Effects of Video Self Modeling on Daily Activities and Hope

Abstract

Hopeful thoughts have been connected to how well people manage their lives. Individuals with low hope levels are more likely to have difficulties across their physical, psychological, and social environments. Even though the concept of hope and interventions to improve it had been developed since the mid 1990's, there has been very little if any research that has developed video self modelling (VSM) intervention specifically designed to change hope within individuals. This study involved five undergraduate students who showed low levels of hope in standardised tests. Hope scales include hope in general (Hope Scale) and hope in six specific domains including family, romantic, social, academic, work, and leisure (Domain Specific Hope Scale). An activity was chosen by the participants and related to the domains, for example, exercise (leisure domain), reading a book (academic domain), or other activities or skills. The intervention was the construction of a video-recording showing the participants successfully carrying out their target activities which they watched every day for a week. The findings of this study supported the probability that VSM may generate an indirect effect on the enhancement of hope. All participants showed increases in the frequency of their chosen activities and improvements in most of the related hope scores. Therefore, VSM may be an appropriate intervention to help those with low hope to achieve their goals and improve their hopefulness.