An Exploratory Study of Hope and its Process Using Focus Groups and Phenomenological Analysis

The objective of the study was to study of hope and its process using focus groups and phenomenological analysis. Snyder defines hope as: “Hope is the sum of perceived capabilities to produce routes to desired goals, along with the perceived motivation to use those routes”Snyder (1994) also proposes that hope has no hereditary contributions and it is rather an entirely learned cognitive set about goal-directed thinking. The teachings of pathways and agentic thinking is seen as an inherent part of parenting which helps the child to bring in the components of hopeful thinking in place by the age of two year. The method used for the study was focused group discussion. Twelve female co-researchers in the age group of 21-23 years were selected for the study. Phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the information. A phenomenological research consists of two main findings: textural descriptions and structural descriptions. The finding is Hope is something which is vast and abstract. It is also something which is related to positive future events and is beyond our immediate reality, experience and thus limitless. It is independent, ever- changing and even irrational at times. A contradicting quality is that hope is definitely something about which we are conscious and serious but at the same time it is something which has very little or no conviction.