Modes of hoping: understanding hope and expectation in the context of a clinical trial of complementary and alternative medicine for chronic pain. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • This article explores the role of hope in participants' assessments of their expectations, experiences and treatment outcomes. Data analysis focused on semi-structured, open-ended interviews with 44 participants, interviewed 3-5 times each over the course of a study evaluating Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for temporomandibular disorders (TMD), a form of chronic orofacial pain. Transcripts were coded and analyzed using qualitative and ethnographic methods. A "Modes of Hoping" (Webb, 2007)(1) framework informed our analysis. Five modes of hoping emerged from participant narratives: Realistic Hope, Wishful Hope, Utopian Hope, Technoscience Hope, and Transcendent Hope. Using this framework, hope is demonstrated as exerting a profound influence over how participants assess and report their expectations. This suggests that researchers interested in measuring expectations and understanding their role in treatment outcomes should consider hope as exercising a multi-faceted and dynamic influence on participants' reporting of expectations and their experience and evaluation of treatment.

published proceedings

  • Explore (NY)

altmetric score

  • 8

author list (cited authors)

  • Eaves, E. R., Ritenbaugh, C., Nichter, M., Hopkins, A. L., & Sherman, K. J.

citation count

  • 16

complete list of authors

  • Eaves, Emery R||Ritenbaugh, Cheryl||Nichter, Mark||Hopkins, Allison L||Sherman, Karen J

publication date

  • July 2014