Role of Hope in Delay Discounting

Abstract

The current study aimed to evaluate different methods of measuring delay discounting and study the role that hope theory plays in delay discounting. Participants were recruited from the Psychology department subject pool in exchange for partial fulfillment of requirements of Psychology classes. After they signed up, they were given a URL address (http://fp.okstate.edu/collinslab/collin/) for a PDF copy of the study. They were instructed to download this PDF and to print a copy. Results indicated that all the discounting scores obtained from both methods of delay discounting were significantly related. Further, results suggested that hope scores significantly predicted delay discounting scores on the Delay Discounting Questionnaire but did not predict scores on the Delay Discounting Task. Possible implications include using hope scores to identify individuals in treatment for substance use disorders who are most likely to successfully complete treatment and to use interventions to raise the hope of those unlikely to complete treatment. Additionally, it appears that individuals tend to view past and future rewards similarly and both measures of delay discounting appear to be assessing the same construct.