Learned Hopefulness & Happiness

The headline in the Edmonton Journal (Friday, March 21, 2008) read "Surprise! Money can buy happiness" caught my attention. It caught my attention because I am all too aware of previous studies on happiness that stress once a person's basic needs are met, more money does not make one happier. Apparently, as Elizabth Dunn, a University of British Columbia psychologist found, giving does increases our happiness.

This research is not surprising when we look at how volunteering or helping another increases our hope or what Zimmerman (1990) named learned hopefulness. I see this happening with Hope Kids in our HOPE KIDS programs and especially in our Hope-Focused Service-Learning program.

In the Hope-Focused Service-Learning program children and youth develop skills, knowledge and attitudes that help them envision and work toward a future in which they can participate. I have seen youth who for all intents and purposes demonstrate what we understand as learned helplessness at the beginning of our work. These youth do not see themselves as contributing to their own well-being. They most certainly do not see themselves contributing to the well-being of others. They often blame others for their failures. When these youth explore, their hidden hopes and discover new hopes and ways of achieving those hopes under the guidance of a caring teacher who listens well and encourages them to use their hope to develop new skills, a new sense of what they are capable of and want to work toward becomes possible not only in their eyes, but in the eyes of other adults and peers with whom they interact.

Aknin a student research collaborator in the study states that, "Making the right decision with money seems to promote self-esteem." I wonder what future happiness studies will report when participants in the Hope-Focused Service-Learning program use hope to determine where and how to use their talents and money to make the world a more hopeful place.