Study 1: The Anatomy of Hope

Abstract

To the child who knows nothing of anatomy, the inside of a human body is probably construed as a relatively undifferentiated soft mass. The prevailing popular view of emotions is not too different from this. Emotions are viewed as vague, ineffable, and only describable through metaphor. Some psychological theories are little different. The structure of emotion is often attributed to cognitive variables whereas the feeling tone or qualia is contributed by undifferentiated arousal. From a social constructionist perspective, emotions have an internal structure—an anatomy, so to speak. Biologically oriented theories share this assumption. As the name implies, however, a social constructionist position attributes the “anatomy” of emotion to social norms or rules, not information encoded in the genes. The purpose of Study 1, therefore, was to identify the rules that help constitute hope for Americans today.