Is The Glass Half-Empty Or Half-Full?

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of optimism is “A disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.” Looking on the more favorable side can help in the most difficult times. Having a positive attitude is the best response to conflict, especially in time of war. Optimists such as Winston Churchill and Anne Frank kept hope for a better future throughout World War II.

For many, pessimism is not ideal, and optimism is their route of choice, as it develops through the arising

“The Diary of a Young Girl” starts on Anne Frank’s thirteenth birthday and which she receives her first diary. She calls her diary Kitty and she confides everything in her

The Power of Positive Thinking Annotated Bibliography Smith, Dr Curtis E. Applied Power of Positive Thinking. Inspiring Voices, 2014. People struggle with issues of which they seem to be lacking adequate solutions to them. In this book, Dr. Curtis presents a formula that can help us to transform hopeless situations into opportunities.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is organized in chronological order and include the dates important to the Jewish author. On Anne’s thirteenth birthday, she receives a diary she calls “Kitty,” and this is where she records events that happened to her. Anne includes writings about her brief normal life and the life in the “Secret Annex.” She and her family are hiding from the Gestapo during WWII. As the story progresses, more Jews join the Franks. There is great conflict between Anne and the rest of the residents, though sometimes her father is “darling.” After a little more than two years in hiding, the German police discovered the secret Jews and sent them into labor camps, where Otto Frank was the only survivor. Anne matures and finds Peter at her side, even though there is tension between the other Van Daans and herself. Not only is there conflict between Mrs. Van Daan, but with Anne’s own mother and her roommate, Mr. Dussel.

In the same way that hope has colored the past, optimism and positive thinking has the ability to affect present situations. When enduring struggles or facing fears, hope can provide feelings of comfort. It can be used as a coping mechanism. Maya Angelou relates a tone of satisfaction when she weighs the conditions of her life

Dispositional optimism (DO) is a psychological construct defined as the tendency to have positive expectations about the future [CITE]. DO is considered a relatively stable trait, and is based upon the expectancy-value theory of motivation [CITE fishbein]. The theory suggests that an individual’s confidence in their ability to succeed (expectancy) and the predicted benefits of completing a task (value) determine the strength of their motivation. A person with a high score of DO (an optimist) is likely to exert effort when tackling a challenging task as they tend to be more confident when assessing their ability to complete a valued goal. The confidence in their abilities encourages the optimist to persist when faced with obstacles. Conversely, a person with a low score of DO (a pessimist) is likely to disengage from effort and give up easily when met with any resistance due to a lack of confidence in their ability to overcome the obstacle [CITE scheier2014].

Although the conclusion for this particular case study is opting to praise students privately, it does not imply that praising students privately is always more preferable to conducting it publicly. In reality, it depends primarily on the appropriateness of the approach applied, the personality trait and emotional intelligence of the people concerned, and the situation and/or circumstance surrounding the specific incidence. In respect to the complexity of human psychology, an identical set of information could be interpreted by the diverse groups of audience as having very different connotations, depending on their beliefs, attitudes, and values. To put it simply, the notorious phase “Is the glass half empty or half full?” analogy could be

Dispositional optimism (DO) is a psychological construct defined as the tendency to have positive expectations about the future (Carver & Scheier, 2014). DO is considered a relatively stable trait, and is based upon the expectancy-value theory of motivation. The theory suggests that an individual’s confidence in their ability to succeed (expectancy) and the predicted benefits of completing a task (value) determine the strength of their motivation. A person with a high score of DO (an optimist) is likely to exert effort when tackling a challenging task as they tend to be more confident when assessing their ability to complete a valued goal. The confidence in their abilities

Learned optimism is a term Seligman and his associates first used. It was the extension of Seligman’s original work on learned helplessness that was defined as a result of learning to be unable to control events (Seligman and Maier, 1967). According to Seligman (1991), learned helplessness is the giving up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter. Another relevant concept in this connection is explanatory style. It is the manner is which one habitually explains to himself why events happen. An optimistic explanatory style stops helplessness, whereas a pessimistic explanatory style spreads helplessness. Seligman (1972) conducted an experiment with dogs and concluded that when exposed to circumstances beyond their control, dogs will eventually give up trying to effect change. In this experiment, despite the shocks, dogs were just lying there because they had learned that nothing they did matter (as they were exposed to such circumstances earlier) and they therefore expected that no action of theirs would matter in the future also. Once this expectation was learned, they would no longer engage in action. This is the effect of learned

The definition of the word “optimism” is a favorable attitude about conditions or events in life. Some believe that optimistic views in life will have beneficial effects on psychological and physical health. However, excessive optimism can have harmful effects on psychological and physical health. Many tests and research have been done on people to see if optimism does in fact have an effect on psychological and physical health.

Skepticism surrounding John Donne’s “Sappho to Philaenis” relates to the fact that the societal structure at the time the poem was written was one dominated by heterosexual, misogynistic men, suggesting that Donne’s treatment of female homosexuality was geared towards the satiation of these heterosexual males’ desires, these men being his primary audience at the time. However, the significance of Donne’s poem must be explored on another level. In contrast to the view that the piece was meant to represent a male dominant society, an alternate view is that the poem originates from a place of protofeminism and a pioneering sexual outlook on Donne’s part. In “Sappho to Philaenis,” the purity and secrecy of the two women’s sexuality functions as a significant argument for the validity of same-sex relationships; Donne makes the invisible the erotic, thereby defining a discourse for lesbianism.

Throughout history great minds have wondered how individuals differed, and why they acted in particular ways. Traits are defined as non-ending dimensions of personality on which people vary (Carver, C., & Scheier M. 2012). Once traits were established they were researched and investigated for their own unique and credible differences from other traits. One interesting trait that has been extensively researched is optimism. From the great lyrical workings of Voltaire, whose stances were those of fact and intellectualized conclusions, to the life changing writings of Eleanor Porter, optimism as a trait was a unique and complex concept. In Voltaire’s writings there were glimpses of “non-rational thoughts among rational arguments” (Rockett, K.

Another application in which an optimistic attitude has proven to be very beneficial has been in academics. Notably, there have been classes in which assignments were difficult for me and led to less than sufficient grades. Even though I was disappointed with my poor performance, I always stayed optimistic about bringing the grades back up. The one time that stood out among

As the amount of pragmatic and empirical evidence that supports the theory of Psychosomatics, the connection between mind and body, increases, most health care experts are supporting the idea that a positive mental attitude is an essential element to the development of good overall health. According to a report by the Harvard School of Public Health, having a more positive outlook on life significantly lowered the risk of heart disease in older men. Additionally, researchers from the University of Pittsburg revealed that they discovered that women who have an optimistic view of life are less likely to experience the thickening of the carotid artery walls.