Podium Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Cross-Cultural Experiences Of Hope: Comparing Indian And German Samples Of The Hope Barometer (#83)

Andreas M Krafft 1
  1. University of St. Gallen, Wittenbach, ST. GALLEN, Switzerland

Although hope is a universal phenomenon, its experience can vary across cultures due to different religious faiths, social norms and cultural values (Averill & Sundararajan, 2005). The objective of this contribution is to present cross-cultural empirical findings comparing two samples of German and Indian participants of the cross-sectional Hope Barometer survey and to explore the phenomenon of hope in the Indian and German religious and cultural contexts. Data collection was done in India (N=313) and Germany (N=384) via internet. Measures used: Perceived Hope Scale (Krafft et al., 2017); Dispositional Hope (Snyder et al., 1991); Attachment (Scioli et al., 2011); Loneliness (Hughes et al., 2004); Religious Faith (Plante & Boccaccini, 1997); Spiritual Beliefs (Parsian & Dunning, 2009); Generativity (Schnell & Becker, 2007); Compassion (Hwang et al., 2008); Altruism (Nickel, 1998); Meaning in Life (Steger et al., 2006); Harmony in Life (Kjell et al., 2916); Personal Hope Targets and Hope Activities (Krafft & Walker, 2018). Data analyses comprise the comparison of mean and correlation values, and multiple regression analyses. Striking and also counter-intuitive commonalities and differences were found regarding the kind of hopes, the role of spiritual and religious beliefs and the importance of social relations with respect to hope.