Hope (State)

What it measures

The scale measures momentary confidence in pursuing one's goals, adapted from an established trait-level measure of hope. Capturing hope as a state rather than a stable trait lets researchers study how marketing content or situational context can shift feelings of optimism in the moment.

Response format

8-point Likert (adapted from the trait Hope Scale; 1=definitely false, 8=definitely true)

Scale items

• At the present time, I am energetically pursuing my goals.
• Right now, I see myself as being pretty successful.
• At this time, I am meeting the goals that I have set for myself.
• If I should find myself in a jam, I could think of many ways to get out of it.
• There are lots of ways around any problem that I am facing now.
• I can think of many ways to reach my current goals.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Chang (2020) adapted this scale from Snyder et al.'s (1996) well-established Hope Scale, administering it to university students in Taiwan (Studies 1–2) and US participants via MTurk (Study 3). Reliability was strong across all three uses (α = .83–.91). Note: Snyder et al.'s original validation work found the scale loads on two factors rather than one, worth considering before treating it as unidimensional.

Citation

Chang, C. (2020). How Branded Videos Can Inspire Consumers and Benefit Brands: Implications for Consumers’ Subjective Well-Being. Journal of Advertising, 49(5), 613–632.

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