Hunter Opinions and Personal Expectations Scale (HOPES)

Abstract

The Hunter Opinions and Personal Expectations Scale (HOPES) is a psychological scale designed to measure an individual’s level of personal hopefulness. Developed originally as a 20-item instrument (HOPES-20), it was later refined into a more concise 12-item version (HOPES-12). The instrument operationalizes hopefulness as a construct comprising both positive, future-oriented expectations (Hope Subscale, HS) and negative, pessimistic beliefs (Despair Subscale, DS). HOPES is utilized in research and clinical settings to assess future orientation, quality of life, and resilience, particularly within psychiatric and community samples.

Keywords

Hopefulness, Personal Expectations, Psychological Measurement, Despair, Future Orientation, Well-being, Quality of Life, Self-report.

Authors

Nunn, K. P., Lewin, T. J., Walton, J. M., Carr, V. J.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the HOPES instrument is to quantify an individual’s subjective experience of hope regarding their personal future. It aims to capture the cognitive and affective components that underpin an individual’s expectations about life’s trajectory, potential achievements, and available support systems.

The scale was developed to provide a reliable and valid measure that distinguishes between active hope and passive despair, allowing researchers and clinicians to assess these dimensions separately. The revised HOPES-12 version focused on maintaining the psychometric rigor of the original while improving efficiency for use in clinical practice and large-scale studies.

Construct

The Hunter Opinions and Personal Expectations Scale measures the latent construct of Personal Hopefulness. This construct is defined by two key dimensions, which form distinct subscales:

• Hope Subscale (HS): Reflects positive expectations, enthusiasm for the future, belief in personal agency, and anticipation of meaningful relationships and activities.
• Despair Subscale (DS): Reflects negative expectations, feelings of lack of control, pessimism about future outcomes, and fears regarding personal decline or lack of support.

The calculation of the General Personal Hopefulness (GPH) score integrates these two subscales, providing a holistic measure of the balance between positive and negative future orientation. This dual-factor model recognizes that hope is not merely the inverse of despair but involves unique psychological components.

Validity

The original development of the HOPES-20 included comprehensive efforts to establish content and construct validity, aiming to ensure the items accurately represented the domain of personal hopefulness. Subsequent research, particularly leading to the introduction of the HOPES-12, focused on refining the instrument’s factorial structure and confirming its ability to correlate appropriately with established measures of related psychological constructs (e.g., depression, quality of life, well-being), thereby demonstrating concurrent and convergent validity.

Reliability

The reliability of the HOPES instrument has been assessed primarily through measures of internal consistency. The original research and the subsequent validation of the HOPES-12 reported satisfactory Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for both the overall scale and its component subscales (Hope and Despair), indicating that the items within each subscale reliably measure the same underlying dimension. Test-retest reliability studies were also conducted to ensure the stability of the measure over time, particularly important when tracking changes in hopefulness within therapeutic interventions.

Factor Analysis

The psychometric development of HOPES utilized factor analytic techniques to confirm the hypothesized structure of the scale. Initial factor analysis of the HOPES-20 supported a multi-dimensional structure, separating items related to positive expectations (hope) from those related to negative expectations (despair). The revision to the HOPES-12 was guided by factor analysis results, which aimed to select the most robust items that maximized variance explained and maintained clear factor loadings onto the distinct Hope Subscale and Despair Subscale factors. This process ensured that the shorter version retained the conceptual integrity of the original instrument.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report Psychological Scale / Inventory

Format: Likert-type rating scale.

Language Available: English (Primary).

Population Group: Adults (General and Clinical populations).

Age Group: Typically utilized with adult populations (18+).

Population Details: Originally validated using samples from community and clinical settings, including psychiatric patients.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate their agreement with each statement using a 5-point scale:

• 4 = Extremely Well
• 3 = Very Well
• 2 = Moderately Well
• 1 = NOT Very Well
• 0 = NOT At All

Scoring Methodology: The scale uses two subscales: the Hope Subscale (HS) and the Despair Subscale (DS). Items are scored and totaled for each subscale. The General Personal Hopefulness (GPH) score is calculated using the formula: GPH = (HS + 4 – DS)/2. Specific item scoring details (e.g., reverse scoring) are provided in the full manual (not detailed in the source content).

Keywords

HOPES-20, HOPES-12, Hope Subscale, Despair Subscale, Personal Agency, Future Expectations, Mental Health, Clinical Assessment.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided in source.)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not provided in source.)

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not provided in source.)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The original version of the scale (HOPES-20) was constructed and published in 1996. The revised 12-item version (HOPES-12) was introduced in 2008. Information regarding current permissions and licensing fees for clinical or commercial use should be sought directly from the primary authors (Nunn and Lewin) or the relevant publishers.

Reference’s

• Nunn‚ K. P.‚ Lewin‚ T. J.‚ Walton‚ J. M.‚ & Carr‚ V. J. (1996). The construction and ch‎aracteristics of an instrument to measure personal hopefulness. Psychological Medicine: A Journal of Research in Psychiatry and the Allied Sciences‚ 26(3)‚ 531–545.
• Lewin‚ T.J.‚ Nunn‚ K.P.‚ Carr‚ V.J.‚ Kelly‚ B.J.‚ et al. (2008). Hopes revisited – introducing a 12-item scale for measuring personal hopefulness (HOPES-12). Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry‚ 42(Suppl. 3)‚ 94.
• Nunn‚ K. P.‚ Lewin‚ T. J.‚ (1996). Hunter Opinions and Personal Expectations Scales). In: Simmons C. A.‚ Lehmann P. (eds). Tools for strengths-based assessment and evaluation‚ New York‚ NY: Springer‚ pp. 203-206. (2013). This instrument can be found via Google Scholar.

Items of the Hunter Opinions and Personal Expectations Scale (HOPES)

The scale items are presented below in their original forms (HOPES-20 and HOPES-12).

HOPES-20 Items:

1. “I generally look forward to new activities and phases in my life”.
2. “I am the sort of person who believes that life is full of meaning”.
3. “I am the sort of person who believes that life is NOT pointless”.
4. “I often feel that my future is NOT in my own hands”.
5. “I generally believe that the most important people in my life do NOT care about my future”.
6. “I believe that I can handle most of the difficulties that I might have to face”.
7. “I generally believe that my life will be valuable and productive”.
8. “I generally have little energy to do the things I want to do”.
9. “I really believe that the children of today CANNOT expect much from their futures”.
10. “I generally believe that my future will be very active”.
11. “The people around me see me as the sort of person who will have a valuable and productive life”.
12. “I often fear that the rest of my life will NOT be worthwhile”.
13. “Even when things go right‚ I often fear that my future is NOT under my control”.
14. “I often feel that I will be less and less comfortable with my body as time goes on”.
15. “I generally look forward to sharing my life with others”.
16. “I often fear that I will understand less and less about myself as time goes on”.
17. “I generally am NOT enthusiastic about my future”.
18. “I am the sort of person who makes definite plans for my future”.
19. “I generally believe that I will get what I want out of life”.
20. “I often fear that I will NOT have the personal support that I need in the future”.

HOPES-12 Items:

1. “I generally look forward to new activities and phases in my life”.
2. “I am the sort of person who believes that life is full of meaning.”
3. “I generally believe that my life will be valuable and productive”
4. “I really believe that the children of today CANNOT expect much from their futures”
5. “I generally believe that my future will be very active”
6. “I often fear that the rest of my life will NOT be worthwhile”
7. “Even when things go right‚ I often fear that my future is NOT under my control”
8. “I often feel that I will be less and less comfortable with my body as time goes on”
9. “I generally look forward to sharing my life with others”
10. “I generally am NOT enthusiastic about my future”
11. “I generally believe that I will get what I want out of life”
12. “I often fear that I will NOT have the personal support that I need in the future”.