Hope and academic success in college.

A cognitive, motivational theory is introduced to the educational research community. Hope theory integrates the conceptualization of goals, along with the strategies to achieve those goals (pathways), and the motivation to pursue those goals (agency). In a 6-year longitudinal study, individual differences in hope, as measured by the Hope Scale (C. R. Snyder et al., 1991) scores of entering college freshmen, predicted better overall grade point averages even after controlling for variance related to entrance examination scores. High- relative to the low-hope students also were more likely to have graduated and not to have been dismissed over this 6-year period. Hopeful thinking in college academics is…