Emotionalives

Emotional Lives or Emotional Ives?

[emotionalives]

February 2, 2014- Emotion

Even though I only spent 3 short days in Japan, I had a very eventful trip which mostly consisted of emerging myself into the food aspect of the culture in Japan.  Without really an itinerary, my family and I basically hopped onto the subway and got of where the crowd off to see where it would bring us. Interestingly, I witnessed what’s called the display rules while a couple had what seemed to look like an argument. This is the acceptable ways of displaying emotions in a particular society. Neither the man nor the woman seemed more aggressive. Similar in most Asian cultures, everyone is taught to be polite and control their emotions, as opposed to Western cultures in which it is encouraged to express feelings openly. I later found out with more research that neither sex is more expressive overall, and culture is the biggest factor in emotional expressions. I found this really interesting because I can really relate to this as I grew up in the Chinese culture, where I wasn’t encouraged to voice out my opinions especially around elders. I also remember seeing a spider half the size of my palm a few centimeters away from me while I was showering one night. I screamed and wrapped myself in a towel and ran out. I then sat on my bed shivering even after I knew I wasn’t in danger anymore. This irrational fear suggests that I hold two conflicting mindsets, caused by two distinct emotion processing systems in the brain: one that operates on an unconscious level and the other operates at a conscious level. The system working at an unconscious level is connected to implicit memory is also known as a fast response system, where it quickly identifies incoming stimuli and helps us get ready to respond quickly before it reaches consciousness. This can easily cause emotional responses through classical conditioning, which could be easily forgotten too. The other level of processing that involves conscious processing is linked to explicit memory. This generates emotions more slowly, and it brings more complete information to consciousness. It also relies heavily on the cerebral cortex, making it possible to view events differently from the unconscious processing system.

On a more biological level, both of these reply on the limbic system, the layer above the brain stem. This evolved as our “fight-or-flight” response to emergency situations. The reticular information, located in the brain stem, is the brain’s built-in alarm system for danger; if threat is detected, the reticular information sends automatic responses to do many things such as accelerating the heart rate and increase respiration. This explains why I ran out of the shower when I saw the spider. The types of hormones that were in charge of how I was feeling were epinephrine (fear), and norepinephrine (danger). 

[emotionalives]

February 11, 2014- How and why do we experience stress?

Yesterday, I was watching a program called “I shouldn't be alive”. The show interviews individuals who were in life threatening situations where the chances that they come out of their ordeals alive were very low. A recurring theme among a lot of the individuals is how their bodies reacted to the idea of the situation they were in. Some of the individuals panicked and some were in shock. For instance, there are situations where the individuals are confronted with a stressor (stressful stimulus) such as a wild animal or a particular environment. Once the person is exposed to the stressor, their body reacts through increasing heart rates and a higher blood pressure. These can trigger behavioral responses or even physiological responses. In most cases, when the people in the show realize the situation they are in, they go into a state of shock. Their own situation becomes a traumatic stressor, which makes them feel scared or helpless. What is interesting however, is that every subject talks about how they managed to control their stress levels and be able to act on the situation. The show compares what the people did in reality compared to what they would have done if they had given in. In some parts of the show, the narrator explains how the peoples bodies are reacting to certain situations by explaining it biologically. For example. when a subject immediately is exposed to a wild animal (such as a bear), they immediately run, because we are naturally wired to be afraid of bears. This action turned on the person because the bear actually chased down the person and then mauled her. Despite the fact that the people who went through these situations are willing to share their experiences on television, some of them are still going through physical or psychological therapy. Due to the nature of their incidents (such as getting mauled by a bear), some of the people develop disorders such as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). PTSD is very common among soldiers who have just come back to deployment because the contrast between “the army life” and their civilian lives are so different, that they ponder upon certain situations that they went through while deployed and develop PTSD.

[emotionalives]

January 25, 2014- The Dole Plantation

[emotionalives]

February 1, 2014- The Haleakala Sunrise

[emotionalives]

February 1, 2014- Haleakala Sunrise

Today is the day that I have been looking forward to since we arrived in Maui. I didn’t know about what my brother- in law had planned for us until I arrived so I hadn’t had the chance to prepare any warm clothing or any footwear other than flipflops.  

Today, we all got up at 4 AM and drove an hour or so to the Haleakala Summit, which has an elevation of 10,023 ft. This is tallest peak of Haleakala, the volcano that covers most of the island of Maui. Cars and cars filled the parking lots. Even more people, wrapped tightly in blankets, and wearing thick clothing, stood at the edge, anticipating the sunrise. Most people, including my sister, her husband, and I, were there waiting 30 minutes prior to the time that the sun was expected to rise. My mom and my grandma thought it was too cold for them. They had a need to stay warm and maintain the body’s homeostasis, so this created a drive for them to just stay in the car the whole time.

It was below freezing and we stood there shivering in our thin jackets and bared feet. My toes started getting redder and redder, and I thought that they were going to fall off.  My hair was wet in a few minutes time because of the clouds and my brother- in law’s long eyelashes started to look like tiny icicles. I don’t remember being this excited in a long time as I was this morning.  

This experience today reminded me of the theory of a hierarchy of needs that I have heard about before. At the bottom of the hierarchy are our biological needs and it moves to safety, attachment, esteem and lastly, self- actualization. This theory explained how basic needs such as hunger and thirst must first be satisfied in order for us to go on, satisfying our other needs. If that was true, then it didn’t make sense why any of the people there today, including myself, would happily and excitedly brave the cold just to see the sunrise. This means that Maslow’s humanistic theory does not explain why sometimes, humans act in ways that obviously override our most basic needs, such as safety. On the other hand, it does explain why my mom and my grandma chose to stay in the car instead of stand outside in the cold weather. The drive theory also explains why they chose to stay in the car until they were no longer cold.

Drive theory: theory that a biological need creates a drive- which is seen as an urge or motivated state of tension directed at meeting that need. 

Homeostasis: the body's tendency to maintain a biologically balanced condition (eg. temperature)

Drive reduction: process in which we are motivated to act to reduce the drive level 

Hierarchy of needs: (Maslow's theory)- the notion that needs occur in priority order, with the biological needs as the most basic. 

[emotionalives]

January 25, 2014- The Dole Plantation

Today, we drove all the way from downtown Honolulu to North Shore to visit the Dole Plantation. I got the chance to learn about James Drummond Dole, the man often known as the “Pineapple King.” When we graduated from college, he received $50 as a gift. It is said that he has internal locus of control because he believed in saving money. When he earned enough in addition that $50, he moved to Hawaii and bought 61- acre land, which eventually became a large plantation growing mainly pineapple but also sugarcane, banana and other exotic fruits.

Going there and learning about Mr. James Dole made me think, “Why do we do what we do?” Why did James Dole choose to leave behind his familiar life to move to Hawaii? Being a Harvard graduate, why did he choose to dive into the uncertainty of a business that did not guarantee success? Was he motivated by the money he thought he could earn or by some other source of motivation?

As the tour went on, I learned that James Dole chose to move to Hawaii and purchased a piece of land because he strongly believed that Hawaii could play a huge role in the growth of agriculture around America at that time.

It was not any external factors such as money that truly motivated him but his inner belief that Hawaii was a land filled with opportunities and potential for development. I learned today that often times if not all the time, intrinsic motivation trumps extrinsic motivation and is much more powerful.

[emotionalives]

January 3, 2014- Angela's After School Routine

[emotionalives]

January 3, 2014- Typical After School Routine

After a long and tiring day at school, I finally got home- free to do anything I want. With an entire night of freedom ahead, I began to plan out what I wanted to do and achieve before the next day. Although I had a shockingly large amount of work to get done, I also wanted to relax and spend time surfing the internet. After a long consideration, I decided to spend my entire night studying. My motivation to achieve success in my academics was built on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. I wanted to receive recognition and praise from my friends, teachers, and parents. At the same time, I yearned for the intrinsic satisfaction that came with accomplishing goals and overcoming challenges. Although I tried to approach my schoolwork with high need for achievement, sometimes I do fall in the trap of working in the mode of low need for achievement. My need for achievement is a mode or state that causes me to work and attain a goal. In this case, my high need for achievement was to excel in my courses by sacrificing my social time to study, becoming interested in and dedicated to the classes, and trying my best to overcome challenges. However, when classes got harder and the work load became overwhelming, I often held a low need for achievement. I finished the homework because my parents expected me to do so and would punish me if I didn’t.  

In an hour, I finished my psychology homework and spent some time studying for the upcoming test. To take a quick break from studying, I took some time to jot down my upcoming events on my planner so that I wouldn’t miss any important due dates or activities. It was then that I realized that I had overbooked my Saturday night. I had agreed to hang out, eat dinner, and watch the school basketball game with a friend of mine. However, I was also invited to a birthday party that night. I experienced the approach-approach conflict as I really wanted to go to both activities, but it was impossible. I was forced to choose between two equally attractive options and after a long time of considering, I decided to flip a coin to decide which event I would attend. Now that I finished my psychology homework, I moved on to the next subject. I was stumbled upon the avoidance-avoidance conflict because I had to choose between doing my history or English homework next.  To be honest, I detested both subjects equally and did not want to do the homework for both subjects. Since the two options were equally unattractive, I flipped the coin again to make the choice.

As the sky darkened and time approached 6 pm, I became hungry and went to the dining room to eat. Merely the sight of the clock point to 6 pm made me hungry. Over time, I learned to associate certain situations and time periods to eating. I experienced the multiple-systems approach to hunger, in which the brain assembled the different information, such as internal cues, biological based food preferences, and environmental factors, to send signals to start food-seeking. My feeling of hunger came from the low sugar level in my blood that caused receptors in the brain to send signals of hunger to my lateral hypothalamus. Then, a homeostatic process began as my body sends “reports” of my body fat and weight to the central nervous system. Once my fat cells fell below the set point, which is the body’s tendency to maintain a specific level of body fat and weight, my eating behavior was triggered. After consuming my dinner, I began change from having an empty stomach to feeling full. The pressure detectors in my stomach sent signals of emptiness or fullness to my brain. In addition, I was influenced by my biological preferences for sweet and high-fat foods. This explains why I ate more junk food and desserts than vegetables and soup.

After finishing my dinner, I struggled to decide whether or not I should continue to work on my schoolwork or practice my violin. I was caught in an approach-avoidance conflict as choosing to practice the violin instead of doing homework both attracted and repelled me. If I chose to practice my violin, I would improve my skills and would be better prepared for the competition coming up. However, I would also lose valuable time that I needed to finish my homework. At the end, I decided to sacrifice my valuable time to practice the violin as I was driven by a high need for achievement. I wanted to be able to become a better violinist and to use my interest in music to achieve my goals.

Being driven by different motivational factors, I was able to accomplish my goals and finish my school work as well as practice the violin.