CUSTOMIZING MY
EMOTIONAL SPIN CYCLE:
DATA
ANALYSIS
409b—Fall
2001—G15
Dr. Leon James, Instructor
By: Tracy Morreira
December 4, 2001
Link to report instructions: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15report2.html
INTRODUCTION
DATA COLLECTION
AND ANALYSIS
DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
Report 2 is a continuation of Report 1. Report two is based on customizing my emotional spin cycle. I then again define emotions, feelings, and threefold self (affective, cognitive, sensor motor) within Report 2. The emotional spin cycle is a cycle that everyone encounters everyday. Functioning through feelings, to thoughts and resulting in actions, which can be either positive or negative. This report will consist of customizing my own emotional spin cycle based on data analysis. It will consist of an introduction, data collection and analysis, discussion, conclusion and references. “Here Emotional spin cycle is a phrase invented to refer to the idea that our daily emotional life style is a built-in habit we develop in childhood during our socialization process” (http://www.aloha.net/~dyc/rage-results.html). Below is the emotional spin cycle as created by Dr. Leon James.
The emotional spin cycle is made up of 4 zones and 12 different settings:
4
Zones: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15reports-instructions.html#procedures
Zone 1 (negative red) = Feeling rage-anger (setting 1) coupled with
impaired thinking (2) lead to aggressive behavior (3)
Zone 2 (negative blue) = Feeling depression (setting 4) coupled
with pessimistic thinking (5) lead to self-destructive behavior (6).
Zone 3 (positive blue) = Feeling self-mastery and self-satisfaction
(setting 7) coupled with optimistic thinking (8) lead to self-enhancing
behavior (9).
Zone 4 (positive red) = Feeling resolve or zeal or compassion
(setting 10) coupled with emotionally intelligent thinking (11) lead to
supportive and constructive behavior (12).
12 Settings: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15reports-instructions.html#summary
Setting 1:
Negative red feeling – the desire to hurt someone or to destroy something,
feelings of anger or rage.
Setting 2: Negative red thinking – negative thinking such as
biased, inaccurate and irrational thoughts.
Setting 3: Negative red doing – to actually take action on a
negative behavior you need to have feelings of anger (setting 1) and negative
thoughts (setting 2, depending on the situation.
Setting 4: Negative blue feeling – negative emotional lifestyle we
have towards ourselves.
Setting 5: Negative blue thinking – negative
thoughts about ourselves or toward are characteristically pessimistic or
cynical.
Setting 6: Negative blue doing – negative
feeling and thinking that results in self-destructive behavior.
Here we are crossing over into
positive territory on the daily emotional spin cycle.
Setting 7: Positive blue feeling – here we
feel positive feelings towards self typically includes the feelings of
self-satisfaction, self-mastery and the desire to enhance our potential.
Setting 8: Positive blue thinking – our thinking is optimistic as
well as realistic.
Setting 9: Positive blue doing – to take action one needs to
experience the feeling and doing of their positive behavior that includes
self-enhancing behaviors.
Setting 10: Positive red feeling – this setting is a substitute for
negative red feelings; the two main categories are zeal and compassion which
could be related to an intense motivation for either protecting something
valuable or feeling strongly about a cause or principal.
Setting 11: Positive red thinking – this setting is the opposite of
negative red thinking; both cannot be in our minds at the same time, we can use
positive red thinking to modify our negative red thinking.
Setting 12: Positive red doing – the last setting we experience on
the daily emotional spin cycle; again this setting cannot act without setting
10 and 11, the positive red feeling and thinking.
Below is a diagram of the Daily Emotional Spin Cycle constructed by
Dr. Leon James that is pictured more in detail with all 4 zones and 12
settings.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15reports-instructions.html#summary
The society has not yet been introduced to the emotional spin cycle. I believe that 95% of society today are not aware of their emotions and therefore once in that red zone of rage or depression it is very difficult to get out and the other 5% that are aware of their negative behaviors are educated in being able to change toward the positive zone.
If you take a look at the depression survey given by Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl, at http://www.aloha.net/~dyc/rage-results.html, you can see from the 1200 people that filled out their questionnaire being of different genders and age groups there is a significant difference in particular setting within the emotional spin cycle. This particular survey though has high marks in the negative red zone because the survey was conducted during the time of the September 11, 2001 tragedy.
Sadly, Dr. James reports today as being the Age of Rage. If you visit the web site
http://www.aloha.net/~dyc/rage.html,
there is a whole section on how the media news, and related articles express
that rage in society. Here are just a
few examples. Cell phone rage is just
another thing that will keep you distracted and will lead you into an
aggressive state of driving, visit http://www.aloha.net/~dyc/distracted.html
for more on this topic. Shopper’s rage
can increase especially around this time of the year, the holiday season. Some shoppers take shopping to the extreme
where they eventually let their negative feelings, and thoughts over power them
and result an action that is destrucful.
On more information on this media rage visit http://www.aloha.net/~dyc/shopper.html.
I expect the future to be a more
rage free future, depending upon the education of the society on this different
view on our emotions the Daily Emotional Spin Cycle. I think the emotional spin cycle should be introduced to schools
nation wide and maybe even farther world wide, so that everyone can grasp this
new view on becoming aware of our emotions especially our negative one’s so
that we can slowly, but surely change them into positive feelings, thinking and
doing to better ourselves and the society.
All three levels of the three-fold self, affective,
cognitive and sensori-motor that take part in three steps in this data is known
as the three-step method that bridges this analysis together. Step 1 is to first acknowledge that I have
experienced a rage behavior, the witnessing.
This is noticeable in a few seconds, but without step 1, step 2 and 3 it
is impossible to go on. Step 2 is to
witness each element within the emotional spin cycle affective, cognitive and
sensori-motor. Each takes a few seconds
to minutes to become aware of. And Step
3 is to modify or change each element of affective, cognitive, and
sensori-motor toward the positive instead of the negative. Bridging is used as part of the sampling method during the week 2
of my data analysis to change to the positive behavior. After performing the three-step method, a
bridge is used to change one from a negative feeling to a positive
feeling. Bridges are identified as red
or blue, and can be defined shortly, with any self-regulatory sentences or
personal tune that are noted down. The
bridge is basically changing the threefold self from a negative to a positive
state and this you will see in my data collection and analysis. With this information we then move into my data collection
and analysis.
DATA COLLECTION
AND ANALYSIS
For two weeks I monitored my emotional spin cycle. I witnessed the affective self (feeling in a certain way or wanting something), my cognitive self (thinking sentences to myself and what they are), and my sensori-motor (what my sensate in the body, how I appear to others, what I act out, what I say). The way I conducted my sampling technique was I used an observing method of myself, where I observed my negative behavior for a week and listed down the affective (feeling), cognitive (thinking) and sensori-motor (doing) of each episode. I tried to modify my behavior of week one by doing it on the same day of week two, but everyday is a different day with different behaviors to encounter so some changes were done on different days of the week. Some days I did not experience any negative behaviors, therefore my observations were difficult to keep track off and may even result in errors due to differential daily emotional spin cycles.
Self-witnessing – in plain text
Intervention and background – in bold
|
SELF WITNESSING November 18, 2001 - November 28, 2001 November 18, 2001 Place: Home, Makiki, Honolulu Time of Day: around 11:00 a.m. Bridging – Blue and Red bridge
negative: Usually mornings that I do
not have school or usually on the weekends I wake up late and feel so lazy
and do not want do anything. Sometimes
I even take it out on my boyfriend and my parents when they call me. I don’t mean to be so mean, sometimes I
feel it could be something in me chemically that is causing me to feel this
way. I feel at times that everyone
around me is wrong and I am right and everyone should just leave me
alone. Affective: lazy, sad, grouchy Cognitive: “Why do I feel so tired and lazy in the
morning”, “Do I need to get up”. Sensori-motor: Stayed in bed and took it out on my
boyfriend. November 25, 2001 Place: Home, Makiki, Honolulu Time of Day: around 11:00 a.m. Intervention- Bridging – Blue and Red Bridge
positive
Instead of waking up lazy and grouchy, I tried to think of something very positive like I’m lucky to be here in this world still with my great boyfriend and dog. With a nice place to live. A roof over my head and food to eat. Affective: Happy, but lazy Cognitive:
“I’m lucky to have a great boyfriend, dog and place to live”.
Sensori-motor: I tried not to take out on my boyfriend,
and eventually got of that lazy mode and put my brain to work on this report. November 19, 2001 Place: U.H. Manoa, Spalding Time of Day: 8:30 a.m. Bridging – Red Bridge
negative: This semester every Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday I have this teacher for language that always gets me so
frustrated and mad. When she speaks
in class she only speaks to a certain portion of the class at a time so then
others have to ask her what is going on after she had already said it or
explained it. She then gets upset
with us. She also forgets that she
says things sometimes and during exams she never gives us enough time. Affective: frustrated Cognitive: “Why is our teacher so lost”, Does she
know what she is doing” Sensori-motor: Didn’t listen in the class, did other
homework. November 26, 2001
Place: U.H. Manoa Time of Day: 8:30 a.m. Intervention: Bridging – Red Bridge
negative (Ineffective)
Usually every class period for this particular course I get so frustrated with the teacher because I can’t understand her at times. She always lectures to parts of the class so just a small section can hear at times instead of the entire class. To change my feelings, thoughts and actions I tired to understand her point of view of the way she teaches and even tired to examine the class to see if it was because of the class she does that. My results were that it was paritially the classes’ fault because of a lot of my class mates were talking during lectures. And the other part the teachers fault because she never puts her foot down to tell them to be quiet. Affective: frustrated, because of students talking
and at teacher not doing anything about it. Cognitive: “I wish she would say something to the
students that are talking”; “I wish they would be quiet”. Sensori-motor: I tried to pay attention, but ended up
doing the same act of doing something else during class time in the that
particular class. November 20, 2001 Place: Maryknoll School Time of Day: 2:30 p.m. Bridging – Red Bridge
negative: When this year began at
work I was placed in Pre-K because I was told that by law if there is more
than 10 children in that Pre-K group you need two leaders supervising. Once and a while one of my supervisors
keeps on pulling me out of Pre-K and sticking me with other groups, I
sometimes get frustrated and mad that it sometimes affect my work. But I shortly realized I shouldn’t be
mad as you will in my intervention. Affective: mad Cognitive: “Why does she have to stick me all over
there is other leaders that can take a group”. Sensori-motor: Was not too happy and took some of my
frustrations out on the kids. November 27, 2001 Place: Maryknoll SchoolTime of Day: 2:30 p.m. Intervention:
Bridging – Red Bridge positive
At my workplace I am an after school care leader, but I do not have my own group so I am suppose to be a floater. But, since the beginning of the semester I’ve been placed in the Pre-K group because it is the law to have two leaders in Pre-K if they’re 10 children or more. Sometimes the co-administrator for the after school care pulls me out and places me in other groups and I get upset. I soon figured out that sometimes they are short handed and they need my help and it is my job to help when I can. Affective: Neutral feeling, acceptance of having to
take other groups. Cognitive: “I understand when others are absent I
need to take on their group”, “I understand I am still a floater and at times
I have to leave the Pre-K group”. Sensori-motor: Accepted in a positive way when asked to
take another group because that is part of my job description.
November 21, 2001 Place: Home, Makiki, Honolulu Time of Day: 7:00 a.m. Bridging – Blue Bridge negative:
Mostly every night I know I have to get my things ready for the next day, but
usually I don’t. So in the morning I
pay the consequences. I get mad at my
boyfriend, at myself and just get into this pissed off mood. Affective: frustrated Cognitive: “I should have packed and gotten my
things together the night before”. Sensori-motor: Throw things around; take it out on my
boyfriend. November 28, 2001 Place: Home, Makiki, Honolulu Time of Day: around 7:00 a.m. Intervention: Bridging- Blue Bridge positive: Usually in the morning is when I get my things together and it is not particularly to go on a trip but every morning to get ready to go to school. This particular morning I decided to change my style and get my things ready the night before so I didn’t have to deal with it in the morning and rush around like a chicken without a head on. Affective: Happy, satisfied Cognitive: “I feel so much stress lifted off my shoulders”, “I glad I decided to change this behavior”. Sensori-motor: Didn’t go to school with a bad attitude,
didn’t take anything out on my boyfriend.
November 23, 2001 Place: Home, Kahului, Maui airport Time of Day: 10:00 a.m. Bridging – Blue Bridge
negative: When my boyfriend has to
work on weekends and holidays it makes me really sad and depressed. I wish he could stay with me, especially
on the holidays because I really miss him.
(Being that we are from another island) Affective: Sad Cognitive: “Why does he always have to work on the
holidays I want him to stay”. Sensori-motor: Cry November 24, 2001 Place: Home, Makiki, Honolulu Time of Day: around 9:00 a.m. Intervention: Bridging – Blue Bridge positive: I always feel this overwhelming feeling of
sadness when my boyfriend has to leave me and go back to work or just work
the entire weekend in general because I feel I am not spending any time with
him. So instead of thinking of
negative things when he goes to work I started to think of the positive. Like he has to make money for us to
survive and have all these nice things.
And one day it will be different.
He loves me that is why he is working so hard. Affective: Happy, satisfied Cognitive: “I need to accept that he has to go to
work to make money so we can live and have all the things we have now”. Sensori-motor: Didn’t take any frustrations out on my
boyfriend, not becoming upset when he has to go to work. |
To rate
my emotions I placed it in a Global Ratings scale given in Dr. Leon James
instructions. At the end of each day I
rated my feelings, thinking and doing, 1 being very weak, very ineffectual,
little hope and almost no negativity or selfishness observed to 10 being
extreme, extremely effective, extremely hopeful and bright, and extremely
strong negative or selfish behavior observed by asking myself these 6
questions:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15reports-instructions.html#summary
_____ 1)
What was my strongest stress point today: (1=very weak; 10=extreme)
_____
2) What was my strongest level of satisfaction with myself today: (1=very weak;
10=extreme)
_____
3) What was my best level of effectiveness or productivity today: (1=very
weak; 10=extreme)
_____
4) What was my best level of coping successfully with my feelings today:
(1=very ineffectual; 10=extremely effective)
_____
5) What is your current level of hope for the future: (1=little hope or
brightness; 10=extremely hopeful and bright)
_____
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)
By collecting
these numbers at the end of each day I will be able to use a global assessment
comparison between week 1 and week 2.
*Questions – (plain text) Negative self-witnessing – (bold text) Intervention
Table- 1
|
|
Ratings of Affective, Cognitive and Sensori-motor |
|
November 18 – November 25 |
* 1- Rate 7 à 2 * 2 – Rate 4 à 7 * 3 – Rate 2 à 8 * 4 – Rate 4 à 7 * 5 – Rate 4 à 8 * 6 – Rate 6 à 8 |
|
November 19 – November 26 |
* 1 – Rate 5 à 7 * 2- Rate 6 à 9 * 3 – Rate 2 à 3 * 4 – Rate 3 à 5 * 5 – Rate 4 à 6 * 6 – Rate 5 à 8 |
|
November 20 – November 27 |
* 1 – Rate 4 à 2 * 2 – Rate 7 à 9 * 3 – Rate 4 à 9 * 4 – Rate 3 à 9 * 5 – Rate 6 à 10 * 6 – Rate 7 à 2 |
|
November 21 – November 28 |
* 1 – Rate 8 à 2 * 2 – Rate 2 à 8 * 3 – Rate 3 à 9 * 4 – Rate 4 à 9 * 5 – Rate 4 à 10 * 6 – Rate 5 à 1 |
|
November 23 – November 24 |
* 1 – Rate 5 à 2 * 2 – Rate 2 à 8 * 3 – Rate 1 à 8 * 4 – Rate 3 à 9 * 5 – Rate 7 à 10 * 6 – Rate 6 à 2 |
DISCUSSION
As you can see in my Global Ratings,
Table - 1 the intervention ratings 9 and 10 were not used. That is because I never reached to the
extreme level of stress, satisfaction with myself and effectiveness or
productivity. Nor did I reach the
extreme effectiveness of coping successfully, extremely hopeful and bright views
of the future or extremely strong negative or selfish behavior observed. I was not able to modify my behavior to the
maximum capacity from the negative red zone to the positive blue zone of the
emotional spin cycle.
The emotional spin cycle is made up
of feelings, thinking and doing (affective, cognitive, and sensori-motor). I define feelings as actions that are acted upon our
emotions. Four out of five
self-witnessing episodes were based on zone 1, in the rage, red zone of the
daily emotional spin cycle, just by taking a look at my feelings. One out of five was based on zone 4 where I
was feeling sorry for myself, depression.
The cognitive is the thinking part, where I define it as emotion, a sensation that one feels when they get angry,
sad, happy, excited, etc. and is followed by a reaction. The thinking that I did throughout my
self-witnessing week, were all in the negative. And the sensori-motor or the doing is taking action upon the way
I feel. All three parts are referred to
as the Three-fold self imbedded into the emotional spin cycle. This particular part of my analysis lead to
really being aware of what happens when I get in that red rage zone, being that
your actions is usually the first thing you notice and others notice as well when
one feels either good or bad.
Looking back on my data analysis I
neutrally stayed within the red negative zone during my first week of
self-witnessing of my negative emotions.
I went through the affective (feeling), cognitive (thinking), and sensori-motor
(doing). Then during my second week of
modifying my behavior to the blue positive zone I again witnessed my affective,
cognitive and sensori-motor while modifying my behavior from negative to a
positive. Which brings us back to look
at the daily emotional spin cycle.
With my self-witnessing and
intervention process I jumped from being in different zones feeling different
emotions against myself or others. This
cycle should be learned by all and embedded into ourselves so that we can
better know the way we feel, think and act upon that feeling. By learning this daily emotional spin-cycle
we all can better ourselves and people and have a more understanding
environment.
CONCLUSION
Throughout this report I couldn’t
help to wonder if this modifying of my negative behavior to positive behavior
was going to work and stay in a permanent atmosphere. I fear for the worse that this modification will not last for
long. However, this self-witnessing
project is a very good way to have those who are willing to change for the good
of themselves. I feel that this concept
of the emotional spin cycle and this project of witnessing our own negative
emotions to try to change them towards the positive should be introduced to
many other schools nation wide, maybe even world wide. Who knows if individuals take a hold of
their own emotions and come aware of them they could better relate to others
around them in a more, caring, sensitive, understanding manner. Also data collected could possibly cause in
error in the way I interpreted my negative episodes because within the
instructions it asks for a negative episode three time a day morning, afternoon
and evening. But, fortunately, I did
not experience a negative episode every day so therefore my data is not
completed to its full extent.
REFERENCES
Link to Report instructions: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15report2.html
Information on the Emotional Spin Cycle, the Age of Rage, and rage in the media: http://www.aloha.net/~dyc/rage-results.html
4 Zones and 12 Setting of the Emotional Spin Cycle: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15reports-instructions.html#summary
6 Questions to Global Rating: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy15/g15reports-instructions.html#summary