{"id":2958,"date":"2025-06-09T15:52:24","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T03:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/?p=2958"},"modified":"2025-06-12T15:24:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T03:24:44","slug":"let-hope-spring-eternal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/let-hope-spring-eternal\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Hope Spring Eternal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/Hope-fingers-sky-image.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2961 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/Hope-fingers-sky-image-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"253\" height=\"192\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As part of our application for Science Academy students are asked to write an essay imagining Earth as a ship voyaging through time and space with the human race as her crew and consider what is our mission and what is the role of science in achieving that mission? In considering this they are asked to address these four questions<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>What do you think is the role of science in 21st-century society?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>How do you think science today is different from science in the past?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>What, in your opinion, are the qualities that are required of a 21st century scientist?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>What do you feel is the greatest challenge facing science and scientists in the 21st century?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>How do you think scientists could begin to address this challenge?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There was a 6<sup>th<\/sup> question that never made it to the list from my original draft way back in 2010 and somehow drifted\u00a0 back into my mind recently.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>What are the hopes of science ?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Which begs the question<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>What is hope anyway? Is there a science OF hope?<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">So, in today\u2019s blog post I\u2019d like to have a brief look at \u2026<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center\"><em>The Science of Hope <\/em><\/h1>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t hope just the same as optimism? The same as \u2018wishing\u2019?<\/p>\n<p>Research would say that whereas optimism is simply the \u2018expectation\u2019 of a better future <em>hope<\/em> is action-oriented and as such a skill that can be learned<\/p>\n<p>Likewise. <em>wishing<\/em> is passive with respect to a goal, and hope is about taking action toward it.<\/p>\n<p>For example, <em>I wish I was good at writing short stories vs I\u2019m building my hopes on becoming a better short writer by writing a short story every month until I get better at it<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A key pioneer in this field is Professor C. R. Snyder who was an American psychologist <span style=\"color: #333333;font-style: normal;font-weight: 300\">at the University of Kansas<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 300\"> who specialized in <em>positive psychology<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He defined hope as a combination of what\u2019s known as \u2018agency thinking\u2019 -the motivation to achieve goals and \u2018pathway\u2019 thinking -the ability to create paths to achieve those goals.<\/p>\n<p>A combination of imagination and problem solving.<\/p>\n<p>Where in the brain do we find those neural pathways associated with \u2018agency thinking\u2019 \u2018pathway\u2019 thinking.<\/p>\n<p>Psychologists believe the region of the brain known as the n<em>ucleus accumbens<\/em> co-ordinates many of the neural pathways associated with what we experience as hope.<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/Brain-section-copyleft-image.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2964 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/Brain-section-copyleft-image-300x277.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"302\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/Brain-section-copyleft-image-300x277.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/Brain-section-copyleft-image.jpg 326w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 302px) 100vw, 302px\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Situated low down in the center of the brain this region integrates information from the hippocampus &#8211; a center of memory and learning, the <em>amydala <\/em>that governs aspects of emotional behaviour and the center for decision making and motivation at the front of the brain known as the <em>prefrontal cortex<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When we indulge in hopeful thinking the brain produces that well known \u2018feel-good\u2019 hormone <em>Dopamine <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Studies have also shown links between the motivation to achieve goals (<em>agency thinking<\/em>) and the ability to create paths to achieve those goals.(<em>pathway thinking<\/em>) [i.e. Hope] with better physical and mental health and academic achievement.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, as well as producing <em>dopamine<\/em> neural connections from the <em>nucleus accumbens<\/em> extending into the <em>medial orbitofrontal cortex<\/em> also inhibit neural activity associated with anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n<p>So not only does indulging in hopeful thinking make us \u2018feel\u2019 better it appears to also develop determination and resilience in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n<p>And in today\u2019s world be it at school, university, work or the challenges of everyday life it is my hope\u00a0 that<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Hope springs eternal<\/em><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center\"><em> in every human brain!<\/em><\/h1>\n<p><em>(With apologies\u00a0 to Alexander Pope)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>His original \u00a0quote\u00a0 from\u00a0 &#8216;<\/em><em>An Essay on Man&#8217;<\/em><em>\u00a0published in 1733\u00a0 was \u2018<\/em><em>Hope springs eternal in every human breast\u2019)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>For more on Professor\u00a0 Rick C.R. Snyder and his work check out this article<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepositiveencourager.global\/h-rick-snyders-work-hope\/\"><em>S is for Rick Snyder: His Work On Hope<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><em>Brain image<\/em>\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/copy-left-logo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2965 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/copy-left-logo-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"18\" height=\"18\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/copy-left-logo-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/files\/2025\/06\/copy-left-logo.png 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 18px) 100vw, 18px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of our application for Science Academy students are asked to write an essay imagining Earth as a ship voyaging through time and space with the human race as her crew and consider what is our mission and what &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/let-hope-spring-eternal\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5718,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5718"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/ouassa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}