The roles of hopeful thinking in preventing problems and enhancing strengths

From its most famous tale, that of Pandora, hope was meant to prevent the e mergence and reemergence of life difficulties. A new model defining hope as a combination of agentic pathways and goal-directed thinking is reviewed. Comparisons of the similarities of this theory to other existing theories a re made. The beneficial roles of hope in primary (before the appearance of a problem) and secondary (after a problem has appeared) prevention are expl ored. Primary enhancement is introduced as involving those thoughts and act ions that establish optimal functioning and satisfaction. Secondary enhance ment is posited to describe those thoughts and actions that are undertaken over time so as to further functioning and satisfaction in order to reach p eak levels. Using hope theory as a lens, these primary and secondary enhanc ement processes are described. The natural synergy between prevention and e nhancement activities is discussed, along with the future priorities for us ing hope in prevention and enhancement efforts.