The hope construct, will, and ways: their relations with self-efficacy, optimism, and general well-being.

This investigation (N = 204) examined (a) the relations between the hope construct (Snyder, Harris et al., 1991; Snyder, Irving, & Anderson, 1991) and its two essential components, "will" and "ways," and the related constructs of self-efficacy and optimism; and (b) the ability of hope, self-efficacy, and optimism to predict general well-being. Maximum-likelihood factor analysis recovered will, ways, self-efficacy, and optimism as generally distinct and independent entities. Results of multiple regression analyses predicting well-being indicated that (a) hope taken as a whole predicts unique variance independent of self-efficacy and optimism, (b) will predicts unique variance independent of self-efficacy, and (c) ways predicts unique variance independent of optimism. Overall, findings suggest that will, ways, self-efficacy, and optimism are related but not identical constructs.