In a vituoso display of erudition, thoughtful and humour, Terry Eagleton teases apart the concept of hope as it has been (often mistakenly) conceptualised over six millennia, from ancient Greece to today.
With the psychological constructs of coping and optimism as the overarching research interest shared by the two studies, different directions of inquiry could further probe into the life course theory, the stressor process, and the ecological system theory on work-family interac…
Ancient Israel's literary prophets are seldom viewed, by biblical scholars, as divine agents of persuasion. Instead, scholars tend to examine biblical prophecies as literature and concentrate on the form and structure of the text. In addition, because prophetic literature is abu…
This study formulates and attempts to respond to a series of questions concerning the expression of pessimism and optimism in selected French and Francophone novels, films and critical writings of the twentieth century. Why, I ask, are so many works of modern French fiction so d…
The surprising story of how George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson came to despair for the future of the nation they had createdAmericans seldom deify their Founding Fathers any longer, but they do still tend to venerate the Constitution and the …
This study explores the use of two tests of optimism: the Youth Life Orientation Test (YLOT) and the Children’s Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ) in six English primary schools with children aged between 9 years and 12 years. The study grew out of some problems I was conf…
The research outlined in this project addresses happiness. Happiness has long been studied by individuals from a multitude of disciplines. These individuals have included philosophers, scientists, politicians, psychologists, religious leaders, and artists among many others. The …
This dissertation examines writing as a therapoetic practice in late nineteenth-century American literature. Writing literature is one mode of therapoetics, a practice that I define broadly as healing through creative work. While nineteenth-century literature and medicine studie…
Researchers have found that the personality trait of optimism has a number of psychological benefits such as reducing the risk of depression, increasing self-reliance, and imparting a sense of mastery. Despite these benefits, little research has been done to examine the developm…
This book explains what optimism and self-confidence is, how it works, and how it can change your life.