expectation- we expect someone who says they know what they are doing to know how to do it. hope- we can believe that they know what they are doing & have faith they will do it right.

At first glance there seems to be little difference, however expectations to me have a more immediate quality to them (i.e. You should expect a reward for a job you accomplished, you should expect a "You're welcome" when you said "Thank you"). Hope, on the other hand has a deeper and maybe more complex meaning, it has to do with our wishes and desires.

Expectation is reactive thought awaiting an assumed action, 'Hope' is a proactive thought awaiting desired action.

1) Expectation: "In the case of uncertainty, expectation is what is considered the most likely to happen. An expectation, which is a belief that is centred on the future, may or may not be realistic. A less advantageous result gives rise to the emotion of disappointment. If something happens that is not at all expected it is a surprise. An expectation about the behavior or performance of another person, expressed to that person, may have the nature of a strong request, or an order." 2) Hope: "Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope implies a certain amount of perseverance — i.e., believing that a positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary. Beyond the basic definition, usage of the term hope follows some basic patterns which distinguish its usage from related terms: - Hope as an emotion produces a motivation to act. For example, if one has hope a bus driver will wait for them, that person may be motivated to run towards it; but if the bus begins to pull away and the person loses hope they can catch that bus, they lose motivation and stop running. Similarly, if standing at a bus stop hopeful a bus is soon forthcoming, one may be motivated to remain at the stop. If that one loses hope that a bus will come shortly, that person might lose motivation to stay waiting and might try to hail a taxi or just walk. - Hopefulness is somewhat different from optimism in that hope is an emotional state, whereas optimism is a conclusion reached through a deliberate thought pattern that leads to a positive attitude. But hope and optimism both can be based in unrealistic belief, or fantasy. - Hope is often the result of faith in that while hope is an emotion, faith carries a divinely inspired and informed form of positive belief. Hope is typically contrasted with despair, but despair may also refer to a crisis of faith. Hence, when used in a religious context, hope carries a connotation being aware of spiritual truth. (In some religions, despair itself is considered to be a sin; see Hope (virtue)). - In Catholic theology, hope is one of the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity), which are spiritual gifts of God. In contrast to the above, it is not a physical emotion but a spiritual grace. - Hope is distinct from positive thinking, which refers to a therapeutic or systematic process used in psychology for reversing pessimism. - The term false hope refers to a hope based entirely around a fantasy or an extremely unlikely outcome. Examples of hopes include hoping to get rich, hoping for someone to be cured of a disease, hoping to be done with a term paper, or hoping that a person has reciprocal feelings of love." 3) Hope vs. Expectation: "Feeling unsatisfied? Creating expectations only borrows trouble Isn’t it funny how we fill up our lives with expectations and then wander around wondering why we feel so unsatisfied? The creation of expectation is the ultimate form of self-sabotage, and it builds a strange stage for unhappiness." "Some folks would call this good, old fashioned hope. There’s no harm in hope, right? Of course not. But hope is not expectation. The difference between hope and expectation: hope is open, expectation is closed. Hope is a verse of “Que Sera, Sera.” Expectation is a history lecture — no music at all and little room for interpretation. Hope is liberating and trusting. Expectation is the complete opposite." "People love to tell you what to expect as it validates their own understanding. We are all guilty of this. Whatever the situation, whatever you are dealing with, somebody, somewhere will attach an expectation to it. This is how it is supposed to be, they imply. They are only trying to help when, in essence, they are spoon feeding you a portion of future disappointment. This is how the habit of expectation perpetuates." "Experience life as it unfolds without these self-made chains of anticipation. In this manner you can never be disappointed because what you thought would happen didn’t. I can’t promise that you won’t be disappointed by what emerges, but at least you won’t have disappointed yourself." Source: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/jul/19/feeling_unsatisfied_creating_expectations_only_bor/