The psychology of hope

03/27/24 • 27 min

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In this episode of All in the Mind, we’re at the 2024 Northern Ireland Science Festival where we’re discussing the psychology of hope.

With a live audience in Belfast’s Metropolitan Arts Centre, Claudia Hammond is joined by a panel of experts well-versed in the topic of hope: Dr Karen Kirby, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Ulster; Dr Kevin Mitchell, associate professor of genetics and neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin; and author Sinéad Moriarty.

We take a look at the role of hope in medical scenarios, if we can learn to be hopeful, and how we can hold onto hope in the modern world. And we take questions from our audience – including whether or not we should all just lower our expectations.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Lucy Taylor and Sophie Ormiston Audio supervisors: Andrew Saunderson and Bill Maul Production coordinator: Siobhan Maguire Editor: Holly Squire

In this episode of All in the Mind, we’re at the 2024 Northern Ireland Science Festival where we’re discussing the psychology of hope.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Lucy Taylor and Sophie Ormiston Audio supervisors: Andrew Saunderson and Bill Maul Production coordinator: Siobhan Maguire Editor: Holly Squire

Previous Episode

Seasonality, learning to hope, and the gender citation gap

Are you looking forward to the lighter evenings of summer? Perhaps you're already feeling different as the seasons change and the green shoots of spring arrive? This week on All in the Mind we're taking a look at how the seasons affect our moods, thoughts and behaviours. Claudia Hammond speaks to Michael Varnum from Arizona State University about what the research says. Cognitive neuroscientist Sophie Scott, joins Claudia in the studio to ask what it means for the science of psychology if the seasons have such a profound effect.

And we hear from a project in Northern Ireland that teaches people to have hope. Marie Dunne was inspired to set up the project, called Resilio, after witnessing the success of a programme designed to teach hope in schools. Based on that programme Resilio developed their own hope courses for adults. We hear from people who have benefitted from those courses, and from people who run them, about how to find hope.

Finally, Sophie Scott discusses a new study which found that male psychology scholars were less likely to think of female scholars when asked to name eminent researchers in that field. Could it explain the gender cap in citation rates?

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Lorna Stewart & Lucy Taylor Studio Manager: Tim Heffer Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire Editor: Holly Squire

Next Episode

Dishonesty researcher accused of fraud; hypocrisy; suicide prevention; awe

First today, a story of alleged academic fraud. The allegations against Professor Francesca Gino might seem unremarkable at first sight. After all, we’ve covered allegations of fraud in psychology on All in the Mind before and the field has been doing all sorts to try to fix the problems. But what is unusual about this eminent Harvard researcher is that her research topic is dishonesty. Yes, a dishonesty researcher accused of the doing the very thing she studies. Cathleen O’Grady reports on a tale of data sleuths and multi-million dollar law suits.

Of course there’s no reason why a dishonesty researcher should be any more honest than anyone else. But somehow we feel as though you should have extra high standards if this is the topic you study, otherwise you could be accused of hypocrisy. Which got us wondering what it is about hypocrisy that interests, and sometimes infuriates, us so much? Professor Catherine Loveday, from the University of Westminster, is in the studio with Claudia to take a look at the evidence.

And we hear from Professor Rory O’Connor, at the University of Glasgow, about a generation of men whose suicide risk appears to have followed them through life. We talk about what that generation can tell us, as well as about the latest suicide statistics for England, and about what you can do to help someone in your life who you think might be having suicidal thoughts. And if you are suffering distress or despair, details of help and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

And finally, were you lucky ones enough to see the Northern Lights this weekend? Claudia and Catherine Loveday unpack the psychology of awe.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Lorna Stewart Content Editor: Holly Squire Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire