Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
Perspectives are the way people understand and see the world. They filter our surroundings, interpreting their meaning and importance. Life experiences, background, and personality are all facets of the human psyche that can shift and change our perspectives. Buddha remarked on the enormous impact of perspective on human psychology when he said, "Life is a creation of the mind." An idiom that exemplifies Buddha's expression "is glass full or half empty", which is showcased as a cup filled halfway with water. When asked, a person can either interpret the cup as half full or as half empty. Those who say the glass is half full are characterized as having an optimistic outlook on a situation or life. Conversely, those who say the glass is half empty refer to a pessimistic outlook. Many psychologists use glass-half-full and glass-half-empty as adjectives, describing individuals as growth-oriented or dejected and capturing their thought processes. (Oxford Dictionary the Glass is Half Full' in Glass, N. (1), Additional sense.) Hence, the impact of perspectives on people and the element of the volume of water representing distorted reality is captured through this timeless phrase, “Is the glass full or half empty."
Physical and Mental Impacts of Optimism and Pessimism
Although "is the glass full or half empty" is just a figure of speech, it can also reflect the outlook of one’s life. Psychology professors Scheier and Carver from Carnegie Mellon and Miami University studied how optimistic and pessimistic thinking affect people after significant stress. They measured optimism in two groups: first-time mothers and men undergoing heart surgery.
The Life Orientation Test, or LOT, measured the two groups' outlook on life. The LOT inquired and assessed the test takers' expectations regarding the favorability of future outcomes, such as asking if the test takers "hardly ever expect things to go their way" or "in uncertain times, they usually expect the best." Both study groups took the LOT before their major life event (e.g., giving birth or having surgery). After three weeks postpartum, the new mothers completed the same LOT. Scheier and Carver found that women who were evaluated as optimistic pre-birth were less likely to develop postpartum depression following childbirth. Similarly, patients who were assessed as optimists before undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery were faster to recover compared to their pessimistic counterparts. The study's results found that optimists were more resilient to events of stress compared to pessimists (Scheier and Carver pg 27).While an ordinary person may not undergo events as drastic as the ones mentioned in the study, common experiences such as giving a school presentation and experimenting with a new hobby, all fall under the powerful influence of having an optimistic perspective and positive thinking. One’s actions are truly shaped by their mindset.
Confronting Pessimism and Negative Thinking
If one engages in pessimism often, there are many strategies to train one's mind to think more optimistically. In a 2020 study conducted by David De Meza and Chris Dawson, it was found that grounding positive thinking in reality and setting reasonable expectations can improve one’s overall well-being. When positive thinking is prioritized and realistic expectations are set, it can enhance a person's overall well-being. To do so, identifying pessimistic thinking is one of the first steps. Common behaviors observed in individuals who struggle with personal accountability include:
Filtering: focusing on the negative aspects of a situation and filtering out all the positive ones.
Personalizing: when something wrong occurs, the person automatically blames themself.
Catastrophizing: automatically anticipating the worst without facts that the worst will happen. Ex: The drive-through coffee shop gets the persons’ order wrong, and then they think the rest of their day will be a disaster.
Blaming- trying to say someone else is responsible for unfortunate events that happen
A person saying they "should" do something- they think of all the things you should do and blame yourself for not doing them.
Magnifying- focusing on minor problems until they’re so magnified they become major problems.
Perfectionism- When a person is constantly striving for flawlessness and perfectionism and when those standards are not met, they harshly criticize themself.
Polarizing- When one sees things only as either black or white. There is no middle ground.
Identifying how often the mind engages in cynicism is important to address. Knowing the mind’s habits helps people gauge what goals to set.
Practicing Positive Thinking
Engaging in positive thinking practices is a great way to manage stress. An example of these practices include paying attention to when negative thoughts occur in day to day life and then reframing the thoughts in a positive way. One of the most influential mindful practices is positive self-talk. How one refers to themselves in their mind and conversation with others can influence their ability to regulate feelings, thoughts, and behavior under stress (Kross 304-324). Small changes can make a big impact. Sometimes, all it takes is rewording a single sentence to completely transform its meaning.
Researchers Randy and Lori Sansone found that documenting things or who are a positive force in one's life increases optimism and stimulates positive thinking. It can also be a great way to track progress and improvements.
The Payoff
Starting positive thinking practices might come off as exhausting- constantly being aware of . Once you instill an optimistic outlook in your day-to-day life, though, the benefits of a positive outlook serve as a big payoff. Replacing distressing thoughts with positive ideation has a beneficial effect and provides an adequate replacement for worry, improving quality of life (Behav Res Ther).
Works Cited
de Meza, D., & Dawson, C. (2021). Neither an Optimist Nor a Pessimist Be: Mistaken Expectations Lower Well-Being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47(4), 540-550. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220934577
Eagleson C, Hayes S, Mathews A, Perman G, Hirsch CR. The power of positive thinking: Pathological worry is reduced by thought replacement in Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Behav Res Ther. 2016 Mar;78:13-8. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2015.12.017. Epub 2016 Jan 8. PMID: 26802793; PMCID: PMC4760272.
“'The Glass is Half Full' in Glass, N. (1), Additional sense.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, December 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/6629562296.
Scheier, Michael F., and Charles S. Carver. “On the Power of Positive Thinking: The Benefits of Being Optimistic.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 2, no. 1, 1993, pp. 26–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20182190. Accessed 29 Jan. 2024.
Sansone RA, Sansone LA. Gratitude and well being: the benefits of appreciation. Psychiatry (Edgmont). 2010 Nov;7(11):18-22. PMID: 21191529; PMCID: PMC3010965.
Kross, E., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., Park, J., Burson, A., Dougherty, A., Shablack, H., Bremner, R., Moser, J., & Ayduk, O. (2014). Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How you do it matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(2), 304–324. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035173
