Customizing My Emotional Spin Cycle:

Annotated Bibliography

Psych 409a Fall 2001 G15

By Masako Uematsu

October 15, 2001

Instructions for this Report

INTRODUCTION

This report is about Emotional Spin Cycle, a series of sequence of emotional transition that we go through as we experience emotion, particularly anger. This cycle involves other and self, positive and negative, and threefold-self (feeling, thinking, and acting). To understand this emotional spin cycle better, we need to review many aspects of psychological questions in depth. In this report, I define and describe emotions, feelings, threefold-self (affective, cognitive, & sensorimotor), and hierarchy of motives (emotions, feeling, & values) by reviewing many kinds of sources (Generational Curriculum, News & Media online, and websites & articles).

To make it easier to read through this article, I will make definitions for emotion, feeling, hierarchy of needs, and threefold self.

Emotion is an internal reaction to something happened in the world around self. Emotion is sometimes associated with physiological change. Everyone (unless you are brain injured) experience emotion with almost the same intensity, but expression of emotion varies from person to person.

Feeling is similar to emotion, but what I think different is how we realize it. To me, emotion is something very strong and very noticeable. For example, when we get mad, we know it. It is very conscious. On the contrary, feeling includes subconscious and conscious level. For instance, when you beginning to like someone (guess in romantic way), do you notice it right away? I guess not. Maybe your heart is pumping a little faster, you feel excited, or you sweat a little when you see that person. Then you realize, “oh, I guess I like him/her.” That’s when you realize your feeling.

Threefold self is what determines your behavior. It consists of three levels; affective level-feeling, cognitive level-thinking, and sensorimotor level-action. When you act, this three components work together. Also, going through emotional spin cycle require going through this threefold self sequentially.

Hierarchy of needs is a order of needs that we fulfill. When basic needs are satisfied in some way, we can go on to satisfy next level of need.

In this report, I analyzed definitions of feeling, emotion, threefold self, and hierarchy of needs in order to find out how our emotions and actions are correlated. Through web based research, I gathered information about each category and then analyzed how these are related to emotional spin cycle.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

EMOTION

National Institute of Mental Health: Emotion

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/baschap1.cfm#emotion

Emotional expression is an important communication system especially for infants who have not yet developed language system. Even for adults with fully developed language communication system, emotional expressions are still important signal to others. Emotion is such an important part of humans. Emotional disorder is a synonym for mental disorder in many societies. Recent technological advancement enables us to monitor emotion in association to physiological changes, giving better understanding of physiological mechanisms of emotion.

Emotional Development: Developmental psychologists have found that human emotions get richer as we age, as we gain greater awareness of social standards and develop more sophisticated self-concepts. Children’s emotional developments are greatly influenced by emotional states of their parents. Adults should be more aware of their emotional state due to their long-term experience with their own emotions. Therefore, in theory, adults are the ones who have more control over their emotional spin cycles. In other words, controlling their emotions.

Negative emotions: Negative emotions require more attention than positive emotions. Development of negative emotions might be explained evolutionary. Responses to potentially dangerous stimuli are crucial to increase survival rate.

Emotion, Brain Hemispheres, and Depressive Symptoms: Recent studies show that frontal lobe of human brain, both right and left hemisphere, is involved with experience of emotion. Negative emotions are processed mainly in the right hemisphere, and positive emotions mainly in the left hemisphere. This finding has contributed deeper understanding in clinical depression.

§ As people think over upcoming decisions, potential losses are often given greater weight than potential gains.

§ In the social sphere, one negative personal characteristic influences people's feelings about an individual more than a host of positive characteristics.

§ Negative experiences color marital satisfaction; they have more impact than do positive experiences.

§ People are more likely to find an unusual face in a crowd and quickly if the face looks angry than if it looks happy.

§ Subjects who examine a description of a person that uses equal numbers of positive and negative adjectives are likely to subsequently recall more negative adjectives than positive ones.

§ Humans are "prepared" to learn to react with negative emotions and to quickly learn to avoid certain stimuli, such as snakes, spiders, and angry faces, that may have posed a threat to early ancestors. Although people are able to learn to avoid other stimuli, such as flowers or happy faces, that did not threaten their ancestors, they do so with greater difficulty.

Researchers have discovered that a very good indicator of people's prevailing level of negative emotion, especially depressed mood, is the relative amount of electrical activity in the left versus the right hemisphere when subjects are sitting quietly with their eyes closed. People with clinical or subclinical depression show relatively more activity in the right hemisphere particularly in the frontal temporal areas than do people without depression.

A Historical Perspective On Emotion

http://emotion.salk.edu/Emotion/History/Hgeneral.html

This site is a general review of main theories about emotional experiences.

§ Before Plato:

Most theories considered that motion was closely linked to physiological changes such as changes in body temperature, sweat, and pain. Hippocrates (460BC) stated that brain was at least partially responsible for conscious life. Main theorists: Heraclitus (500 BC), Anaxagoras (500 BC), Empodocles (490 BC), Diogenes of Apollonia (460 BC), Democritus (460 BC), Hippocrates (460 BC), and Socrates (470 BC).

§ Plato (427-347BC), the First Theory of Affect:

Plato introduced independent mind components to emotions.

Soul consists of two parts:

1. Immortal part in the head

· Facilitates philosophical & intellectual love of beauty

2. Mortal part that is distributed over the body

· Regulates other emotions

First to recognize that soul affects body and body affects soul.

§ Aristotle (384-322BC) Pain Pleasure and Emotion:

Three types of emotional mental processes: Faculties, formed habits, and passions.

§ Post Aristotlian theories:

Theories in this era are predominated by ethics, religion, and concerns on how to live the best life. Theorists in this period attempted to define and classify passions. Human bodies were seen as locus or source of emotions. They outlined emotion complexity.

Many ancient psychologists were aware that emotions were closely related to physical reactions. Some said that physical reaction WAS emotion. Usually we are not aware of our own emotion until we experience some kind of physical signs. How can we know exactly where in emotional spin cycle we are in when we are experiencing rage? It's not only physiological sign such as sweating or increasing pulse. In order to figure out where we are in emotional spin cycle, we have to observe many aspects of ourselves such as thoughts and attitudes, as well as physiological changes

· Faculties (capacities, predispositions): Potentialities of experiencing Passions.

· Formed habits (disposition, character): Repeated experience of Passions, related to the developing knowledge and social pressure.

· Passions: States accompanied by pain and pleasure. Come in 'antagonistic pairs':

o Anger <-> Placability

o Love <-> Fear

o Shame <-> Shamelessness

o Benevolence <-> Churchlishness

o Pity <-> Resentment

o Envy <-> Emulation <-> Contempt

Anger= "an impulse attended with pain to avenge openly an undeserved slight openly manifested towards ourselves or our friends"

Introduction of emotional expression as emotional experience. Aristotle linked several emotion with certain physiological changes i.e. Timidity = due to thin blood. Fear = due to cold blood = redistribution of vital heat due to the motion of blood from the top to the bottom, and from the outside to the inside of the body

Gender Differences in Driving Norms. Are Men More Aggressive Drivers Than Women?

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as99/lieberman/report2.html

Lieberman focused on differences in experience of hostile aggression during driving among men and women. One cause of aggression is frustration, experienced when individual is prevented from achieving his goal. When he is closer to achieve his goal, and when the obstacle is unexpected, intensity of anger becomes greater. Testosterone, widely known as male-hormone, is associated with aggression. Although biological evidences agrees that males are generally more aggressive than females, we should not forget the effects of social and cultural learning based on gender-bias that is practiced in our society. Result of a survey by Lieberman agreed with the general notion that men are more aggressive drivers than women.

So, one of the causes that determine how we go through emotional spin cycle might be hormone we have, a biology. If biology comes into the field, what can we do to it? Can we beat biology and win complete control over our emotion? I think the answer is yes. We are humans, not animals. So with proper training, we can take better control than biology can, unless the biological cause is extreme such as brain damage. If we are completely brain damaged, what can we do then?

Due to the well established idea that men are more aggressive than female, I proposed a hypothesis that males would be more aggressive drivers than females. I passed my survey out to seventeen males and seventeen female. The survey consisted of a series of questions that evaluated one’s driving behavior. The survey was divided into four categories that were scored accordingly: Category I, were what I thought to be mild aggressive behaviors, thus a response of often warranted 3 points, sometimes-2 points, rarely-1 point, and never-0 points; Category II were more moderate aggressive behaviors and thus a response of often received 6 points, sometimes-4 points, rarely-2 points, and never-0 points; Category III were for severe aggressive behaviors so for a response of often, nine points was issued, sometimes-6 points, rarely-3 points, and never-0 points: Finally, category IV, was just to get and idea of what kinds of emotions were motivating the individuals’ driving behavior.
After I collected and tabulated all of the surveys, I found the mean aggression level, standard deviation, and range for males and females. Males had a mean aggression level of 54.35, a standard deviation of 28.12, and a range of 103. Females, on the other hand, had a mean aggression level of 42.12, a standard deviation of 19.62, and a range of 60. Males on the average, demonstrated higher levels of aggression while driving and also had more variability within the group. The results, therefore, supported my hypothesis that males are more aggressive drivers than females. Perhaps testosterone and stereotypes, such as women being more passive than men, are indeed key factors in aggressive tendencies. It is also interesting to point out that males on the average seemed to experience less pressure from other motorist to drive aggressively than females, as if their aggression is innate. Females also responded more frequently to feeling compassion for other drivers and experiencing fear while driving, reinforcing the stereotype that women are more nurturing and cautious. In conclusion then, it appears to be that gender differences in aggression can be attributed to both biological and social factors. It is important to note that although my results did coincide with prior evidence, my sample size was very small (34 subject) and was not distributed in a random fashion. The results were thus biased and not generalizeable to the entire population.

President Softy: George W. Bush knows when to show emotion and when not to

http://www.msnbc.com/news/644204.asp

President of the United States, who is perhaps more exposed to camera than movie stars, does not hesitate to express his emotion on camera. He is in good control of regulating his emotions on camera to be a popular president. When he was listening to songs performed at a ceremony for Hispanic Heritage Month, camera caught tears glide down president’s cheeks. His first visit to the site of WTC attack aftermath was full of emotion. He spend longer time at the site than scheduled. Photographs taken at that time also showed strong emotional messages to public.

Certain jobs such as being a president of the US, or any kind of president such as president of the UH, requires great deal of control over their emotions. They cannot let their and other's emotions take control over all the decision making. When presidents are so emotional and unlogical, how can we trust them? I think one of the main qualities needed to make a great leader is to have good control over emotion. Many great leaders must have been naturally mastered to control their emotional spin cycle in their life time.

For all his tough guy talk, George W. Bush can be a real softy. Like his dad, he tears up easily at emotional moments. There have been a lot of those lately. Last Friday afternoon, tears slid down the president’s face at a ceremony for Hispanic Heritage Month as he listened to Latino artists like Gloria Estefan sing “El Ultimo Adios,” a last goodbye to the victims of Sept. 11. The president—ever conscious of the cameras trained on him—knows better than to wipe his eyes. But the cameras caught tears glistening on his cheeks as he congratulated the ensemble.

BUSH’S SENTIMENTALITY has only been stoked by the circumstances. Of all the poignant moments for the president during the aftermath of the attack, his first trip to New York left an indelible impression. After he stood atop the rubble and bullhorned his way into the hearts of the firemen there, he met with some 400 grieving family members. The by-the-clock president stayed about an hour past his scheduled time to talk with the families. A mother of a Port Authority policeman who had died on duty gave the president her son’s badge (the one he held up during his speech to Congress). He has carried it with him in his pocket at times and keeps it in on his dresser in the residence as a reminder.

FEELINGS

Thinking or Feeling (T/F)

http://keirsey.com/pumII/tf.html

There are two types of people; people who pay more attention to thinking, and people who pay more attention to their feelings. The former type of people control themselves with their head and concepts. People of latter type follow their desire and emotion.

One of stereotypes associated with those two types of people are the followings: Feeling people are more friendly and seen as more sensitive than thinking people. In addition, thinking people are seen as cold-hearted. However, frequency and intensity of emotion they experience to similar events are probably the same. The difference is their display. Feeling people display their emotions in greater extent than thinking people while thinking people tend to think it is embarrassing to express their emotions freely.

Which type of people have better emotional control? I think many people might answer, "thinking people". However, I wonder if that is really true. Thinking people are just not showing emotion. That does not necessarily mean that they have better control over emotions. If one is not going through emotional spin cycle smoothly and get stuck in negative zones for a long time, we cannot call it "better control over emotion." On the other hand, "feeling people" do not always indicates people who let emotions take over the whole situation. Their behavior might seem like they have no control over their emotions, but inside themselves, it might be faster for them to land on positive hemisphere of the emotional spin cycle than thinking people. So, it's not how it looks. Better control over emotion is what is happening inside people, how they are going through their emotional spin cycle.

“Thinking” people are sometimes called “tough-minded”, “inhuman”, “heartless,” “stony-hearted,” “remote,” of having 'ice in their veins,” and of living “without the milk of human kindness.” On the other hand, feeling-oriented people are called "too soft-hearted," "too emotional," "bleeding-hearts," "muddleheaded," "fuzzy-thinkers," and for "wearing their heart on their sleeve." When two different people complain each other, thinking people will blame feeling people for being too emotional, and ask to; "use his head", and "be logical for once". Feeling oriented people might wish thinking people would "let his feelings show," and "lighten up".

Center for Psychology of Cancer

http://www.centerforpsychologyofcancer.org/

This website introduces various feelings that cancer patients and their family members go through. Many cancer patients experience overwhelming shock, fear, sadness, and anxiety:

As well as patients themselves, their partners go through the same series of feelings. Young children of patients sometimes have hard time understanding and handling their parent’s. The thoughts of their parent’s diseases predominate their feeling all day. They fear that they might be left alone. They might blame themselves for their parents’ disease, “I worry that maybe my bad behavior caused the cancer.” Also, they pretend that they are okay so that their parents do not worry.

Having a fatal illness is a very difficult situation for patient themselves as well as their loved ones. therefore, it is natural for them to find it extremely hard to find a bridge to positive emotional hemisphere.

§ I can’t believe this is really happening.

§ I feel like crying all the time.

§ I am so angry, “why me?”

§ I feel alone in this nightmare.

§ All I think about is cancer.

§ I can’t find the words to talk about my feelings.

§ Will people look at me differently?

§ I am afraid of dying

§ Will life ever be normal again?

§ I worry about my family.

Syndrome might affect thousands who saw WTC collapse

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/13/rec.survivors.guilt.ap/index.html

Many people who survived WTC attack on September 11^th are suffering from so-“called survivor guilt”, perhaps milder form of post-traumatic disorder. Those who are under influence of survivor guilt tend to ask themselves questions such as “why did I survive?” or “Do I deserve to live?” And they might experience excessive drinking, eating, loss of concentration, and difficulty sleeping. Some people even put off their engagement, wedding, or childbearing. Survivor-guilt is mostly experienced by people who were close to victims or those who actually saw others perish, and afterward can't shake a feeling of self-condemnation for escaping when others did not. To deal with this symptom, they might need to change their way of life in some way in order to find some kind of meaning of life in their subsequent life.

Right after September 11th attack, many people in the US were very angry. As a result, the majority opinion was to retaliate whoever responsible for this act. This is sort of similar to road rage situation. When some driver cuts me off, I feel like retaliating by tailgating or making a dirty face at the driver. But is this a right thing to do? These are dangerous acts, and possibly cause more serious damage. In terrorism situation, bombing Afganistan might kill thousands of civilians by accident. Then what would the US say? "Oops, that was an accident"? Personally I am opposed to bombing Afganistan under the name of Relatiation. I am hoping that the US cross bridge of emotional spin cycle and deal with this situation without anger.

"Everybody is so upbeat and so happy about my living, and I am very happy about it," he said. "But at the same time I have such deep sorrow that this is happening. I don't know ... why I deserve this. I don't know why I have a second chance."

New York police Capt. Timothy Pearson was with Officer John Perry, evacuating people from the trade center's north tower when the south tower collapsed. He escaped the storm of debris and smoke and assumed Perry had, too. But Perry did not get out, and now Pearson asks, "How come I made it out and John didn't?"

"There are many things people might feel guilty about," Matsakis said. "You might feel guilty because you thought it was exciting to watch, or because you wondered what it looked like when the people who jumped hit the ground. Maybe you thought, 'Oh, some of those rich guys deserved it.' Or maybe you don't feel guilty and you feel guilty about not feeling guilty."

"It's important to focus on finding a way to make something positive happen," Worthman said. "I might ask a mother who lost a son, 'If you had the opportunity to ask your son what he'd want you to do, what would he say?' "The answer," she said, "is never 'sit around and feel guilty.'"

THREE-FOLD SELF

Two Stages of Driving Persona Makeover

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/traffic/tpintro.html

Dr. Driving, Leon James describes ways to become emotionally intelligent driver based on concept of three-fold self.

The first stage is to become a reformed driver: In this level, drivers are asked to inhibit aggressive, destructive, and negative emotions and promote positive emotions/feeling toward other drivers and traffic condition. In affective level, it is necessary to overcome resistance to change. In cognitive level, drivers are mainly asked to modify their self-loving bias and promote socialized driving. In sensorimotor level, drivers are asked to actually act positively towards other drivers.

The second stage is to become a facilitated driver: In affective level, drivers are asked to feel happiness or pleasure about their socialized ways of driving. In cognitive level, drivers are asked to assess their driving behavior as well as others calmly and logically. In sensorimotor level, drivers are asked to act completely friendly to other drivers and be proud of their socialized driving at the same time.

THE FIRST STAGE:

Affective level: Overcoming resistance to change

§ inhibiting or mitigating or modulating states of anger and aggression

§ allowing passenger to complain or make suggestions

§ inhibiting swearing and cussing and other explosive verbal behaviors

§ reaffirming the value of becoming a reformed driver

§ activating higher motives within the self: love of order and justice, patriotism, nobility, chivalry, public spiritedness, charity, friendliness to strangers or, aloha

Cognitive level: Rational analysis of traffic incidents

§ avoidance of the attribution error

§ counteracting one's self-serving bias

§ maintaining the self-witnessing topic focus

§ acquiring new, more benign, more socialized self-regulatory sentences

Sensorimotor level: Giving the Appearance of Being a Reformed Driver

§ waving, smiling, signalling

§ not crowding, not rushing in, not swearing

§ not aggressing against passengers

§ acting being in a good mood, etc

SECOND STAGE:

Affective level: Maintaining Loyalty to One's Driving Image and Reputation ("Face Work as a Driver")

§ feeling responsible for incidents and seeking opportunities to make reparations

§ feeling regret at one's unfriendly behaviors and impulses

§ feeling good about behaving nobly

§ delighting in orderliness and mutual regard

§ feeling enthusiasm for sharing traffic psychology with others

§ feeling appreciation when being given advice by passenger

§ being forgiving of others' mistakes and weaknesses

Cognitive level: Reasoning Like a Traffic Psychologist

§ acknowledging one's driving errors and marking and rehearsing the solution

§ observing other driver's behaviors objectively or impartially

Sensorimotor level: Behaving Like a Happy Reformed Driver

§ noticing and being helpful to other drivers

§ verbalizing nice sentiments

§ enjoying the ride and relaxing

Driving & Music: Music…to ease your mind.

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459f98/nakamatsu/report1nakamatsu.html#Does

In this report Nakamatsu reviewed how music affect driving behavior. Nakamatsu described that loud music volume impair his driving skill. First, he starts enjoying his music (affective), then he feels like he is in his private concert (cognitive), finally, he sometimes start playing air guitar (sensorimotor). In terms of musical tempo, he assumes that speed and musical tempo go hand in hand. If a driver is listening to slow-tempo music, she is not likely to engage in high speed driving. Listening to fast, up-beat music assist drivers to get excited (affective), then they feel they have lots of energy (cognitive), as a result, they engage in energetic driving, in order words, aggressive driving (sensorimotor).

I love a good stereo system! You know the kind that you can hear from a block away. The effect of music drastically improves when it sounds like you are at a concert but, it can also drastically affect the way you drive.

Sometimes when I am enjoying my own "personal concert," while driving, my attention to the road and traffic decrease. Sometimes I get so caught up in a song that I start singing and playing the "air guitar" and notice that I am not paying attention to the way I'm driving. Well, that is one reason, music volume can affect your driving. Another reason is that, it also can impair the sharpness of your rearview mirror. When I listen to my stereo at loud volume my rear view mirror vibrates and it is almost impossible to see anything with it. Your ability to hear an emergency vehicle is also greatly lowered. There have been many times that an emergency vehicle, with its siren balsting, was nearby and it didn't hear or see them until they were right behind me.

I feel that the tempo of music has the most impact or strong influence on the way we drive. Let me start with a question. Can you consciously or actively listen to a slow song like, "Memories" by Elvis, and race someone? It's pretty hard. Isn't there a strong urge for you to change the station and play something more upbeat? Changing the music tempo can also be a technique you can use to slow yourself down. Try this, next time you find yourself driving recklessly or in a hurry, try to listen to a slow tempo song. In fact keep a cassette or CD with mellow music on it, just for you to use when you are feel that you are in a rush.

Affective, Cognitive, and Sensorimotor aspects of Traffic Psychology

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/459f96/rmitsui/reports/report3.html

Ryan Mitsui reviewed how threefold self works when we are behind wheel.

Mitsui’s assessment for example1 (see below):

§ Affective domain: experience of angry and frustration

§ Cognitive domain: thinking, “People are not cooperative. They are selfish or against her.”

§ Sensorimotor domain: swearing and driving recklessly

His advice for Saito is to plan ahead and stay in a lane where she can comfortably make turn or exit. In this way she does not have to deal with stressful lane-changing with people who do not want let other cars cut in from of them.

Mitsui’s assessment for example 2( see below):

§ Affective domain: feeling invincible behind the wheel

§ Cognitive domain: thinking that other drivers can’t see her, so she doesn’t care what others think.

§ Sensorimotor domain: display of rude gesture and speeding off.

Mitsui suggests that she should be less selfish and be considerate of others. She needs to change her cognitive domain.

Example 1:

One of Danell Saitos pet peeves while driving is when a person signals to change lanes but no one lets them in. It bothers her so much that when someone doesn't let her in, "I start swearing and driving recklessly because I'm so frustrated and angry." She says, "it's easier to cut in front of some one that isn't paying attention than to wait until someone lets you in."

Example 2:

Michelle Ota seems to think that when she is in her car she is invincible and feels that rude gestures are OK because, "other people can't see me and even if they do, I'll never see them again."

Driving Personality Make-over
Is it for Me?

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as99/eguchi/report2.html

Eguchi believes that the best way to modify and improve one’s driving behavior is to assess and change one’s threefold self. When people are behind wheels, their personality is reflected into their driving behavior. Personality is a product of nature and nurture. In order to characterize her personality, she conducted mini experiment. She kept observation log of her driving behavior and mood for five days. After mini experiment, she assessed herself. She thought that driving behavior was somewhat linked to her overall mood. She found that when she start driving, she does not wish or expect her to get involved both herself and someone else’s road rage. Thus, her assessment for her overall driving personality is that she is a moderately safe driver. While driving, when her mood shifts toward negative side, she noticed that her driving also tend to become aggressive. Also, when she is in a good mood, her driving is likely to be positive and social.

Self-witnessing is a first step to improve their control over their emotions. By witnessing bad behaviors of self, we can be aware that those behaviors need to be changed. Also, when we become experts of witnessing and assessing our emotional state, we can see where in the emotional spin cycle we are in and what should we do to bring it over to positive emotional hemisphere if it is in negative stage.

MINI-EXPERIMENT

For my mini experiment, what I did was I kept a log of any incidences that occurred while driving. I tried to document those incidences in which I was affected in some way by the incident. After keeping the log for a week, I put it aside, and then came back to it to see how much negative behavior I could detect from my log. After identifying the negative behavior (which I know I have recorded), I will try to find ways in which I can modify my behavior the next time I bumped into situations that needed much more positive reactions. These negative or destructive behaviors are those that I think qualify me for a DRIVING PERSONALITY MAKE-OVER.

My driving log April 5 through April 9

Monday: April 5 I got back from Las Vegas and my grandma picked me up. I was very jet-lagged, but I wanted to drive home because I can't stand it when my grandma drives. It usually takes us a long time to reach home. Usually she wants to hurry home, but today she wanted to make all these stops at different stores. My blood-sugar was low because I didn't eat anything for the day. I was extremely tired.

Tuesday: April 6

I witnessed an accident today as I was driving home. Two cars collided in an intersection. I think one car made a sudden illegal u-turn and the other car couldn't react fast enough to stop in time.

Wednesday: April 7

I was totally in a rush today. I left home at 8:30 a.m. and I had to drive 26 miles by 9:00 a.m. I knew I was going to be late because on the average it takes 40 minutes. I was patient today. I started out on a bad note, but I knew that I wasn't going to risk getting into an accident or get a speeding ticket. About 10 minutes into the drive, I came to a town where I had to slow down from about 50 mph to 35 mph. I usually slow down and today it's a good thing I did because a police officer was on the side of the road where they usually are when watching for speeding. I was actually amazed that I didn't get all anxious as I passed the parked police car. I think I knew I was going below the speed limit, so I had no guilty feeling or feeling of panic that I usually have when I have to slow down suddenly.

Thursday: April 8

I got totally irritated as I tried to find a parking stall at the post office. I wasn't in a rush, but this lady took so long to reverse her car out of the stall because she thought she didn't have enough room. I wanted to honk my horn to let her know that there was about a mile in back of her before she would hit a car! I didn't though. I just waited. I shook my head and then turned into the open parking space.

Friday: April 9

Today I had the most irritating time driving. There were so many incidences that pissed me off.

I pulled out from an intersection and a car was speeding, came up in back of me really quick. Instead of slowing down (obviously the car was speeding), the man over-took me, looked at me as if I did something wrong by pulling onto the highway. I pulled out in plenty of time, didn't take my time when I went onto the highway. The man appeared to be inconvenienced. I was irritated so I kept up my speed and was in back of him. I wasn't too close, but I was close enough to make him wonder why he had to pass me flying about 60 mph.

I was heading home and a car crossed the center line and I had to swirve to avoid getting hit. I was feeling a little tired and I don't think I reacted as fast as I should of. I sweared and my son heard me (he was sitting in the back seat). It was a close call and my adrenalin was pumping.

Another car tailgated me for about 8 miles. I don't know why, but when we hit the two lanes, I moved to the right lane and he didn't pass. He seemed to be in a rush, but I guess not? Stupid I thought.

I was off to work, left about 5 minutes earlier than normal. I followed this grater (came out of the corn fields) for almost 2 miles. Oh, I was a litte frustrated because usually those big farm vehicles pull over to the side. The driver of the grater looked back to check for cars, but continued to drive on the highway. "Whatever", I thought.

Banish bad health habits for good: the five steps to success

http://www.msnbc.com/news/185857.asp

Many people are aware that they need to quit their bad health habits eventually, whatever that is, if they want to life longer, look better, or perform better. However, change is not always each to make. Several psychologists offer five steps to change people’s bad habits. The first step is precontemplation. In this stage, people need to become aware of bad effects of their habit (affective level). The second step is contemplation. This is a self-analysis stage. Psychologist Chikamoto suggests to make list of pros and cons associated with the change in order to realize the existence of definite cons (cognitive level). Next step is preparation. People in this stage make small changes such as hiding ash tray if they want to quit smoking, buying walking shoes if they want to be more active (beginning of sensorimotor level). The fourth stage is action. This is when people actually star their new habit, but with a coach who can watch them such as their family members or friends (sensorimotor level). The final stage is maintenance. This stage requires people to continue new habit, preventing old habit to relapse (sensorimotor level). Changing bad habit takes more than declaration. People need to plan logically and change from the beginning of three-fold self to make it through successful change in behavior.

It is hard for many people to quit habits like smoking, which has biochemical addictive effects. It requires great deal of determination. In terms of emotional spin cycle, it is important to try to keep emotion in positive zone otherwise it's going to cause a great stress. When we are feeling stressed, our emotions tend to go around inside the negative sphere. Therefore, a key for success is to find some way to cross the bridge between negative and positive sphere and to keep staying in positive zone.

Precontemplation: One who isn’t thinking about change at all is in this state, which could conceivably last a lifetime. “Most people know it as denial,” says Norcross. The goal here is to simply educate yourself and become aware of the problem and its detrimental effects. Also, identify the friends and family who can give you unconditional support.

Contemplation: You’ve acknowledged the problem, but aren’t yet ready to change it. Chikamoto says this is the time people need to do some self-analysis. He suggests making a list of the pros and cons of changing — and understanding that there will indeed be some valid cons.

Preparation: “People here are planning to make changes,” says Chikamoto. “We suggest they make small changes like hiding the ash trays if they want to quit smoking, or buying walking shoes if they plan on becoming more active.” Setting realistic, short-term goals is an important component of this stage. “Set a date to do something and tell people you’re going to do it,” advises Norcross. “Research shows that will enhance your commitment to doing it.”

Action: You’re actively practicing your lifestyle change. But be warned: This is the time that you’re most likely to relapse into your old behavior. “People need a coach now,” says Norcross, such as friends and family members who can offer ongoing encouragement. He also suggests controlling your environment — ridding the house of cookies or cigarettes, posting reminders — and finding the healthy substitute, that is, what you’re going to do instead of the unhealthy behavior.

Maintenance: This refers not only to adhering to the new behavior but also continually reinforcing the techniques of the Action stage to prevent a relapse.

HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Abraham Harold Maslow

Explanation of the Hierarchy of Needs Model

http://www.accel-team.com/maslow_/maslow_nds_02.html

Behavior of individual is based on one’s strongest need at any given moment. Abraham Maslow developed framework for explain strength of certain needs. Priority of human behavior is characterized in hierarchy form. Other needs emerge only when top needs are satisfied. Hierarchy of motivation is shown in following diagram:

Physiological Needs:

The top of the hierarchy is physiological need. This need includes basic needs to maintain human operation; food, clothing, and shelter. Until this need is satisfied, other needs have little to do.

Safety/security Needs:

This second need is includes desire to be free from fear of physical danger, or self-preservation. As well as safety for the present, concern for future is included in this.

Social/affiliation Needs:

Humans are highly socialized animal. Thus, we have need for socialization as the third need. We seek belongingness and/or feeling of being accepted by various groups. When this need becomes dominant, we look for meaningful relationships.

Esteem Needs:

After we fulfilled social needs, we need to satisfy both self-esteem and recognition from others. To satisfy this need, we need to produce feelings of self- confidence, prestige, and self-control, power to influence their environment, and control. Frustration of this esteem needs can lead to immature or disruptive behavior.

Self-actualization Needs:

This is a need to maximize one’s potential. The way to satisfy this need vary from person to person. Also, individual’s actualization needs can change over his lifespan.

Maslow relized that this hierarchy model is a typical pattern that can be applied most times, but there are great numbers of exceptions.

How hierarchy of needs related to emotional spin cycle? I think depending on what kind of needs we have right now, our intensity of emotion changes. For example, when we are running late and driving in a big hurry, we would be very upset if someone is going slow in front of us. The Need is: we have to go fast, and the situation does not allow us to achieve this need. Therefore, we become more upset and find it very hard to bring ourselves to positive emotional state.

Physiological needs

For example, the Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi, frequently sacrificed his physiological and safety needs for the satisfaction of other needs when India was striving for independence from Great Britain. In his historic fasts, Gandhi went weeks without nourishment to protest governmental injustices. He was operating at the self-actualization level while some of his other needs were unsatisfied.

Attorney: Hanssen spied for 'financial' reasons”

http://www9.cnn.com/2001/US/07/14/hanssen.attorney/index.html

In this article, money is working as motivation for two actions. One is Robert Hassen. His spying act was for money. The other is Mrs. Hassen. Federal government offered her to pay money to motivate her to cooperate investigation.

Robert Hassen was a 25-year veteran FBI agent who spied for Soviet Union and later Russia for long time. The motivation for his spying is need for money. He has six children. The amount of money paid for his act by Soviet Union and Russia was about $1.4 million and diamonds. Although there are evidence that he spent money on strippers, his attorney Cacheris stated that money was the main factor that motivated him. Hassen passed top secrets of the US such as identities of US spies in Russia and nuclear war plans. Source said that he somewhat knew he would be arrested on the day he was arrested. And he subconsciously wanted to get arrested. Hassen will receive a sentence of life in prison without parole. Mrs. Hassen will receive part of her husband’s federal pension, $40,000 a year if she continues to cooperate federal investigation.

Cacheris said "financial necessity" was a big part of Hanssen's motivation, citing the FBI veteran's family of six children. The indictment against Hanssen claimed that he received some $1.4 million in cash and diamonds for his spying activities.

When asked if Hanssen had no alternative but to resort to spying to make extra money, Cacheris said "I'm not saying that. You're asking me what motivated him and that was a big part of the motivation."

As part of the plea agreement reached with the government, Mrs. Hanssen will receive part of her husband's federal pension -- about $40,000 a year -- as long as she continues to cooperate with federal authorities in their investigation into his espionage activities.

In conclusion, through this research, I became more aware that many aspects of our lives are directly or indirectly related to emotional spin cycle. When we are experiencing negative emotions (almost everyday this happens, right?), we have to manage to bring our emotions to positive state. Otherwise, it keep causing us great stress. I think people today have so much stressful things such as heavy traffic, due dates for assignment, nasty roommates, noisy neighbor etc. So people are more likely to get stuck in negative state and just cannot get out of there. I suspect that is one of the reasons that psychotherapy and psychiatric needs are increasing over past decades. In a great series of movie Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobe failed to train Anakin Skywalker properly because he could not get over with anger he felt when his master was killed by evil guy. If anger or rage or any other negative emotions stay with us, it will cause harm to ourselves as well as people around us. Just like "aloha is contagious", negative emotions are also contagious. Crossing bridge between negative and positive emotional hemisphere is not always easy, but with training, we should be able to do it, and I believe we have to be able to do it.

REFERENCE

Website and articles:

“National Institute of Mental Health: Emotion” Internet. Oct.5, 2001. Available: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/baschap1.cfm#emotion

“A Historical Perspective On Emotion” Internet. Oct. 5, 2001. Available: http://emotion.salk.edu/Emotion/History/Hgeneral.html

“Thinking or Feeling (T/F)” Internet. Oct. 9, 2001. Available: http://keirsey.com/pumII/tf.html

“Center for Psychology of Cancer” Internet. Oct. 9, 2001. Available: http://www.centerforpsychologyofcancer.org/

“Abraham Harold Maslow: Explanation of the Hierarchy of Needs Model” Internet. Oct. 9, 2001. Available: http://www.accel-team.com/maslow_/maslow_nds_02.html

News Media:

“Banish bad health habits for good: the five steps to success” Internet. Oct. 16, 2001. Available: http://www.msnbc.com/news/185857.asp

“President Softy: George W. Bush knows when to show emotion and when not to” Internet. Oct. 21, 2001. Available: http://www.msnbc.com/news/644204.asp

“Syndrome might affect thousands who saw WTC collapse” Internet. Oct. 16, 2001. Available: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/13/rec.survivors.guilt.ap/index.html

“Attorney: Hanssen spied for 'financial' reasons” Internet. Oct.16, 2001 Available: http://www9.cnn.com/2001/US/07/14/hanssen.attorney/index.html

Generational Curriculum:

“Music & Driving: Music…to ease your mind” Internet. Oct. 7, 2001. Available: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459f98/nakamatsu/report1nakamatsu.html#Does

“Gender Differences in Driving Norms. Are Men More Aggressive Drivers Than Women?” Internet. Oct. 7, 2001. Available: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as99/lieberman/report2.html

“Two Stages of Driving Persona Makeover” Internet. Oct. 9, 2001. Available: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/traffic/tpintro.html

“Affective, Cognitive, and Sensorimotor aspects of Traffic Psychology” Internet. Oct. 9, 2001. Available: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/459f96/rmitsui/reports/report3.html

“Driving Personality Make-over: Is it for Me?” Internet. Oct. 9, 2001. Available:

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as99/eguchi/report2.html

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