Report 1
Customizing My Emotional Spin Cycle:
Annotated
Bibliography
Psy 409b Fall 2001-G15
Dr.
Leon James, Instructor
By: Julia Sui
ÀÀÀÀÀ Date:À October 16,
2001
Instructions for this Report
ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀ À(the address
is:http//www.soc.Hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15report1.html)
ÀÀÀÀÀÀ Julia?s e-mail address:À www.murasaki517@hotmail.com
À
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Emotions
Feelings
Threefold Self
À Hierarchy of Motives
Introduction
ÀÀÀÀÀ
From
Aristotle to Freud, philosophers and psychologists have explored and quibbled
over the primitive impulses, emotions, which are frequently independent
of our thoughts.À Emotion and feelings
also reflect our cognitive assessment of situations and act upon those
pre-programmed ?plans? for handling life circumstances.À So what exactly is emotion?À How do we control something that is
impulsive and instinctive? To answer these questions and other related topics,
such as feelings, this report (Report 1) will focus on the emotional spin
cycle which maps out the cultural norms of behavior we
acquired through learned
aspect of our social function (Leon, 2001).
By
observing and monitoring our emotional spin cycle, or our threefold
self, we can better understand our habits of feelings, thinking, and
acting.À Report 2 will expand on this
human functioning based on my own daily emotional spin cycle.ÀÀ This will also consist of analyzing data
and applying the Threestep Method to: acknowledge, witness, and modify my
negative spin cycle.
ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀ
ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀ
ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀ
ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀ Emotion is a strong instinctive feeling such
as love, fear, hate, and sorrow.À
Feelings on the oneÀ hand,
encompasses the physical aspect of sensation.À
Emotion, on the other hand, involve an excited or intense mental state,
which could produce a certain behavior (such as destruction of property,
physical, abuse, or even intense affection).À
I believe that emotion is a product of an intense feeling.À According to the Psychological Self Help
chapter 12; Methods for Controlling Conscious Emotion (http://mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/chap12/chap12b.htm) Emotion is designed by
nature to help us adapt-to solve problems-we tend to get ?used to? positive
conditions such as a loving, giving spouse, but our fears and hostilities
continue on and on upsetting and urging us to ?do something.?ÀÀ The mind was apparently not made for happiness,
but for survival.À Happiness is
possible, but it may take intentional thought and effort; it is not always an
automatic process.À But anger, grief,
insecurity, and jealousy are automatic, sometimes even unstoppable (Frijda
1988).
Here is an excerpt from Tucker-Ladd?s book, chapter 12 of
?Methods for Changing Emotions?, which describes what emotion is and how it affects our lives:
?Emotions are a major part of our
inner lives, that are frequently unrealistic and irrational, resulting in a
primitive reflexes independent of out thoughts.À Yet, emotions also reflect our cognitive assessment of situations
producing certain behavior.À Often
times, our strong feelings over-ride reason and control our actions.ÀÀ Suicide is a way to escape pain and hurts,
enraged ex-spouse can hardly think of anything else but the wrongdoings of the
former spouse.À The badness of the
ex-spouse becomes an obsession, an unshakable conviction that will often last
forever, regardless of other peoples? opinion.À
This single-minded view is a characteristic of emotions; the fearful
flyer cannot consider the high probability of his flight arriving safely; the
jealous person is absolutely certain that the lover is interested in someone
else.À Yet, some of us can reason under
a favorable condition.À Reason can help
us see other possibilities, see the likely long-term consequences of an action,
see the implications of a code of ethics, etc.À
Reason (cognition) can modify the impulsive actions of the more rigidly
mechanistic emotions.ÀÀ One of Frijda?s
points is that emotions, as well as behavior and reason, are lawful and
understandable (but not logical).À The
more you know about those laws, the better your chances of controlling your
unwanted emotions.?
Many emotional reactions seem to be largely generated by our
thought process, rather than
Àby operant or classical conditioning.À Lazarus (1984) contends that cognition is always involved in our
emotions because emotions reflect our cognitive evaluation of how well things
are going for us, namely, if our situation is seen as getting better or
worse.À The question is: What thoughts
(meanings or inferences or expectations) arouse which emotions?À For many years, Ellis and Harper (1975) have
been reminding us of the 2000-year old idea that our intensely sad or hostile
feelings are a result of our own thinking, our irrational ideas.À For example, we assume that situations
(failing exam) and people (someone lied to you) cause our emotions, but Ellis
says most emotions result from our insisting that the world and others should
be unfolding differently.À And, like a
child, we get upset-we ?awfulize?-when things don?t go the way we want them to
go.À ?It was a stupid exam!? and ?It?s
terrible that she lied to me!?À It is
the irrational and imposing thoughts that perturb our emotions, thus it is the
exterior cause that stimulate our thought process and feelings, and there is
absolutely ?nothing wrong with us.?
ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀ The
author of the book believes, that understanding the way we acquire a certain
complex emotional reaction might help us figure out how to change
feelings.À This concept will be
addressed under the more appropriate topic; ?Hierarchy of Motives.?
©
Feelings are both
physical sensation and emotional reaction.À
It is the sensitivity, and an emotional disposition.À We feel sympathy or pain for someone who is
hurt, often resulting in an emotional reaction (feelings), yet feeling is a
sensation experienced through touch, e.g. we like to feel the baby?s soft
skin.À Often times, negative feelings
can bring stress and pain.À Here is what
feelings can do to us when we ?hold back,? and there are ways to control
feelings:
Catharsis... Venting...
Discharging... Expressing Emotions...
Holding in our feelings causes mental and physical stress. And,
stress can be very destructive. Often suppressing and hiding an
"awful" thought actually results in uncontrolable obsessions about
the very thing we are trying to hide. Sharing our secrets often provides
relief. On the other hand, letting vile feelings spew out all over others is
surely harmful too. Moreover, our own intense emotions can be very frightening
to others and to us, so we often avoid dealing with them or pretend we don't
feel so strongly and, thus, problems don't get resolved. For a variety of
reasons, it can be helpful to learn we can control and reduce the strength of
suppressed or repressed emotions. Methods for uncovering, venting, and reducing
emotions are included in this method because once you accumulate intense
emotions, then you may need to discharge those strong feelings harmlessly.
For
some of us, expressing feelings is hard but we can learn to emote (feel our
emotions) by encouraging ourselves to practice doing so, by gradually giving up
our inhibitions or fears, and by finding out that it feels good to "let
go" and to feel strongly. If you need additional encouragement try attending
a self-help group, a 12-step program, or therapy.
It
will become clear to you that the private venting or catharsis process
described in this method is different from "telling your own story"
in a therapeutic group. "Telling your story" is usually more
consciously controlled than a catharsis, but a sterile, "clinical"
description of some troublesome experience will not yield many, if any,
benefits. You need to let go of your feelings, i.e. your heartfelt emotions
must be expressed openly, not just described in well measured words. Also, to
be therapeutic, your disclosure must be received by accepting, not critical
people. Under therapeutic circumstances, there is growing scientific evidence
that sharing your feelings and problems by talking or writing is helpful and
healthy. Likewise, keeping traumas a secret is unhealthy (Pennebaker, 1995).
This method describes a process that can be used when all alone.
Venting or discharging emotions involves
vigorously expressing the emotion--fear, sadness, anger, dependency--so
completely you feel "drained." Then, the strength of the emotion is
markedly reduced or eliminated. Do this in a private place because strong
emotions often offend and upset others. Expressing your emotions fully may be
hard even when alone; this may be true for persons already expert at wailing or
raging with people.
A
warning: Many professionals doubt the effectiveness of these processes to
"clean out" toxic emotions held inside (see discussion of outcome
research later). Moreover, especially when dealing with a traumatic experience,
such as a horrible crime or accident or a rape or abuse as a child, there is a
risk of being retraumatized by this procedure. Recently, most therapists, in
these cases, prefer "trauma reconstruction" in which order and
completeness of the experience is gradually restored. That is, the complex,
emotional, fragmented, often distorted experiences and memories associated with
the original trauma are carefully reviewed bit by bit and, in time, brought
together into a coherent, understandable, whole picture of the event(s). In
this way overwhelming emotions are avoided (also see chapter 15 for the use of
writing as a way of coping with traumas).
Purposes
? To learn it is healthy to express
feelings, that it feels good to get them into awareness so you can deal with
them.
? To learn or re-learn (we all knew how to
throw a temper tantrum at age 3) how to fully and honestly express our
feelings, at least to ourselves. You may have lost touch with your body or your
"gut" reactions, i.e. you may inhibit feelings so well that you have
forgotten how to emote fully and spontaneously.
? To privately vent unwanted feelings--to
get them out of your system--so that you feel more in control and able to take
constructive, rational action. The most common feelings that need to be
discharged are: anger, frustration, disappointment, depression, dependency,
helplessness, fears, and child-like desires.
? To gain some insight into the original
causes of your strong emotions that seem inappropriate responses to the current
situation (this may occur but most insight-producing methods are described in
chapter 15).
? To counteract the belief that we'll only
hurt more if we attend to our feelings or that we'll find out we are really
bad. To realize that we can cope better if we know what's going on inside us.
? To overcome your own fears of strong or
taboo emotions, to learn that you can tolerate and control these feelings.
(Example: one doesn't immediately seduce a person of the same sex just as soon
as homosexual interests break into awareness.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Feelings are
natural reactions which come as the result of our thinking. Sometimes
the thinking process is conscious and we know exactly why we feel as we
do. But often, feelings are the reaction of unconscious thinking, based
on information we picked up during childhood experiences. We can change
our feelings by changing our thinking. Through therapeutic education,
we can learn the roots of our thinking and decide if we may want to make some
changes.
|
|
|
|
|
The topic of ?emotions?
have perplexed and intrigued human nature since the time of Plato and Aristotle, the
two well known philosophers who were able to transfer the meaning of emotions
to words.ÀÀ Here are one of the original
terms what Aristotle defined emotions to be.À
Let us compare them with Aristotle?s and Plato?s definition and that of
Daniel Goleman?s.
Aristotle
Aristotle (384-322 BC): Emotions (feelings)
There are no
clear statement on how emotions differ with/relate to vices and virtues. There
are 3 types of emotional mental processes:
- 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':
- Anger <-> Placability
- Love <-> Fear
- Shame <-> Shamelessness
- Benevolence <-> Churchlishness
- Pity <-> Resentment
- Envy <-> Emulation <-> Contempt
Anger : "an impulse attended with pain to
avenge openly an undeserved slight openly manifested towards ourselves or our
friends". Aristotle also distinguishes appropriate and inappropriate anger
:'Anyone can be angry, That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to
the right degree, at the right time, for the right reason, and in the right
way, this is not easy" (Nicomachean Ethics).
Placability=Gentleness : "Settling or quiescence of anger" -
arising from lapse of time, mood induction or pity.
Love=Friendliness : "wishing a person all the things you consider
good, not for your sake, but for his, and readiness, so far as in you lies, to
bring them about".
Hate=Enmity : Opposite of Love - not necessarily painful (unlike anger)
- may be directed to a class of objects rather than individuals (unlike anger).
Fear : " kind of pain or perturbation arising from the idea of
impending evil hurtful to life or at least painful".
Confidence : Opposite of Fear - kind of hope.
Shame : "kind of pain or perturbation in reference to evils past,
present, or future that are thought to tend to discredit".
Shamelessness : Opposite of Shame.
Benevolence : state "which leads one to render service to another
in time of need, not to repay past services or obtain future rewards, but
solely for his benefit".
Pity=Compassion : "kind of pain at the sight of great and
undeserved misfortune in another, such as we deem liable to befall ourselves or
any of our friends or relatives, and especially when it appears imminent"
- Require a sense of liability and belief in the existence of human virtues.
Resentment=Indignation : Correlative with Pity - Pain at the sight of
unmerited prosperity.
Envy=Malice : Pain, like Resentment, but not related to merit - Directed
to individuals close in age, social status...
Emulation : " kind of pain at the sight of good which we value and
might acquire, when possessed by another naturally resembling ourselves, not
because he possesses them, but because we do not".
Contempt : Opposite of Emulation.
For More Information
- On Vices and Vertues : Essay by Aristotle. (M.I.T.).
Author: Jean-Marc Fellous
Please
send us your comments. -------------------------
...Navigate The
Emotion
Plato
Hellenic
Sculpture: Capitoline Venus (III-II BC) 
Plato (427-347 BC)
- A 3 states theory:
Pleasure and Pain are states that depart from the Neutral state.
- The body organs are
subjected to exhaustion and replenishement, with a certain intensity and
rate. Pain is the destruction of organic harmony, pleasure is its
recovery, and Neutral is harmony itself.
- Plato introduces
independent non-organic (mind) components to the emotions, based on the
principles of want and satistfaction of want.
The soul is divided into a immortal part, located in the head, and a mortal part, distributed over the body. Philosophical and intellectual love of beauty are located in the immortal soul. Other 'regular' emotions are located in the mortal soul. - Plato's theory is one of
the first to recognize that the soul affects the body, and the body
affects the soul.
For More Information
- The Composition of the Soul in the Timaeus. (U.K.)
- The Republic : 10 Books on line (M.I.T.).
- The Protagoras on line: The concept of pleasure. (M.I.T.).
- The Timaeus on line: Pain and Pleasure (M.I.T.).
Author: Jean-Marc Fellous [fellous@volen.ccs.brandeis.edu]
Please
send us your comments. -------------------------
...Navigate The
Emotion Site
By Daniel
Goleman from the book: ?Emotional Intelligence?
According to Daniel Goleman?s
list of definitions of ?emotion? are:
? Anger: fury, outrage,
resentment, wrath, exasperation, indignation, vexation, acrimony, animosity,
annoyance, irritability, hostility, and perhaps at the extreme, pathological
hatred and violence.
? Sadness: grief, sorrow,
cheerlessness, gloom, melancholy, self pity, lonliness,
dejection, despair, and when pathological, severe
depression.
? Fear: anxiety,
apprehension, nervousness, concern, consternation, misgiving, wariness, qualm,
edginess, dread, fright,
terror,:
as a psychopathology, phobia and panic.
? Enjoyment:À happiness, joy, relief, contentment, bliss, delight,
amusement, pride, sensual pleasure, thrill, rapture, gratification,
satisfaction, euphoria, whimsy, ecstasy, and at the far edge, mania.
? Love:À acceptance, friendliness, trust, kindness,
affinity, devotion, adoration, infatuation, agape.
? Surprise:À shock, astonishment, and amazement, wonder
? Disgust:À contempt, disdain, scorn, abhorrence, aversion, distaste,
revulsion
? Shame:À guilt, embarrassment, chagrin, remorse, humiliation,
regret, mortification, and contribution
These are terms researchers continue to argue over
precisely which emotions can be considered primary-the blue, red, and yellow of
feeling from which all blends come-or even if there are such primary emotions
at all (Appendix A, Goleman 1995).À The
scientific debate on how to classify emotions continue.À The debate persists because of the existence
of other emotions rarely discussed in these ?scientifically? accepted terms
such as jealousy, envy (and malice, which Aristotle listed as part of his
emotional terminology), or terms used often in Christian faith: courage,
forgiveness, virtues, and hope?
ÀÀÀÀ It seems to me
that these endless nuances of our emotional terms only prove that human
feelings and emotions are indeed too complex to be labeled in one simple
category.
ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀ What Plato mentioned and Goleman, and
Aristotle did not, was the physical effect emotions have on us.À Plato also touches the part on the soul of human,
a scientifically controversial, unanswered component of human beings.
So, how do we possible come up with an accurate,
compartmentalized definition of what emotions are?ÀÀ
ÀÀÀ Affective,
Cognitive, Sensorimotor
?
Affective
means to produce an effect of feelings, e.g. ?what do I feel like doing??À or the sensation of ?I feel rejected?, ?I am
attracted to this person??these are the affective aspect of the threefold self.
? Cognitive-self
is the thinking tank of emotions or feelings; the awareness and assessment that
focus on what you are thinking, and not so much on what you are feeling.ÀÀ
In order to modify the cognitive
element of threefold self, one must try to think in ?words? in order to
interrupt the negative thinking mode.ÀÀ
One must be able to stop the negative thinking in order to halt the cyclical
tendencies of the three fold self which naturally condone to the common pattern
of elaborative thinking.
? Sensorimotor
is our physical sensation of self:À it
is the facial, bodily, and the physical reaction
that elicit
first and foremost visible or sensational reaction to threefold self.À For example, when a person
feels a cramp
before an exam because it makes him nervous, that sensation of cramp is the
sensorimotor of
threefold self.À In order to modify this unwanted, or
negative sensation, one must learn to find means to relax, ?fix?, or modify the
sensorimotor reaction.
Hierarchy
of Motives are defined as the different levels of motivational
priorities.À It is this property that
may affect the behavior to bridge resistance from self-destruction.À For example, a father of three who lost his
wife in the September 11th terrorist attack wanted to commit suicide
after learning of his wife?s death, however, what hindered him from such an act
was that fact that he had three children who needed him.
ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀ Here is an
example of deliberate alteration of motives that may inspire some of you from
undesirable actions.
Y
Identity, Feelings &
Cause
Introduction:
Once I noticed within myself a temptation to medicate
certain unpleasant feelings, but not others. I wondered what the difference
was.
As I began to explore this, I discovered that while the
particular unpleasant emotions might vary, it was still common in other people
to be tempted to medicate certain unpleasant emotions, yet not other unpleasant
emotions.
I began to wonder what the difference was; I sensed that if
I could figure out the difference, we might all be able to learn how to frame or
experience unpleasant emotions which seemed to tempt us to medicate them into
experiences which did not tempt us to medicate them.
This could be valuable for people trying to deal with such
temptations, including those trying to change habits or addictions.
------
The first difference I noticed in myself was this:
-When I percieved an unpleasant emotion as being about myself
(such as frustration or boredom - "I'm frustrated", or "I'm
bored", I might say to myself) I was tempted to medicate those
feelings.
-When I perceived an unpleasant emotion as being about
someone or something else (not about me) I was not tempted. (For example,
"I'm angry" - seemed, to me, to be about someone or something else. I
wasn't tempted.
Interesting.
So I experimented with pain. I knew that sometimes I was
tempted, when I felt physically bad, to "feel bad", or to even
feel that I am bad. I wondered if I could switch this.
So I noticed a physical pain I was having, which I identifed as
being "me", "I hurt". So I changed it to, "It
hurts".
No more temptation. It, some part of me, was merely uncomfortable.
What a difference!
Wanting to understand this better, and to provide a more complete
framework for understanding, I explored this some more. Below is an
explaination of what I've found so far.
I also noticed that some people became very unresourceful in
response to some things that other people did. Such as when we become
angry at someone, or blame them. We often seem to lose our sense of agency, our
experience of being able to do something constructive about the situation to
change it. We lose hope; sometimes not even realizing it...just being angry or
blaming towards another person or a situation. I wanted to distinguish and help
make clear why and when this was happening, also...and discover what we might
do about it that makes a difference.
What
I found was that when we blame another or are angry at another and attribute
the cause to other persons or a situation, we have lost our experience of
agency, our experience of being able to help change what we experience. We
might "enjoy" the blaming...but we often lose hope or belief that we
can change what we are experiencing. In this way, we become unresourceful in
another way, and often aren't realizing what happens to us.
Our
blaming and anger towards another person or situation can distract us from
noticing that we no longer have an experience of agency, a belief and feeling
that we ourselves can do anything useful. We have, for
that time, at least, become victims, rather than experiencing victory, and
being victors.
I hope
you find this useful:
Distinction: Having (possessing) feelings Vs Feelings having
(possessing) you. Distinction: Being a cause Vs Being a victim.
It is all a matter of
what we identify with.
Someone
who is tempted to medicate their feelings with alcohol, drugs, food, anger or
other rackets has probably been identifying themselves with their feelings;
sometimes identifying with others as being the cause. It makes a big difference
how you perceive your feelings!
Most of us have trouble when we:
-Identify with our feelings, perceiving them as possessing
us, rather than we possessing our feelings. -When we identify others as having
causal power over us, instead of being a cause of what we experience.
It is all a matter of what we identify with.
You
can identify with your feelings or have them, you can identify with being a
cause or with being a victim. Your choice, even when you don't remember it is your
choice. (A useful thing to remember or coach people about, such choices.)
You might teach yourself and others (who have at
least implicitly asked to be taught or coached) to:
-Identify feelings as PART of yourself, you HAVE them Vs.
you ARE them.
-Identify yourself as cause, rather than be a victim.
("I became annoyed in response to what you did", rather than,
"You made me angry".)
(In
that example the speaker also made the distinction of not identifying the other
person with what they did. Very useful).
Here
are some examples:
To be unresourceful, to be a victim, think or say
such things as,
-"You made me angry", "You irritated
me", "So and so hurt me".
-"I am hurt", "I am angry", "I am
old".
To be resourceful, to be a victor, think and say such
things as,
-"I have some anger in response to what you did",
"Part of me is (VERY) angry in response to what you did. A big part."
-"It hurts", "I have some hurt",
"Part of me is angry", "I have many (or name a number)
years".
------
And,
if you wish to help other people become unresourceful very quickly, blame them
for how they speak and feel, or simply correct them so that they do it the
"right" way. :-)
------
Questions or Comments? Email the author,
DavidB@CoachCenter.com
http//www.soc.Hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15report1.html
www.murasaki517@hotmail.com