Customizing My Emotional Spin Cycle:

Data Analysis

Psych 409b—Fall 2001—G15

By Alan Arimoto

November 28, 2001

Link to report instructions: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15report2.html

Introduction

My report #1 which was my “annotated bibliography”, explained that everyone has an emotional spin cycle that we face every day. This spin cycle consists of four zones including two positive zones and two negative zones, and there is a self-zone, and other’s zone. Within these positive and negative zones, there are three aspects that are affective (feeling), cognitive (thinking), and sensory motor (doing). These three aspects are called the three fold self. The three fold self explains our everyday life. For example, if it is your Grandmother’s birthday, you will probably feel happy for her. Then you would think you should buy her a birthday present, which will then make you go out and buy a present for her. This can usually happens in this order and it characterizes how we live our lives. My report #1 tries to help you understand this concept better.

Now report #2, “Customizing My Emotional Spin Cycle: Data Analysis,” is described as the following. Now I will be actually collecting data of what I am feeling, thinking, and doing for a week. For each day, I will be collecting data three times, once in the morning, noon, and night. After I finish the data collection each day, I will rate myself by using a rating scale. I will then analyze my data and try to improve my emotional spin cycle toward a more positive emotional spin cycle. The “bridge” is termed as “crossing the bridge”, which refers to what you say to yourself to make you go from a negative zone to a positive zone. Most people do this technique, “thinking” to counteract the “doing”. However, not everone has the ability to think before they act and that could lead to some consequences. I’ll have a discussion of my data collection and analysis to see what improvements I have made and what still can be improved. Then I will have a conclusion wrapping up my report, which will include my references that I used.

Data collection

November 18, 2001

Morning

Affective: I woke up at about 11:00 am and was feeling a little hung over from drinking the night before.

Cognitive: However, I was thinking about the NFL football scores to see if my teams were winning.

Sensory Motor: This led me to walk into my living room and turn on the TV and watch the games.

Noon

Affective: I was feeling a little disappointed because the teams I picked didn’t win.

Cognitive: I was thinking maybe next week I would pick the wining teams.

Sensory Motor: I ended up staying home and cleaning up my house.

Night

Affective: I was feeling lazy, tired because it seemed like a long day.

Cognitive: I was thinking what is there to watch on TV.

Sensory Motor: So I watched TV and then fell asleep.

__3___ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__2___ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__4___ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__5___ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

__7___ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

__3___ 6) What was the worst level of negativity or selfishness of some other people around you (1=almost no negativity or selfishness observed; 10=extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed)

November 19, 2001

Morning

Affective: When I woke up, I felt tired because I watched TV too late.

Cognitive: I was thinking it’s the beginning of the week again and I have to go to school for five days until the weekend.

Sensory Motor: Cleaned myself up and went to school.

Noon

Affective: I felt relieved that my first two classes were done.

Cognitive: I was thinking where am I going to eat?

Sensory Motor: I ate at Taco Bell.

Night

Affective: When I went home, I felt negative feelings because I had a lot of things to do.

Cognitive: I was thinking that we only have less than a month of school and it is almost Thanksgiving.

Sensory Motor: I studied.

__9___ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__5___ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__7___ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__7___ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

__6___ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

__2___ 6) What was the worst level of negativity or selfishness of some other people around you (1=almost no negativity or selfishness observed; 10=extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed)

November 20, 2001

Morning

Affective: I woke up without my alarm clock feeling energized.

Cognitive: I was thinking what I’m going to eat for breakfast.

Sensory Motor: I cooked bacon and eggs and later ate them with rice.

Noon

Affective: I just finished my 10:30 am class and felt happy because now I could eat.

Cognitive: I was thinking where am I going to eat?

Sensory Motor: I ate at the lunch wagon.

Night

Affective: I was feeling negative emotions because I had a quiz the next day and I wanted to do well on it.

Cognitive: I had some negative thoughts as well because I thought, “what if I do bad on this quiz?”

Sensory Motor: This made me to study the material.

__6___ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__7___ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__8___ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__7___ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

__5___ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

November 21, 2001

Morning

Affective: I woke up late which caused me to feel like I had to “rush to school.”

Cognitive: I thought I needed hurry and get to school.

Sensory Motor: After I cleaned myself up, I rushed to school.

Noon

Affective: After lunch, I had to take that quiz which I felt some anxiety.

Cognitive: I thought I was going to do terrible on the quiz.

Sensory Motor: After the quiz, I was relieved it was over and went to my friend’s house. Plus, we had no school because Thursday was Thanksgiving.

Night

Affective: Since there was no school, I felt happy like a big sigh of relief.

Cognitive: I was thinking what am I going to do tonight?

Sensory Motor: I decided to go fishing.

__9___ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__10___ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__5___ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__7___ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

__9___ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

November 22, 2001

Morning

Affective: For this morning, I slept in.

Cognitive: Sleeping

Sensory Motor: Sleeping

Noon

Affective: I woke up around 1:30 pm and still felt as if I had no energy in my body.

Cognitive: I thought to myself, “why am I still tired because I had slept all day.”

Sensory Motor: I lied on the couch and watched TV.

Night

Affective: I felt I had to eat a lot of turkey tonight.

Cognitive: I thought that I did eat too much food and turkey for dinner.

Sensory Motor: This made my stomach sore so I had to lie on the ground for a while until the food settled.

___1__ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___2__ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___1__ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___2__ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

___6__ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

___3__ 6) What was the worst level of negativity or selfishness of some other people around you (1=almost no negativity or selfishness observed; 10=extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed)

November 23, 2001

Morning

Affective: I felt mad because my mom kept bugging me to wake up.

Cognitive: I thought she was being really irritating.

Sensory Motor: I tired to ignore her and go back to sleep.

Noon

Affective: My back was sore because I had to weed whack our lawn in the back of our house.

Cognitive: I thought that I could use a good massage because my back was sore.

Sensory Motor: When I was done, I went inside my house and drank some ice-cold water.

Night

Affective: I felt exhausted from working in the yard half the day.

Cognitive: I thought what am I going to do tonight?

Sensory Motor: I ended up playing cards at my friend’s house.

___8__ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___8__ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___9__ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___6__ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

___7__ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

___5__ 6) What was the worst level of negativity or selfishness of some other people around you (1=almost no negativity or selfishness observed; 10=extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed)

November 24, 2001

Morning

Affective: I was exited when I woke up because today was college football day.

Cognitive: I was thinking if my teams were going to win their games today.

Sensory Motor: This caused me to watch the football games on TV.

Noon

Affective: I still felt exited because some of my teams won and still had a chance for the others to win.

Cognitive: I was thinking if I was going to go to the UH football game.

Sensory Motor: Later, I got ready to go to the UH football game.

Night

Affective: I felt mad because the place that I usually park had the gates closed so instead of walking through the gates, you have to walk all the way around which sucks.

Cognitive: I thought that why can’t the workers open the gate?

Sensory Motor: I did walk around and met up with my friends in the parking lot.

___9__ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___7__ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___5__ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___7__ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

___8__ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

___8__ 6) What was the worst level of negativity or selfishness of some other people around you (1=almost no negativity or selfishness observed; 10=extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed)

Analysis

When I look back at this week, usually in the morning time I felt tired and lazy before I had to go to school. This was usually due to staying up late the night before either watching too much TV, or studying. There were some positive and negative emotions during this first week of data analysis.

On Nov. 20, I woke up before my alarm clock and cooked breakfast for myself. This is a good example of positive emotions and having effectiveness in my daily activities. During the week I have noticed that my productivity level is fairly high, but when it comes to the weekend, especially Saturday and Sunday, I don’t have that much productivity.

Some negative emotions, like on Nov. 24 was when I had to park at the stadium and had to walk all the way around because the gate was closed. I felt mad because the place that I usually park had the gates closed. Then I thought that why can’t the workers open the gate? (This was leading me toward a negative behavior.) But I didn’t act negatively and walked around the park. However, an example of using the “bridge” technique was on Nov. 18. During lunch time, I was feeling a little disappointed because the teams I picked didn’t win. I was then thinking maybe next week I would pick the winning teams. This made me feel optimistic and cleaned up my house. If you refer to the ratings, you can see that there was many high ratings of stressful days. By using the three step method, which is Acknowledging that I need to gain better control over my negative spin cycle. Then I need to Witness my threefold self in the negative spin cycle setting through objective self-monitoring or self observation methods of data collection. Finally step three is Modify my spin cycle in one selected area, and then I will start again with another area. This is how I will try to get more positive aspects and emotions into my daily life instead of negative aspects and emotions.

Week 2—November 25 to December 1

November 25, 2001

Morning

Affective: I woke up at about 11:00 am and felt bored.

Cognitive: I was thinking I needed to do something other than stay home.

Sensory Motor: My friends and I went to the park and played football.

Noon

Affective: My body felt really sore because I have not ran so much in a long time.

Cognitive: I thought that my muscles were going to cramp because they were really tight.

Sensory Motor: To help relieve this pain, I stretched.

Night

Affective: I felt tired because we played football.

Cognitive: I was thinking if I had any homework due.

Sensory Motor: I checked my calendar and didn’t have anything.

__3___ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__8___ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__8___ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

__5___ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

__7___ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

__4___ 6) What was the worst level of negativity or selfishness of some other people around you (1=almost no negativity or selfishness observed; 10=extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed)

November 26, 2001

Morning

Affective: My body was feeling sore when I woke up.

Cognitive: I thought if my friend’s muscles were sore too.

Sensory Motor: I called him up and asked him if he was sore.

Noon

Affective: I felt pretty good because my first two classes seemed like they went by quickly.

Cognitive: I wondered where I was going to eat.

Sensory Motor: I decided to eat upstairs at Campus Center.

Night

Affective: I felt cautious because the weather was really terrible and it was difficult driving home.

Cognitive: I was thinking that this rain is terrible, but much needed.

Sensory Motor: This made me drive home cautiously.

___6__ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___7__ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___4__ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___6__ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

___6__ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

November 27, 2001

Morning

Affective: I wasn’t feeling good in the morning.

Cognitive: I thought that I might be catching a cold.

Sensory Motor: I went to school in the pouring rain.

Noon

Affective: I felt sick and didn’t go to one of my classes.

Cognitive: I thought I needed to go home and rest.

Sensory Motor: I went home and got some rest.

Night

Affective: I felt like I was getting sick.

Cognitive: I thought I needed to take some medication.

Sensory Motor: I took some Tylenol Cold.

___7__ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___5__ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___3__ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___8__ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

___6__ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

November 28, 2001

Morning

Affective: I felt a little better than the day before.

Cognitive: I needed to eat something since I didn’t eat that much the night before.

Sensory Motor: I ate a peanut butter jelly sandwich.

Noon

Affective: I felt exhausted.

Cognitive: I was thinking that I was going to get sick.

Sensory Motor: I went home to and got some rest.

Night

Affective: Felt that I had to get some work done.

Cognitive: I thought I had to read.

Sensory Motor: I read my book and fell asleep.

___6__ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___8__ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___8__ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___8__ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

___9__ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

November 29, 2001

Morning

Affective: I had positive feelings because the week was almost over.

Cognitive: This led me to have positive thoughts.

Sensory Motor: I went to my one class and took good notes.

Noon

Affective: I felt like going to the beach.

Cognitive: I thought what beach should I go to?

Sensory Motor: I went to Sandy’s.

Night

Affective: I was feeling I needed to catch up on some homework.

Cognitive: I thought I needed to read.

Sensory Motor: So I read.

___3__ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___8__ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___9__ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___8__ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

___8__ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

___2__ 6) What was the worst level of negativity or selfishness of some other people around you (1=almost no negativity or selfishness observed; 10=extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed)

November 30, 2001

Morning

Affective: Felt happy because today was Friday.

Cognitive: Thought today will be a good day.

Sensory Motor: Went to school.

Noon

Affective: Felt my friend was acting stupid.

Cognitive: Thought to myself that he was just playing around.

Sensory Motor: Made me act stupid to him, but just playing around too.

Night

Affective: Felt lucky because we were going to gamble.

Cognitive: Thought I was going to win some money.

Sensory Motor: Ended up losing more money than I intended to lose.

___10__ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___6__ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___8__ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___9__ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

___3__ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

___6__ 6) What was the worst level of negativity or selfishness of some other people around you (1=almost no negativity or selfishness observed; 10=extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed)

December 1, 2001

Morning

Affective: I still haven’t slept yet and was feeling disturbed because of the losing.

Cognitive: I can’t believe I lost a good amount of money.

Sensory Motor: Ate breakfast and did laundry to keep myself busy.

Noon

Affective: Felt tired because of the lack of sleep.

Cognitive: Thought if my football teams were winning.

Sensory Motor: Checked the scores and found out they lose.

Night

Affective: Reality sunk in and I felt depressed for losing.

Cognitive: Thought I sucked for losing money.

Sensory Motor: Stayed home because I had no money to spend.

___6__ 1) What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___5__ 2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___9__ 3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)

___9__ 4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today: (1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)

___7__ 5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)

___4__ 6) What was the worst level of negativity or selfishness of some other people around you (1=almost no negativity or selfishness observed; 10=extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed)

Discussion

I have noticed considerably that my stress levels came down. Meaning, on the global scale of one through ten, on average, there isn’t high amounts of stress during the second week. If you look back at the first week, there were many more high levels of stress, quite a few 9’s. This meant that I am putting myself in situations that are stressful. I think I dealt with the stressful situations a little better during the second week. I did show results of having moderate levels of stress during the second week. However, I think I learned from the previous week of when a stressful situation could be coming. This led me to act accordingly toward the situation and make adjustments. But I did have that one very stressful occasion, the only “10” rating throughout the two weeks. It was on Dec. 1 because on the night before, some of my friends and I decided to roll dice. I ended up losing “an undisclosed amount” of money that made me feel depressed, self-worthlessness, but didn’t act out of anger or rage. Losing money and this data analysis was a great learning experience for me. It made me realize that everything I do initially begins with your affective or “feeling”, then how you “think” or cognition, and finally the actual “doing” which is sensory motor.

For the second week, I have a higher average of effectiveness or productivity during each day. This results in managing my time more wisely and more effectively. For example, if I needed to read for school, then I would read which would make my day more productive. However, if I had gone to the beach, then I would consider this day not to be that productive. Mostly everyday of the second week there was more positive aspects rather than negative ones. This is partly due to the three step method and my awareness of the progress that I am suggested to have.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have learned that everything you do can lead you to feel, think, and act in certain ways. This is why some people are in jail because they sometimes cannot control their actions. This leads them to do things, which society doesn’t accept and they get thrown in jail. On the other hand, there are people who are really successful and this is due to their persistence and time management throughout their life. Some of them might set goals for themselves, which could be a good way for them to see their future. With these types of people have a better sense of self-awareness, which causes them to perform efficiently. For example, during the first week, I was more stressful, not knowing about the outlook of my future, and wasn’t using my time effectively. But after being more self aware about my situations, I improved in all of these categories, which usually benefits others and myself around me.

This self-analysis has helped me understand self-awareness better and will improve my everyday life. This has taught me that anything can happen throughout one’s life and it is up the person to make it a more positive or negative one. If you live in a negative lifestyle, chances are that you will not live a good and happy life. But if you are more positive, the chances are greater of living a happier and longer life. This is because your decision-making is wiser than the negative person. I think if you try to be self aware of what you are doing, you’ll be better off than a person who isn’t.