, negative self-talk, amotivation, and difficulties in problem-solving and concentrating. This chapter explores the empirical evidence regarding the relationship between hope and depression, including the relationship between the subcomponents of hope (i.e., pathways and agency thinking) and the biological (e.g., neural reward systems) and cognitive (e.g., executive functioning) correlates of depression. In addition, the evidence for hope as a viable route for remediating depressive symptoms is reviewed, and future directions are proposed.

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