Offered Alternative - Poster Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 8th IPPA World Congress 2023

Dare to hope: from hopelessness to hopefulness (#722)

Sarah Lewis 1 2
  1. Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
  2. Appreciating Change, Greenwich, LONDON, United Kingdom

Background

Developed from practice and theory

Aims

 This workshop will introduce three effective processes for moving people locked in unproductive problem or deficit talk to productive aspirational talk.

It will consider when deficit or problem talk (Ludema, Cooperrider and Barrett, 2006) is appropriate and helpful, note when it becomes dysfunctional and briefly explore why people get stuck in downward spirals of hopelessness (Beck et al., 1974).

Method

 The workshop will outline a three-stage process for encouraging people to ‘dare to hope’.

 The rest of the workshop will be experiential and will involve interactive exercises in pairs using one of three tools designed to effect such a shift.

The tools that will be explored are

 

  • The PRISMM coaching cubes. This coaching model draws on Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider and Srivastva 2001), Systemic Consulting (Campbell et al 1984), and Positive Psychology, specifically positive affect (Fredrickson 1998).

 

  • Tell your story. These cards access storytelling (Boje 2001), and exploration of emotional states (Fredrickson 1998). They can be used in many ways to support the ‘flip’ from what’s wrong to what is desired.

 

  • Appreciative Inquiry Discovery Interview (Cooperrider, Stavos and Whitney, 2008). This process encourages the identification of ‘peak’ moments from the past and uses inquiry to both create positive affect in the moment and to identify resourcefulness from past moments of strength, resilience and achievement, re-creating hope in the moment.

Results

The demonstrable effect of a shift in mood on faculties such as creativity, problem-solving, social-ability etc. have been demonstrated by many researchers from positive psychology, particularly Fredrickson (ibid) and Isen (2005).

Conclusion

 This skill should be of use to coaches, consultants, teachers, therapists and counsellors amongst others, in many diverse situations and cultures.

  1. Campbell et al. (1994) Systemic work with organizations. London, Karnac Books
  2. Cooperrider, D. L., Stavros, J. M., & Whitney, D. (2008). The appreciative inquiry handbook: For leaders of change. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
  3. Cooperrider, D. & Srivastva, S. (2001) Appreciative inquiry in organizational life. In Cooperrider D., Sorenson Peter F, Jnr., Yaegar Therese and Whitney Diana (eds) 2001 Appreciative Inquiry: an Emerging Direction for Organizational Development. Stipes Publishing L.lL.C
  4. Beck, Aaron T., et al. "The measurement of pessimism: the hopelessness scale." Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 42.6 (1974): 861.
  5. Boje, D. M. (2001) Narrative methods for organizational & communication research. Sage.
  6. Green and Palmer (eds) 2019 Positive psychology coaching in practice. Routledge
  7. Fredrickson, B. (1998) What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2 (3) pp300-319
  8. Isen, A. (2005) A role for neuropsychology in understanding the facilitating influence of positive affect on social behaviour and cognitive affect. In Synder, C. R. and Lopez, S. J. (eds) Handbook of positive psychology. Oxford University Press
  9. Ludema, James D., David L. Cooperrider, and Frank J. Barrett. "Appreciative inquiry: The power of the unconditional positive question." Handbook of action research (2006): 155-165.
  • Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Coping and Emotion Regulation, Motivation, Positive emotions
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