Customizing My
Emotional Spin Cycle:
Data Analysis
Psych 459—Fall
2001—G 15
Dr. Leon James,
Instructor
By: Tabatha Sweet
December 6, 2001
Customizing the emotional spin cycle is a process that allows for observation and changes to be made to your emotional well-being. The goal is to first learn about what emotions, feelings, the threefold self and hierarchy of motives is and then be able to apply them to your life. In report one I provided brief definitions of each term and then provided examples of each term to help you better understand what each one means. Please feel free to read report one because it will help you identify where you might be having difficulties in controlling your negative behaviors. The first step in changing an unwanted behavior is to recognize that there is a problem and then you must understand what that problem is. You have to know what an emotion is and it effects your every day life before you can expect to change the negative behavior to a positive behavior.
Emotions are intense feelings, which can be effected
by age, gender, and/or the environment that one lives in. Everyone has
emotional needs that need to be met in order to live a more satisfying life
style.
Feelings are the gateway for emotions. Feelings can influence behavior and when you
change the way you feel, you change the way you think.
The threefold self consists of affective behavior,
cognitive domain, and sensori-motors. I
have already mentioned that affective deals with feelings, while cognitive is
how you think or process information and sensori-motor is the action that is
taken after the thought.
Hierarchy of
motives is broken down into emotions, feelings and values. Emotions are a signal when something is
right or wrong, and you express emotions through feelings, so if you have a
negative feeling you are expressing a negative emotion felt inside. Valuing something is considered an act of
expressing ones feelings. Forming values, is placing a “standard or norm” on
ones world. The goal of this study is
to create positive values, emotions and behaviors and in return live a more
satisfying and less stressful life style.
In report two I am applying these terms to my own life and learning how to “bridge over” or change my negative views about certain events into a more positive view. For example, I have trouble keeping a positive behavior while driving and through this exercise I have learned to take control of my emotions and not allow other drivers and their actions to affect my behavior. This is not an easy challenge and I encourage everyone to take two weeks and analyze what makes you express negative behaviors.
Through completing this report I was required to take two weeks of data about what makes me experience negative behaviors. The first week I wrote three times a day about an intense feeling that I had, may it be a really negative feeling or behavior and/or a positive feeling and behavior. The second week I again wrote three times a day about how I challenged myself to “bridge over” from the negative feelings to a more positive behavior. For example:
September 20, 2001
8:30 am
I was heading to school when this car cutes
me off and then drives slow in the left lane.
Why in the world does this need to happen to me on a regular bases. Does this guy not realize that he just cut
me off and is now going slow? This is
why Hawaii has such bad traffic.
October 1, 2001 1:46 p.m
This is my time of traveling on the highway,
back from classes. I take into
consideration what traffic will be like when I make my schedule every
semester. I am driving a long trying
to pick up my daughter and once again I get cut off by this young guy in a
sports car, he must think that where ever he needs to be is more important than
where I need to be so we will just let him drive off. I am trying to change the negative thoughts that I have while
driving to a more positive view.
I want to yell and honk my horn at him but I am realizing that by acting
aggressive, it really does not get me anywhere.
The two examples that I gave above are entries in my daily journal. The first week that I wrote in my journal I found myself very angry at little things that kept happening through out my day. By the time I was writing the second week, I found that when I made the effort to control my thoughts and behaviors, it did make a difference. I was happier over all and had less stress in my daily routine. We get into a set routine and when the slightest change occurs we or at least I, found myself angry. I was saying things like, “ who do they think they are” or “ here I am going through my day not effecting anyone and here he/she is just messing up my day”. I came to realize that I was giving the other person more power then they deserve, no one can roughen my day besides me. We decide what affects us and what we ignore. The challenge is to stop yourself from getting angry and start thinking rationally. This process is very hard for people to accomplish, because it takes less of our time and energy to just lash out where as stopping, observing, and acting appropriately takes much more time and energy. Another reason why people might not want to take the time to change their negative behavior is because they get something out of acting aggressively. For example, driving with road rage might make a person feel in control of the road, they might need to feel powerful because that might be the only place they can feel in charge of the situation. So if there is a negative behavior that you are having trouble changing, stop and ask yourself if you are getting something out of being angry, in control and aggressive. If it is a power trip then there might be other reasons or emotions you are not addressing.
Now that people are living longer and the interest in education is increasing among the ‘Western” society, people are going to be able to control their emotional spin cycle better. Uneducated people have no alternatives and seem to have difficulties manipulating their emotions to fit a situation. The reason could be that they were not taught how to control their behaviors or emotions and do not realize that the behavior is inappropriate. Through analyzing and understanding what emotions are made up of and where they come from, it gives the person a sense of power/ higher self-esteem. I feel that society is becoming aware of the need to not only educate children about physical health but also mental health. Teaching the newer generations that emotional well being is very important to all aspects of their journey in life. Parents need to give affection towards their children and praise them for the great things they accomplish in life. This will make the child better at dealing with outer and inner conflicts. The child might be better equipped to “bridge over” from the “negative red zone” to a more “positive red zone”.
Diagram provided by Dr. Leon James.
Basically what this diagram is trying to prevail is that there are three stages in every zone. The three stages are feeling, then thinking, and then doing. This means that first you will feel the emotion and then you will think about that emotion, how is it making you feel or not feel. Then finally you will act capon that emotion. For example, you are driving in the car and some one cuts you off, first you will feel the anger form, then you will think about what you can do to act on the anger and finally if it gets that far you will honk your horn, yell at them and then cut them back off.
The four zones are broken down into, zone one, being negative feelings towards others, zone two, is negative feelings towards yourself, zone three, is positive feelings for yourself and then zone four is positive feelings towards others. The goal is for you to analyze yourself and find where you have negative feelings and try to “bridge over” to a more positive perspective. Example, you felt angry that this person cut you off, but instead of thinking about what you can do to get back at them, instead you just “blow it off” and say, “ that person must be in a hurry” and continue with your day. This process allows for you to have more control over your emotions and behaviors, and will reduce the stress level in your life. I believe that the message is getting out to society that we need to deal with the emotions that arise in our daily life otherwise it may effect how long and how healthy we live the rest of our life. Don’t get me wrong; I still think we have a long ways to go before everyone realizes that emotion is a key element to a long, healthy life.
This is an article that I found on the Internet, similar to the diagram that Dr, James created, for us to better understand ourselves. Please go and enjoy this web page because it gives get explanations on why we feel certain things and what emotions do for our mental health.
The Daily Wheel
These phases do not always take days, weeks, or even months to occur. They happen daily, sometimes within a span of hours or minutes. To see the wheel in action, we only have to observe ourselves on an ordinary day. It may begin well enough. We are in good spirits at the top of the wheel but once caught in the traffic jam on the way to work the wheel turns. We fall into stress, frustration, and anger. Arriving at work only few negative comments from the boss regarding our job performance and we are in a state of suffering imagining our termination in the current company downsize. Soon, however, an associate praises our efforts on a recent project and spirits of hopeful expectation rise and soar towards happiness. This cycle continues several times over the course of any typical day. It may be intensified into longer periods of days, weeks, and in which we stay at one position awaiting the turning of the wheel. The wheel seems stuck, especially, if we are at loss or suffering.
This is the diagram that the article gives to help us better understand how in a single day we will experience different emotions because of other people’s actions around us.
A researcher observed a
young butterfly’s exertion and struggle to get out of its cocoon. He thought he
would help and used a scalpel to make a small slit in the cocoon, thus easing
the butterfly’s task. Soon, however, he discovered the butterfly could not fly;
its wings had not been strengthened through the effort of escape. The butterfly
died because it was not strong enough to become airborne.
In a similar manner the struggle and suffering we encounter in life can be strengthening. If it is avoided then our lives may lack the strength and resolve needed to seek and engage transformation. Psychological and spiritual growth is always difficult. It is like the birth process in which something new comes into existence. A new level of maturity is brought into being. Birth involves struggle and with struggle comes not only suffering but also strength.
Which emotions cause people to act?
This next article believes that there are certain emotions that cause us to act certain ways and when you recognize these four emotions then you can change them to better your life.
THE FOUR EMOTIONS THAT CAN LEAD TO LIFE CHANGE
(Excerpted
from Seven Strategies for Wealth and Happiness)
Emotions are the most powerful forces inside us.
Under the power of emotions, human beings can perform the most heroic (as well
as barbaric) acts. To a great degree, civilization itself can be defined as the
intelligent channeling of human emotion. Emotions are fuel and the mind is the
pilot, which together propel the ship of civilized progress.
Which emotions cause people to act? There are four basic ones; each, or a
combination of several, can trigger the most incredible activity. The day that
you allow these emotions to fuel your desire is the day you'll turn your life
around.
This article is talking about the four emotions felt when there is a time in our lives that needs changing. First you will feel Disgust, and that is when you just say, “enough is enough”. This might be when you say to yourself while driving home in traffic that you have had enough with the stress that traffic gives you. You tell yourself that it is time for a change because adding anger and stress to your life because of traffic is not worth your time or energy. Second, you will make a decision, a decision to stop getting angry when someone cuts you off, because you cannot control or change the situation or the other driver so why let them get the best of you. Third, you will desire, “desire comes from within and can get effected by outside forces”. This is the desire to want the change in your behavior while driving in traffic. Your desire might be fueled by, your child saying to you when you get home, “mom why are you so mad at me when you get home?” The truth is, you are not mad at your child, but rather, you are mad at the traffic and stressed out. Fourth is Resolve, which is the motivation to make the change, no matter how hard it may be. Resolve is forcing your self to keep calm while in traffic; even though it takes less energy to just get angry then it does to keep a “level head”.
The Threestep Method is designed to help you observe your daily emotional spin cycle by going through these three steps. First is to acknowledge that there is a negative emotion and that you need to take control over it. Second, is to witness the actions or thoughts that are present because of the negative emotions and third is to modify your behavior from a negative emotion and action to a more positive emotion and action. When you realize that there is a need for change and start to make a conscious decision to change the unwanted behavior then essentially you are “bridging over”. There are two different types of bridging over, one is the “Red Bridge” and that entails that you tell yourself to “strengthen your determination” and do something constructive. The “Blue Bridge” is where you tell yourself to think more positively instead of in a pessimistic manner. The difference between the two is that the Red Bridge is action or motivation to do something, where Blue Bridge is more mental and changing your mind set.
1.
Step
1: I ACKNOWLEDGE that I need to gain
better control over my negative spin cycle.
2.
Step
2: I WITNESS my threefold self in the
negative spin cycle settings through objective self-monitoring or
self-observation methods of data collection.
3.
Step
3: I MODIFY my spin cycle in one selected
area, and then I start again with another area.
The report consisted of two weeks of data gathering. During the first week I took three written observations of when I felt angry with others or myself. Every day for a week I wrote down in a journal once in the morning, then mid-day and then at night. The difficulties that I had with writing three times a day was that usually the time that the incident happened and the time that I wrote it down there was a great deal of time between. If I would have recorded or written my feelings down right after the incident then I might have had stronger emotions but since there was time in between, I had time to calm myself down.
Week two was the “Bridging over” sampling and this brought its own difficulties for me. I had to consciously try to change my emotional out look and when I let the situation get the best of me, I found that I did not bridge over. This is a process that will take time to adapt to but once you change your state of mind you can benefit from this technique. I found that most of my journal entries were pertaining to traffic. I spend most of my day running from place to place and when I have things to get down my tolerance of other drivers decrease. The first time that I viewed the spin cycle in my daily routine was when I was rushing back from school heading to get my daughter from the babysitter and I was yelling at every car that I passed, tailgating, and then cutting them off like they were doing something wrong. These people were doing the speed limit and I was the one breaking the law and also yelling at them for doing the right thing. When I would get home my stress level was very high and I would be so ashamed of the way I acted on the road. What if my daughter was in the car and I was driving like that and got into an accident? I sat down and told myself that this must change and I needed to make a conscious decision to change my driving habits. My negative behavior while driving happened often, every day to school and every day coming home. There were days that other drivers did do something that made no sense and I would get angry, but most of the time the fault was all mine. Since I have made the decision to change my driving style, my stress level has decreased and I find myself enjoying the drive more. I just tell myself to relax and take a deep breath when another driver cuts me off and then slows down.
September 21st 3:40 pm
I don’t understand my there is so much traffic at this time. Why is everyone out of work? This island is too small and the highway is the only way to get anywhere. If something happens on this highway we are all in trouble because there is no other way home for most of us. People are out driving slow, and if there is anything in the road drivers start to slow down and that is what causes traffic. PEOPLE IT IS ONLY A PLASTIC BAG!!
September 25th 7:10 pm
I cannot stand stupid people. I was in Wal-Mart and the aisles are small enough that two carts can not go through at once, so what does this stupid lady do? She wants to talk on the phone in the middle of the aisle knowing that we are all trying to get around her. When I finally said something, she acted like she had no clue what was going on around her, but I know better then that. Why would you just stand in the middle of the aisle anyways?
September 29th noon
There is so much to do around this house and my husband seems to think it is all my reasonability. I am trying to be patience and let him do things on his own time but that will never happen. He says that I am nagging but in the real world I am just trying to get him to help out around the house every once in a while. He tells me that the weekend are to be used a relaxation time but he never wants to get things done during the week so when is it going to get done? When I do it myself! That is not why I got married!!!!
I am only giving a few samples of my data gathering for
each week!!
October 3rd 8:15 am
Here I go trying to take on the traffic without getting angry! This was hard to do but I made to class without stressing out and I feel much better about myself. The funny thing is, that I took my time this morning and let everyone drive crazy around me and it seemed like I got to class sooner then normal. Maybe that is just all in my head but the day was much nicer and I smiled more today.
October 6th 9:15 am
I wrote last week about how my husband does not help out around the house unless I “nag” him. So this weekend I am going to say nothing and see what happens. And as you can expect, he did not help out at all!! I thought that if he saw me doing the work then he would come help, NOT!! So I am still calm and I am going to sit down and talk to him when the time is right.
October 9th 8:00 pm
I sat down with my husband and talked about how he does not help out and that I wanted him to try to help out more. I stayed calm and did not yell so we will see next weekend if it made any difference.
Through taking the two-week data gathering I have learned a lot about myself. I carry an enormous mount of stress around about nothing. I am a perfectionist and by trying to get everything right and be everywhere at once, I am adding to the stress in my life. I have tried to stop myself from feeling negative about others and myself. If people do things that I don’t like or if they do things that I would not do, it is o.k. I should not worry about others as much as I do. I found that I was letting others effect my day and my mood. That is not fair to me or the other people around me.
By acknowledging that I have unwanted stress in my daily cycle and then wanting to change to a more positive daily cycle, I have seen a big difference. I sleep better now, knowing that if I did not get everything done in that day it will still be there for me tomorrow. I have less back pains because I am not carrying around excess stress and I am nicer to my husband because I realize that just because he does things differently it does not matter just as long as it gets done.
During the two weeks I rated myself on a point scale provided my Dr. James to get a better understand of how my emotional spin cycle has changed when I made an effort to control my negative behaviors.
In addition to the three descriptions mentioned above
regarding feeling, thinking, and doing, you need to collect Global Ratings once
at the end of each day:
_____ 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)
Results:
Week One
|
Date |
Stress |
Satisfaction with myself |
Effectiveness/ Productivity |
Coping successfully |
Level of hope for the future |
Selfishness of some other people |
|
9/20 |
7 |
4 |
8 |
4 |
7 |
5 |
|
9/21 |
5 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
|
9/22 |
8 |
3 |
8 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
|
9/23 |
8 |
4 |
7 |
2 |
6 |
5 |
|
9/24 |
5 |
6 |
8 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
|
9/25 |
6 |
7 |
9 |
4 |
6 |
5 |
|
9/26 |
7 |
4 |
9 |
3 |
7 |
5 |
Week Two
|
Date |
Stress |
Satisfaction with myself |
Effectiveness/ Productivity |
Coping successfully |
Level of hope for the future |
Selfishness of some other people |
|
9/29 |
3 |
8 |
9 |
9 |
8 |
2 |
|
10/1 |
4 |
8 |
9 |
9 |
7 |
1 |
|
10/2 |
5 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
8 |
2 |
|
10/3 |
1 |
7 |
7 |
6 |
9 |
1 |
|
10/4 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
3 |
|
10/5 |
3 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
8 |
2 |
|
10/6 |
3 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
8 |
2 |
**On
average if my stress levels were high then all the other categories were
effective in a negative way.
There is a negative behavior in everyone that needs to be changed. Try taking note of what fuels your negative behavior and challenge yourself to a two-week make over. This will change your quality of life because there will be improvements to your stress level and relationship that you have with other people. If you find yourself in a routine that is very boring but hard to break, try this method and see where you can “mix things up”. That way when something little happens throughout your day it will not affect you as personally. On average if my stress level was high then that meant that I was not making a conscious effort to control my negative behaviors.