Research Topics: Emotions

EMOTIONS

Emotion is any strong feeling about somebody or something. Everybody feels an emotion. The enigmatic nature of emotion may be one reason science has long neglected it. But there are other reasons as well. The way we normally know emotions is through feelings, which are elusive, capricious, and probably changed by the very act of observing them. Above all, they are observable only in the mind’s eye of the emoter. Feelings, therefore, elude science, which aspires for an objective database in which observers can agree on raw data accessible to many observers. Accordingly, some have argued that the subjective nature of feelings excludes them from the realm of science. As a social worker, a great deal can be learned about mental capacities and emotional state simply by interacting with an individual. A social worker can ask questions throughout an encounter with an individual or a client to gather data about the person and observe the appropriateness of emotions and ideas. Emotions evolved because they serve useful purposes. Sometimes an individual might be served by extreme manifestations of emotion, such as severe depression or chronic anger. A person’s degree of stress, depression, or fear, for example, can influence health beliefs and practices. The manner in which a person handles stress throughout each phase of life will influence the way the person reacts to illness. A person who is generally very calm may have little emotional response during illness, whereas an individual unable to cope emotionally with the threat of illness may either overreact to illness and assume it is life threatening or deny the presence of symptoms and not take any therapeutic action. As an example, there are some people who display anger that is not in proportion to its stimulus. A woman may have her ordinary vase broken by someone else, normally the reaction would be dismay and anger. But if the woman would exhibit a rage and perhaps do something outrageous to hurt the person who broke the vase, then that wouldn’t be a normal reaction. The woman would need to undergo some form of counseling to express her anger. She should not vent it out on the person. Another example would be individuals who are experiencing sorrow, grief, and depressions because of the death of a loved one. Although these emotions are healthy expressions, they should not be allowed to continue for years. If these emotions persist, then perhaps it is time for the individual to see a counselor or a social worker. As a social worker, there are several ways to improve a situation wherein a client or individual is showing extreme manifestations of emotion, such as severe depression or chronic anger. A social worker can use therapeutic communication techniques towards the person experiencing the emotion. These are specific responses that encourage the expression of feelings and ideas and also convey the social worker’s acceptance and respect. First way is to share empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and accept another person’s reality, to accurately perceive feelings, and to communicate this understanding to the other. When an individual is experiencing hurt, confusion, depression, anger, anxiety, uncertainty, or terror, then an understanding is called for. To express empathy, the social worker reflects understanding of the importance of what has been communicated by the individual on a feeling level. Such empathic understanding would require the social worker to be both sensitive and imaginative, especially if the social worker has not experienced similar situations as that of the client or the individual having problems. Statements reflecting empathy are highly effective because they tell the person that the social worker heard the feeling content, as well as factual content, of the communication. Empathy statements are neutral and nonjudgmental. They can be used to establish trust in very difficult situations such as when the individual is very angry or very depressed. Another way is sharing of hope. Everyone knows that hope is essential for healing and learn to communicate a sense of possibility with others. Appropriate encouragement and positive feedback are important in fostering hope and self confidence and for helping people achieve their potential and reach their goals. Sharing a vision of the future and reminding others of their resources and strengths can also strengthen hope. Sharing feelings is also another way. Emotions are subjective feelings that result from ones thought and perceptions. It might be that a person displays anger but deep inside it is not only anger that the person feels. Therefore it is needed that the individual has to vocalize out what he or she really feels. Feelings are not right, wrong, good, or bad, although they may be pleasant or unpleasant. If feelings are not expressed, stress and illness may worsen, which would also worsen how a person would react to his or her environment. Social workers can help their clients and other individuals express emotions by making observations, acknowledging feelings, encouraging communication, giving permission to express negative feelings, and modeling healthy emotional self-expression. At times, the individual may direct anger or frustration prompted by a situation toward the social worker who is counseling, but the social worker should not take such expressions personally. The social worker must think that taking out anger or frustration is healthy and it just so happens that at that time the individual decides to vent out the anger to the social worker. When social workers deal with their clients they must be aware of their own emotions, because feelings are difficult to hide. Sharing emotion makes the social worker more human and may even be viewed by the client as a friend and can bring them both closer. Indeed, emotions are observable by an outsider, but only if we reject the notion of feelings as the raw data of emotion. The uniquely human ability of language provides a means for people to make their feelings known to the outside world, even though putting words to emotional experience poses challenges for the verbal community. All the ways to improve a situation wherein a client or individual is showing extreme manifestations of emotion mentioned involve verbal communication between the social worker and the individual affected. However, one other way is to use silence, as opposed to verbally communicating. It takes time and experience to become comfortable with silence. Most people have a natural tendency to fill empty spaces with words, but sometimes what those spaces really need is time for the social worker and the client to observe one another, sort out feelings, think how to say things, and consider what has been communicated. Silence can prompt people to talk. Silence allows the individual to think and gain insight.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

EMOTIONS

Emotion is any strong feeling about somebody or something. Everybody feels an emotion. The enigmatic nature of emotion may be one r...

The Emotional Usability

The Effective Interactivity on the Emotional Usability of Visual Medium Focusing upon Viewer to Immerse and Interact by Putting Interactive Storytelling     This thesis refers to the proposal to find a new design pattern or interpretation in inter-active communication, usability and information architecture on the basis of storytelling structure and interface.  This paper will tackle the relevance of the topic and will present the relevant literatures related, methodology, research questions, feasibility and time-scale, and the researcher’s own expertise on the topic.   Research Questions             The researcher proposes that there is a need to explore improved ways of communication among media devices.  As a result, the researcher aims to examine characteristics of story telling and interfaces and what can they do to enhance interactivity that are not yet fully tapped by the media industry.  Specifically, the researcher will try to answer the following queries: <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are the complementarities between letter and visual image?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are the characteristics of hypertext and Hypermedia?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are the factors that affect the effectiveness of multimedia interface?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are the factors that affect the immersion to multimedia by a user and what are the roles of visual and storytelling to this?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are types of storytelling and what are the factors that make them effective?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Finally, from the answers to the above questions, what could be said are the features of an effective interface design?</li>   Relevance of the Research             The research will be useful to improve the quality of visual media that it transforms an audience from a passive to an immersed one.  Thus, messages intended to be decoded by the media are accomplished and communication problems of conveying the meaning of visual messages will be minimized.  With this, media practitioners will be the primary benefactors in their search to align their services, mostly in advertising and profit-centered, to a huge national audience.  Non-profit media practitioners, on the other hand, can also benefit the research to create a framework from which their public service, religious and other objectives could be easily understood by the population.             Audience of visual media can select from internet, television, mobile among others the most user-friendly so that their efforts to look for information can be done efficiently.  This study will enlighten them on factors that can affect their reception of visual information for better decision-making.  Lastly, the government, being the guardian for the greater good of the public, will extract principles about visual media that can guide them in making laws to restrict contents or promote them based on their meanings.  Without the knowledge that will be presented in this paper, stakeholders will not have the tools towards the achievement of effective and efficient visual media.   Relevant Literatures               The limitation of the print media as a visual medium gave rise to a situation in United States that adversely affect its educational sector.  According to one of the most respected educational researcher, reports about America’s public schools are based on inaccurate and misunderstood facts.  In this case, how could the media report correctly if itself cannot select the accurate data and deliver it in precise manner.  Thus, there would be a chain effect of wrong rumors.  This was the exact case of the educational system of the country specifically the performance of math and science elementary students.  In reality, the top 10% of American students scored almost the same grade in math against the average student in Singapore. With the intent to become the global leader, United States’ educational system could hinder its potential due to seemingly declining human capital.  Although President Clinton had formulated actions to curb the trend, this scenario could have been prevented if only authorities have figured out early the misleading media reports about its educational system.             Context and text should be working together to     attain, at least, partial understanding between a sender and receiver especially on on-line communications like chartrooms.  The so called e-lore or partial jokes created in memory of 9/11 bombing is less personal in delivery unlike Princess Diana.  Commentators and jokers resorted to the internet to convey their sympathy and humor due to the abruptness of the tragedy.  However, limiting to the borders of the cyberspace provided a more distant discrepancy on meanings of the conversing sender and receiver. The sender has its implicit messages hidden between the words of text messages which the receiver fully or partially failed to take into consideration.  A more disrupting fact is that even visual and auditory cues are not reliable to help the assessment of the message in the same way the sender wanted the receiver to think.  E-lore of 9/11 was an example of folklore where context was not visible in the scene.  To be able to prevent too much misconceptions on the jokes, chatters would try to belong themselves to a community of chatters that share the same context.  Perhaps, they had the same education or were emotionally attached to the situation, like family of the victims and designers of World Trade Towers.              The impact of pornography in visual media is one of the most intriguing but widely consumed.  As one feminist authors said, “staple to visual image is the sexualized female body.”  Many argued that even in commercial use, women posing their jeans, lips with lipstick and jewelries, already signifies the entire body of women.  This somehow leads to soft-core pornography which most discriminatory men would avail to peak to show superiority over the model’s body parts forming partial excitement.  As a result, this lays the condition that leads to hard core and violent pornography.  To make women puppets of man’s desire, pornography industry formulated several examples of this like “the “urination pornography” in which men urinate on women; “defecation pornography” in which men defecate on women; “torture pornography” in which women are burned, raped, and penetrated with bottles, animals, and vacuum cleaners; and “bondage pornography,” in which men learn how to tie a range of knots that can be used to restrain women or hang them from devices nailed into the ceiling.”  Although concluded to dives a mechanism where violence could be produced, pornography is ironically gaining prominence especially with the introduction of the internet.         Methodology             This study is aimed to identify the factors that affect storytelling and interface performance for an effective visual media communication.  The presentation is largely qualitative in nature with a inclusion of some numerical information.  Books, digital reference and other academic materials are used to come up with the study.  Gathered information will be filtered and analyze to arrive at a conclusion and ultimately to design an experimental interface design.  Findings will be based on the data under the lists of contents presented.  The study of the following areas will signal the factors that could create a framework where effective interactivity will result.  Areas to be studied are the complementarities of letter and visual image, hypertext and hypermedia, understanding interface in multimedia, immersed in visual media through visual and storytelling, narrative techniques and finally interface design testing.            Feasibility and Time-Scale                 The study proposed is feasible because there are available references that explain several information about the subject which is visual media.   All the research will do is to conduct intensive research to come up with useful findings.  The researcher is also tasked to analyze the findings he gathered on his research.  This will serve as the fruit of his study where implications and testing will be emanated.  Accordingly, the study needed a time frame of 2 weeks to cover relevant areas that can aid to accomplish the problem of the research.  However, the testing of the experimental interface needs succeeding testing to evaluate its performance.  In this case, another study could be done to reflect the effectiveness of the created interface that is assumed to be effective based on the executed study. After constructing chapter 1 (The Problem and its Background), 2 (review of Related Literature) and 3 (Methodology), after a week, the researcher will proceed to the data gathering probably for four days.  On the other hand, the canalization process could take three days.  The latter is relatively easy because of the four days exposure to the relevant data. Within this process, data presentation and conclusion and findings can be made. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Emotional Usability

The Effective Interactivity on the Emotional Usability of Visual Medium Focusing upon Viewer to Immerse and Interact by Putting Interact...

The Emotional Usability

Proposal should be around 1500words. I captured some of interesting area, (copy and paste) so you may need to edit this following sheet. (Best to use your own words, Juan and footnote and reference properly) But please stay with the details.   Title The effective interactivity on the emotional usability of visual medium Focusing upon viewer to immerse and interact by putting interactive storytelling (How electronic narrative and user interaction can be combined-user to explore and experience the narrative as an immersive experience)   Body   Designs for the interactive media such as Website, Mobile, Digital TV, etc., are evolving in a clear direction that places importance on User Experience based on usability. Although consideration of these artifacts of User Experience can be approached through numerous perspectives involving information Architecture, Contents Service, user interface, Identity, Usability, Visual Effect, Motion Graphics, Storytelling, etc,this research intends to study on the interactive storytelling, which is the communication way, based on the site conveying the story through the visuals among the sites on the visual digital medium. the visual image has much more informative implication comparing to the letters, and it has a cultural industrial potential power conforming to instinctive sensibility of the communication. On the other hand, modern visual media or the genre do not show a strong explosive power as a cultural industry completely due to the lack of the story, which do not conform to the advancing speed of the technique. Therefore, it is urgently wanted the fundamental and deep study about the storytelling structure conforming to each media. I, firstly, will review a concept of hypertext and hypermedia which is not only the text of the static communications but also the media which are proceed in a nonlinear way such as the graphic, the video, the sound, the animation, and the motion picture. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Emotional Usability

Proposal should be around 1500 words. I captured some of interesting area, (copy and paste) so you may need to edit this following she...

The Development of Human Emotional Feelings Sample Essay

The Development of Human Emotional Feelings   Introduction      Four main points of view can be distinguished in the modern theory of feeling and emotion: the introspective, typified by Wundt; the dynamic, typified by Freud; the behavioristic, typified by Watson; and the physiological, typified by Cannon.  We shall deal with these four points of view in order.  For each we shall dip into the past enough, but only enough, to bring out the trend of theory within the framework of the point of view.  This means that the present chapter will be organized historically, but will not constitute a history of the subject.  Such a history is already available elsewhere (Gardiner, Metcalf, and Beebe-Center, 1937). The terms feeling and emotion, we shall find, are now considered to refer to concepts, not to data.  This view was forced on introspective psychology by the finding that, as far as description of consciousness is concerned; feeling and emotion are meanings, not specific contents.  It was forced on dynamic psychology by the inadequacy of conscious factors for the interpretation of conduct, and the consequent need of inferring unconscious motivating factors, including unconscious feelings and emotions (Helson, H. 1951). This view was also forced on Behaviorism, but in a different way.  It, too, failed to find any specific data–specific responses–to which the terms feeling and emotion could be applied.  It could not, however, follow the other two schools in relating these terms to what appeared to be markedly subjective concepts.  In consequence, it either disregarded the terms or proceeded to construct concepts corresponding to them from its behavioral data. This latter procedure has had a tremendous effect upon the theory of feeling and emotion.  It has shown that the vague concepts represented by the layman’s “notions” of feeling and emotion can be replaced by closely related concepts defined strictly in terms of experimental data–indeed, actually constructed from the data.  It has thus opened the way for a truly empirical and objective theory of feeling and emotion. Feeling and Emotion as Conscious Contents The conception of feeling and emotion as conscious contents reached its greatest development in the psychology of Wundt (1920).  Feeling, he taught, was one of two basic elements of consciousness (the other was sensation). Feelings were so varied that they required, for characterization, three descriptive dimensions, the dimensions of pleasantness-unpleasantness, excitement-depression, and strain-relaxation.  Corresponding to the nature of feelings with respect to these dimensions were characteristic changes of strength and rate of pulse and breathing.  Pleasantness, for instance, was accompanied by strengthening and slowing of pulse and weakening and acceleration of breathing.  The bodily changes accompanied the feelings because the physiological counterpart of feeling was a spread of excitation from sensory centers to motor centers. Emotion, for Wundt, was an interconnected series of feelings, accompanied, because of summation, by marked changes in breathing and pulse and also by certain bodily movements. Sometimes emotion fades out gradually; sometimes it is terminated abruptly by a marked change in feeling and in ideational content. Such an abrupt change is a volitional act (act of determining); and an emotion terminating with such an act is a volitional process. A typical volitional process is one where the emotion. Although both feelings and sensory contents are involved in volitional processes, it is the feelings which are important as far as motivations are concerned. “All feelings, even those of relatively indifferent character, contain in some degree an effort towards or away from some end”, (Wundt, 1902, p. 303). Although the motivational side of this doctrine was indirectly deprived its importance by the theory of James (1884), Titchener (1910) still agreed with Wundt that emotion consists largely of feeling, and that both are conscious contents.  Feelings in the Earliest Days of Life      While in the earliest years of growth we are consequently dependent on the response mechanisms for some lead to the child’s inner experiences, it is not our position so to define the feelings and emotions that, because this is our only or main approach, these mental processes are to be considered exclusively from that angle. We are still on defensible ground when we say that, from the point of view of systematic psychology, we should be missing the central task of psychology if we went no farther than the bodily responses as such. The task is only begun if we describe the behavioral patterns of the infant. The interpretation of these activities in terms of our broader knowledge, though it be beset with pitfalls, is an unavoidable assignment in a comprehensive psychology of the feelings and emotions. Keen interest in the early affective life of infants was aroused by Watson’s pronouncement, based on many experimental studies upon infants, that the original feeling life was limited to three emotions, namely, fear, rage, and love. Fear reactions were called out in the first months of life which responses appear at birth by either sudden removal of support, slight shake or a sudden push and by loud sounds.  Rage is induced by hampering the infant’s natural movements either as a whole or in part. Love is aroused by stroking or manipulating an erogenous zone or the genitals, tickling, shaking, gentle rocking, patting, and turning the infant over on its stomach across the attendant’s lap. Conclusion             Such study about the development of human emotional feelings is still considered to be a work in progress.  After examining findings from different sources, we are then faced with the most important task of determining what we are going to do with ourselves in the future. It will be important to understand feelings and emotions and its development in talking to the developing person about their reasons for their feelings and their corresponding actions to these feelings. A theory from Dupont (1994) tells us how to identify the needs and values that inform feelings and emotions, and how these same needs and values influence a person’s choice of action as a way of expressing the value judgment inherent in his or her feelings.      From the theories in the earliest of its time, there is a need for more studies on feelings and emotions across the entire span of human development since it will involve different influences such as gender, culture, social experience, and education on emotional development. With the creation of human science of emotional development, we can then achieve self-reflective consciousness, and a range of socially relevant and effective feelings and emotions that could make us more fully human.  Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Development of Human Emotional Feelings Sample Essay

The Development of Human Emotional Feelings Introduction Four main points of view can be distinguished in the modern theory of ...

Sample Essay Psychology of Emotion

Psychology of Emotions (follow-up)             Our emotions play an important role throughout the span of our lives for the reason that they enhance virtually all our waking moments with either a pleasant or an unpleasant quality.  According to Cacioppo et al. (2001), even our relationship with the physical world is emotional.  There is an emotional component to every sensual experience. Emotion seems to be in everything, but the advantage emotion gives us in survival may not be noticeable.  Almost every part of the nervous system is affected by a certain sudden and extreme change in the environment.  You are able to react emotionally to the situation faster than you are able to process an understanding of what is happening in the environment and understand the situation. The emotional reaction involves all of your systems at once.  This is what makes the three-day diary of emotions difficult to measure its natural-occurring emotions.  Most of what we call emotion is really a straw poll of what is going on in the many systems of the body at the same time. An emotion could be a register of activity in various areas of experience that have no relation to each other except through an emotional understanding. Learning to experience your feelings fully and expressing them in ways that are adaptive and healthy is not a simple process, but there are some key components that can help. In general, it is important to become a good observer of your feelings, to accept and value them, and to attend to what they signal to you. Pay attention to how your interpretations and thoughts affect how you feel and also how the lessons learned in your family about emotional expression continue to influence your behavior. When deciding how to express how you feel, give some thought to all of your options. And most importantly, be patient. Don’t become discouraged when you find yourself struggling with this process. Learning to experience and express your emotions is a life-long process. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Sample Essay Psychology of Emotion

Psychology of Emotions (follow-up) Our emotions play an important role throughout the span of our lives for the reason that th...

Sample Emotions Essay

PSY205: Diary of Emotions Data Collection Grid Day 		1 Day 		2 Day 		3 Time 		 		Emotion(s) Notes 		 Time 		 		Emotion(s) Notes 		 Time 		 		Emotion(s) Notes 		 9 am   Joy   Good news from a friend 9 am   Sad Sympathy to a friend 9 am   Joy Emotional recovery of a friend 11 am   Surprised   Breaking news 11 am   Fear Crunch time 11 am   Relieved Work done 1 pm   Surprised   Cake from a friend 1 pm   Disgust Food 1 pm   Interest Knowing someone 3 pm   Interest A plan for a get together 3 pm   Guilt Job done haphazardly 3 pm   Anxious Unsure of what have been feeling 5 pm  Excited Payday 5 pm   Sad Bad news from a good friend 5 pm   Depressed Poor job output 7 pm   Anxious Doubts in budgeting 7 pm  Weary Exhausted from job 7 pm   Excited Fine dining 9 pm   Anger Late dinner 9 pm   Anger Too sensitive 9 pm   Anger  Irritable when tired           Psychology of Emotions Introduction Since the popularization of the James–Lange theory of emotion, the physiological component of emotion has been traditionally identified as activity in the autonomic nervous system and the visceral organs (e.g., the heart and lungs) that it innervates. However, some contemporary theorists hold that the neural basis of emotions resides in the central nervous system (emotion, 2006). Emotion is one of the most controversial topics in psychology, a source of intense discussion and disagreement from the earliest philosophers and other thinkers to the present day. Most psychologists can probably agree on a description of emotion, e.g., what phenomena to include in a discussion of emotion. The enumeration of these parts of emotion is called the “components of emotion” here. These components are distinguished on the basis of physiological or psychological factors and include emotion faces, emotion elicitors, and emotion neural processes (DataFace, 2006). While most of us elicit emotions in a natural way, recent studies have revealed cultural variation in emotional phenomena, such as the appraisals of emotional events (Mesquita, 2001; Roseman, et al. 1995; Scherer, 1997b), the interpersonal events that elicit emotion (Stipek, 1998), the frequency of experienced emotions (Kitayama, et al. 2000), the duration of emotional experiences (Scherer, et al. 1988), judgments of emotional facial expressions (Matsumoto, 1993), and memory for emotional events (Oishi, 2000; Wang, 2001).  Emotions and Self-knowledge             Emotions are one of our avenues to self-knowledge, since few kinds of self-knowledge could matter more than knowing one’s own repertoire of emotional responses. At the same time, emotions are both the cause and the subject of many failures of self-knowledge. Their complexity entails much potential to mislead or be misled. Insofar as most emotions involve belief, they inherit the susceptibility of the latter to self-deception.             Emotions typically involve more pervasive bodily manifestations than other conscious states.  Like the diary of emotions, certain reactions to a specific situation varies along with intensity, type, and range of intentional objects.  With the three-day list of emotions, it clearly defines ones ends and priorities and the regulation of social life.  Most importantly is the gaining of the consciousness of the natural-occuring reactions that would build up emotions.  By summing up the elicited emotions in the diary of emotions, it will give a person the awareness of ones own behavior to a specified instant.             With James-Lange theory of emotion had stated that emotions arises from physiological arousal, that is to simplify that happiness comes from smiling while sadness comes from crying.  Such emotions scaled in the diary involves both physiological and cognitive label.  The specific emotion experienced actually depends on how you interpret the situation. Expression of Emotions             Regardless of approach, certain facial expressions are associated with particular human emotions. Research shows that people categorize emotion faces in a similar way across cultures, that similar facial expressions tend to occur in response to particular emotion eliciting events, and that people produce simulations of emotion faces that are characteristic of each specific emotion. Happy expressions are universally and easily recognized, and are interpreted as conveying messages related to enjoyment, pleasure, a positive disposition, and friendliness. Sad expressions are often conceived as opposite to happy ones, but this view is too simple, although the action of the mouth corners is opposite. Sad expressions convey messages related to loss, bereavement, discomfort, pain, helplessness, etc. Anger expressions are seen increasingly often in modern society, as daily stresses and frustrations underlying anger seem to increase, but the expectation of reprisals decrease with the higher sense of personal security. Anger is a primary concomitant of interpersonal aggression, and its expression conveys messages about hostility, opposition, and potential attack. Anger is a common response to anger expressions, thus creating a positive feedback loop and increasing the likelihood of dangerous conflict. The abovementioned emotions are the most frequently experienced emotions in the diary of emotions. Conclusion             The study of the psychology of emotions is a work in progress that began from the earliest of its time.  It then evolved along with innovative findings of next generation psychologist trying to unfold the thematic nature of emotions.  Some discoveries would contradict to the past findings.  Nevertheless, the view of the psychology of emotions is getting clearer with each new breakthroughs made.  Though we are getting closer and closer to the disclosure of this matter, the fact that many observations are in opposing views, makes it still unclear as to clarify exact results as a basis for identifying emotions.  Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Sample Emotions Essay

PSY205: Diary of Emotions Data Collection Grid Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Time Emotion(s) Notes Time Emotion(s) Notes ...

My last day at school

My Last Day at School   No more pencils, No more books No more teacher’s dirty looks                                                  -School’s Out,   Pure ecstacy. Utter anticipation and exhilaration. After nine months of force, rigid order and pseudo-structured time-management as dictated by those who impose rules hardheadedly, the bell rings and I’m free. What will I do with an entire summer vacation ahead of me?  Run, jump, hike, play games, go on vacation, stay up late watching monster movies with my friends,  attend sleepovers, campouts, beach trips, the list is as endless as summer seems on the last day of school. A raucous delivery of these thoughts is jarring my senses. Let’s face it; it is a rite of passage if you are ascending from elementary to middle school, and even a greater leap from middle to high school.  And the dizzying precipice that is the last day of high school signifies the first time “adult” responsibility appears on my mind, but it’s still quite a long way off.  The important thing is that I’M out. At least temporarily. And there are many things to do on the last day of my school.  There are yearbooks to sign, pranks to be played, teachers to harangue and harass that is all in the name of good clean fun, and there are plans to be made.  New alliances may be built and old rules may no longer apply.  A romance that never could have happened during the semester can now be possible and away from the prying eyes of my immediate peer group. And all this excitement is bittersweet. But under it all, the anticipation, the joy, the hope, there is also dread.  Knowing but not acknowledging that I’m a step away from the so-called adulthood. The tick tock counting down of the days of summer, until finally I arrive once again–tired, humbled and bleary-eyed at another day of school after this summer. But that is a whole other story. Out-of-control classrooms, last-laugh pranks and papers being thrown at each other as students stampede through the doors after the last bell: those are the images that come to mind when thinking about the things I will miss the time I step out of high school. Yes, I’m quite excited about my last day of high school. It is kind of bittersweet. I feel like I don’t really have much in mind the so-called, “bright future” ahead of me. I’m just hoping to be independent. I kind of despise living with my parents and all, and graduation is something I look forward to to get away from it all. I have completed nearly 3 months of study, 11 weeks to be precise, and I must say that looking back at it, it definitely has been worth my while. I can’t believe that it’s totally finally over. First I’m up there out of people’s reach but then I go down slowly wishing I could go back up again. Next school year will be so different, not being with people who are always there for me, not being with the people who make me try to do my best, everything. I might not see them ever again, and if I do it will be different, physically and mentally. I’ve looked back at pictures of my 9th grader life and they make me so sad, I’ve seen a few people that helped me shape the me that I am today and that makes me feel better but I at the same time it makes me feel sad for we will part and let go of each other. The last day of school can also seem like such a waste of time. But the truth of the matter is that there always has to be a last day of school. It is the only way to get to summer! The following are some of the thoughts I have in my mind as to what to do after my last day in school:       Scout for a summer job to be productive and .       Make a Memory Book - design a simple little book to fill out on the last days of school. I’m going to include sections for my favorite memory, a self-portrait, autographs, things that I’ve learned, a drawing of the classroom, etc.  I will get creative as long as I can.       Take up classes that will enhance my talents.        Clean, clean, clean! – I’ll use the power of my youthful energy in cleaning and grease my body with sweat. I will scrub desks, re-arrange my room, wipe the dusts accumulating in the living room, whatever someone ask me to do! I’m going to write all of the tasks on index cards, pass them out, turn up the music, and get the job done.       Sign up for a good cause like saving the environment and getting stray cats and dogs out of the streets. The list goes on, and I’m just hoping for a memorable and bright future ahead of me, even if I consider myself not going into the path most people my age will do—climb the corporate ladder and be a big-shot professional. I see myself as a self-made and self-satisfied individual who will move at its own pace. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

My last day at school

My Last Day at School No more pencils, No more books No more teacher’s dirty looks -S...

explains what is ‘emotion’.Assuming that emotions evolved because they serve useful purposes (if any) might be served by extreme manifestations of emotion , such as severe depression or chronic anger?give examples to illustration.

EMOTIONS   Emotion is any strong feeling about somebody or something. Everybody feels an emotion. The enigmatic nature of emotion may be one reason science has long neglected it. But there are other reasons as well. The way we normally know emotions is through feelings, which are elusive, capricious, and probably changed by the very act of observing them. Above all, they are observable only in the mind’s eye of the emoter. Feelings, therefore, elude science, which aspires for an objective database in which observers can agree on raw data accessible to many observers. Accordingly, some have argued that the subjective nature of feelings excludes them from the realm of science. As a social worker, a great deal can be learned about mental capacities and emotional state simply by interacting with an individual. A social worker can ask questions throughout an encounter with an individual or a client to gather data about the person and observe the appropriateness of emotions and ideas. Emotions evolved because they serve useful purposes. Sometimes an individual might be served by extreme manifestations of emotion, such as severe depression or chronic anger. A person’s degree of stress, depression, or fear, for example, can influence health beliefs and practices. The manner in which a person handles stress throughout each phase of life will influence the way the person reacts to illness. A person who is generally very calm may have little emotional response during illness, whereas an individual unable to cope emotionally with the threat of illness may either overreact to illness and assume it is life threatening or deny the presence of symptoms and not take any therapeutic action. As an example, there are some people who display anger that is not in proportion to its stimulus. A woman may have her ordinary vase broken by someone else, normally the reaction would be dismay and anger. But if the woman would exhibit a rage and perhaps do something outrageous to hurt the person who broke the vase, then that wouldn’t be a normal reaction. The woman would need to undergo some form of counseling to express her anger. She should not vent it out on the person. Another example would be individuals who are experiencing sorrow, grief, and depressions because of the death of a loved one. Although these emotions are healthy expressions, they should not be allowed to continue for years. If these emotions persist, then perhaps it is time for the individual to see a counselor or a social worker. As a social worker, there are several ways to improve a situation wherein a client or individual is showing extreme manifestations of emotion, such as severe depression or chronic anger. A social worker can use therapeutic communication techniques towards the person experiencing the emotion. These are specific responses that encourage the expression of feelings and ideas and also convey the social worker’s acceptance and respect. First way is to share empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and accept another person’s reality, to accurately perceive feelings, and to communicate this understanding to the other. When an individual is experiencing hurt, confusion, depression, anger, anxiety, uncertainty, or terror, then an understanding is called for. To express empathy, the social worker reflects understanding of the importance of what has been communicated by the individual on a feeling level. Such empathic understanding would require the social worker to be both sensitive and imaginative, especially if the social worker has not experienced similar situations as that of the client or the individual having problems. Statements reflecting empathy are highly effective because they tell the person that the social worker heard the feeling content, as well as factual content, of the communication. Empathy statements are neutral and nonjudgmental. They can be used to establish trust in very difficult situations such as when the individual is very angry or very depressed. Another way is sharing of hope. Everyone knows that hope is essential for healing and learn to communicate a sense of possibility with others. Appropriate encouragement and positive feedback are important in fostering hope and self confidence and for helping people achieve their potential and reach their goals. Sharing a vision of the future and reminding others of their resources and strengths can also strengthen hope. Sharing feelings is also another way. Emotions are subjective feelings that result from ones thought and perceptions. It might be that a person displays anger but deep inside it is not only anger that the person feels. Therefore it is needed that the individual has to vocalize out what he or she really feels. Feelings are not right, wrong, good, or bad, although they may be pleasant or unpleasant. If feelings are not expressed, stress and illness may worsen, which would also worsen how a person would react to his or her environment. Social workers can help their clients and other individuals express emotions by making observations, acknowledging feelings, encouraging communication, giving permission to express negative feelings, and modeling healthy emotional self-expression. At times, the individual may direct anger or frustration prompted by a situation toward the social worker who is counseling, but the social worker should not take such expressions personally. The social worker must think that taking out anger or frustration is healthy and it just so happens that at that time the individual decides to vent out the anger to the social worker. When social workers deal with their clients they must be aware of their own emotions, because feelings are difficult to hide. Sharing emotion makes the social worker more human and may even be viewed by the client as a friend and can bring them both closer. Indeed, emotions are observable by an outsider, but only if we reject the notion of feelings as the raw data of emotion. The uniquely human ability of language provides a means for people to make their feelings known to the outside world, even though putting words to emotional experience poses challenges for the verbal community. All the ways to improve a situation wherein a client or individual is showing extreme manifestations of emotion mentioned involve verbal communication between the social worker and the individual affected. However, one other way is to use silence, as opposed to verbally communicating. It takes time and experience to become comfortable with silence. Most people have a natural tendency to fill empty spaces with words, but sometimes what those spaces really need is time for the social worker and the client to observe one another, sort out feelings, think how to say things, and consider what has been communicated. Silence can prompt people to talk. Silence allows the individual to think and gain insight.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

explains what is ‘emotion’.Assuming that emotions evolved because they serve useful purposes (if any) might be served by extreme manifestations of emotion , such as severe depression or chronic anger?give examples to illustration.

EMOTIONS Emotion is any strong feeling about somebody or something. Everybody feels an emotion. The enigmatic nature of emotion may be...

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE     SPECIFIC PURPOSE               To inform the audience about the definition of emotional intelligence and how it is used to manage workplace relations, avoid human conflicts and achieve harmony with others.   INTRODUCTION   I. Imagine the following situations:   ·         You are in the midst of an urgent, difficult task from your boss and you are tired and irritated that you want to scream. ·         Your officemate is asking for your output on a team project. ·         Your closest colleague whom you promised to coach on a particular task which he finds challenging and urgent but you are very knowledgeable on is being nagged by his supervisor and is already depressed. II. The situations show annoyance, tiredness, sense of urgency and compassion – forms of human emotions that both have positive and negative outcomes when unmanaged. III. A person can deal with the above situations if he knows how to recognize and analyze the outcomes of his emotions through his emotional intelligence. IV. Emotional intelligence is defined as a form of social intelligence that entails an individual’s capacity to monitor his or her emotions and those of other people, to assess and analyze these emotions, and to utilize the information gained from the analysis to guide thinking, ideas and actions ( & , 2004).   MAIN POINT ONE: Recent researches posited that emotional intelligence is closely associated with avoiding conflict and successfully intersecting personal interests with community goals (, 2006). Supporting Point A:  (2000) claimed that the fundamental philosophy of emotional intelligence which is recognizing and managing emotions to guide actions and relationships with others eliminates the presence of conflict. Without conflict, unity and harmony are possible. Supporting Point B: The third key area of the Six Seconds’ EQ Model states that emotionally intelligent people make choices that would help them connect with other people (, 2000). MAIN POINT TWO: Emotional intelligence is typically associated with workplace relations and organizational development (, 2006). Supporting Point A: It is considered as a highly significant skill among people that defines leadership styles and employee behaviors, and makes unity and harmony possible in the workplace ( & , 2004). Supporting Point B: Emotional intelligence among corporate leaders manifest when they do not take things personally; employ some form of personal and collective stress management strategies so as to ease the burden of work; find time to talk to employees regarding job performance, difficulties faced in the job and employee needs; and show empathy to others (, 2003). Supporting Point C: One emotional factor that can influence success in the workplace is cooperativeness or the capacity of a person to balance personal needs and goals with the needs and goals of colleagues, management and the entire organization (, 2002).   MAIN POINT THREE: Emotional intelligence assists someone to find his place in the complex world of humanity (, 2000). Supporting Point A: Emotional intelligence on the personal level includes the ability of an individual to motivate himself and focus on a goal instead of pursuing immediate gratification of human drives (, 2004). Supporting Point B: Emotionally intelligent individuals can relate well with others since they are capable of understanding the emotions of their peers. Thus, emotional intelligence helps a person to avoid depression and feelings of rejection (, 2004). CONCLUSION   I. Recall the situations wherein you are irritated by a task given by your boss and you want to scream, while at this circumstance an officemate demands for your output on a team project, and a friend in the office is depressed because you have no time to help him with a task that you are very knowledgeable on.   Main/Support Points One: Emotionally intelligent people are able to study themselves and their capacity to handle what is required of them. They are aware that their responsibilities will benefit the company and thus, should be accomplished. They can focus in order to finish the task early and possibly have time to help a friend or colleague who is in need. Main/Support Points Two: The situations are all stressful but the person has to keep in mind that stress can be managed. He can take a break so as to replenish his energy and be able to regain focus. He should not let his emotions overcome him and end up disappointing his colleagues and his boss. Main/Support Points Three: People who can effectively recognize, analyze and manage emotions would not only be able to deal with workplace interaction, but also other forms of social relationships.     REFERENCES   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SPECIFIC PURPOSE To inform the audience about the definition of emotional intelligence and h...

GUIDE AND CHECKLIST OF MENTAL AND PERSONALITY DISORDERS

Comprehensive guide and checklist of mental and personality disorders   Schizophrenia             Schizophrenia involves a group of mental disorders with characteristic symptoms that involve thinking, emotions, drive, and behavior. Another characteristic of this condition is withdrawal from reality of the external world into a private personal world. Unconcealed episodes of the illness vary widely in duration. In some cases wherein the illness is prolonged, the personality of the schizophrenic may deteriorate and the emotion and drive may be blunted. This will result to tragic failures in the interpersonal relationships and material achievements of the person with the condition. Although there are no specific types of premorbid personality that are seen in all cases, many individuals who have schizophrenia show such common traits as sensitivity, shyness and unsociability, lack of affect, and paranoid attitudes. These traits are often referred to as schizoid personalty.             Schizophrenia has a worldwide distribution, and there are no noticeable differences in incidence in variations in culture. There is a high prevalence of schizophrenia in lower socioeconomic classes and this has been mainly attributed to social disorganization and resulting stresses.   Conduct disorder Conduct disorder refers to a group of repetitive behavior and emotional problems in young people wherein the rights of others or the social norms are disregarded or disturbed. Children and adolescents who have this disorder have a difficulty following rules and behaving in a way that is acceptable in society. the characteristic manifestations of individuals with this disorder include over-aggressiveness, bullying, physical aggression, cruel behavior, destructive behavior, lying, truancy, vandalism, and stealing. Other people view these children as delinquent, not thinking that this kind of behavior is a mental disorder. A child who has conduct disorder can be a result of many contributing factors, including brain damage, genetic vulnerability, abuse as a child, academic failure, and experiencing life situations that are traumatic. After the age of 18, this disorder may develop into antisocial personality disorder.   Antisocial personality disorder             Antisocial personality disorder is also called psychopathic or sociopathic disorder. It belongs to the group of personality disorders wherein disordered patterns of behavior are characterized by relatively fixed and inflexible lifelong reactions to stress. This personality disorder includes persons who characteristically act out their aggressions and openly ignore normal rules of social order. Characteristic behavior of people suffering from this disorder includes impulsiveness, irresponsibility, amorality, and inability to forego immediate gratification. These individuals cannot form affectionate relationships with other people. They tolerate frustration poorly; and if they experience opposition, they are likely to exhibit hostility, aggression, and do serious violence. Their antisocial behavior shows little foresight and is not associated with remorse or guilt since these affected individuals seem to have a keen capacity for rationalizing and for blaming their behavior on others.             This personality type is often associated with a history of alcohol and drug abuse, sexual deviation, promiscuity, occupational failure, or imprisonment. Men are more often affected than women. The effects of serious cerebral injury or disease may sometimes closely stimulate the picture of a psychopathic or antisocial personality.   Paranoid personality disorder             This is another type of personality disorder wherein it is characterized by the individual’s projection of his own hostilities and aggressiveness as delusions that others are hostile toward him. Individuals with paranoid personality are markedly sensitive to interpersonal relationships and tend to find hostile and malevolent intentions behind trivial, innocent, or even kindly acts by others. Most of the time, a paranoid’s suspicious attitude leads to aggressive feelings of behavior or brings about rejection by others, which seems to justify his original feelings. However, the individual is not able to see his won part in this cycle. The paranoid’s behavior may be designed to prove his adequacy, while his sense of worthiness becomes exaggerated and is accompanied by belittlement of other people. Paranoid tendencies are especially likely to develop among those who feel especially inferior because of a disfiguring effect that makes the individual noticeably different from other people.   Borderline personality disorder             Borderline personality disorder is a chronic psychiatric illness on an individual’s personality and is characterized by abnormally high levels of emotional instability and other characteristics such as emotional dysregulation, extreme “black and white” thinking, or “splitting”, and chaotic relationships. Splitting refers to a situation wherein the individual believes that something is one of only two possible things, and ignoring any possible “in-betweens.” According to mental health professionals, borderline personality disorder is a serious mental illness with manifestations of pervasive instabilities in interpersonal relationships, self perceptions, identity, and behavior, as well as a disturbance in the individual’s sense of self. Indviduals in this group also have fluctuations in their moods between states of high-spirited bouyancy and states of gloom and pessimism. These individuals may also respond poorly to any form of stress. Many individuals who are affected with borderline personality disorder have a history of repeated sexual, emotional and/or physical abuse. Persons who are accused of abuse are often parents, family members and authority figures.   Pedophilia             Pedophilia is a mental disorder of adults characterized by a sexual desire for children. The word pedophilia can also mean the crime of sexual inercourse with a child. Pedophilia is not inherited through genes nor is it biologically based. Rather it is a learned behavior with an addictive quality that escalates in intensity and frequency. The diagnosis of pedophilia requires a six-month period of recurrent intense sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies that involve sexual activity with prepubescent children (generally age 13 or younger). The pedophile either must have acted on these urges or must be markedly distressed by them. Pedophilia, like child molestation, can be limited to incest, same sex or opposite sex or may involve victims of both sexes. Most pedophiles do not seek treatment because they fear legal consequences or they do not regard their behavior as aberrant.   Hebephilia             The term “hebephilia” is not widely known and used even by mental health professionals. Another term for this disorder is Ephebophilia. Hebephilia is the sexual preference of an adult towards adolescents. This condition is commonly grouped with pedophilia and child molestation. Unlike pedophilia, where adults pursue children under 12 for sex, ephebophilia involves adults engaging post-pubescent minors. Attraction and sexual desire of adults towards adolescents is not considered a serious pathology or disorder unless if it starts to become an obsession and affects other areas of life or causes distress to the object of obsession.           References Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

GUIDE AND CHECKLIST OF MENTAL AND PERSONALITY DISORDERS

Comprehensive guide and checklist of mental and personality disorders Schizophrenia Schizophrenia involves a group of me...

EMOTIONS

EMOTIONS   Emotion is any strong feeling about somebody or something. Everybody feels an emotion. The enigmatic nature of emotion may be one reason science has long neglected it. But there are other reasons as well. The way we normally know emotions is through feelings, which are elusive, capricious, and probably changed by the very act of observing them. Above all, they are observable only in the mind’s eye of the emoter. Feelings, therefore, elude science, which aspires for an objective database in which observers can agree on raw data accessible to many observers. Accordingly, some have argued that the subjective nature of feelings excludes them from the realm of science. As a social worker, a great deal can be learned about mental capacities and emotional state simply by interacting with an individual. A social worker can ask questions throughout an encounter with an individual or a client to gather data about the person and observe the appropriateness of emotions and ideas. Emotions evolved because they serve useful purposes. Sometimes an individual might be served by extreme manifestations of emotion, such as severe depression or chronic anger. A person’s degree of stress, depression, or fear, for example, can influence health beliefs and practices. The manner in which a person handles stress throughout each phase of life will influence the way the person reacts to illness. A person who is generally very calm may have little emotional response during illness, whereas an individual unable to cope emotionally with the threat of illness may either overreact to illness and assume it is life threatening or deny the presence of symptoms and not take any therapeutic action. As an example, there are some people who display anger that is not in proportion to its stimulus. A woman may have her ordinary vase broken by someone else, normally the reaction would be dismay and anger. But if the woman would exhibit a rage and perhaps do something outrageous to hurt the person who broke the vase, then that wouldn’t be a normal reaction. The woman would need to undergo some form of counseling to express her anger. She should not vent it out on the person. Another example would be individuals who are experiencing sorrow, grief, and depressions because of the death of a loved one. Although these emotions are healthy expressions, they should not be allowed to continue for years. If these emotions persist, then perhaps it is time for the individual to see a counselor or a social worker. As a social worker, there are several ways to improve a situation wherein a client or individual is showing extreme manifestations of emotion, such as severe depression or chronic anger. A social worker can use therapeutic communication techniques towards the person experiencing the emotion. These are specific responses that encourage the expression of feelings and ideas and also convey the social worker’s acceptance and respect. First way is to share empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and accept another person’s reality, to accurately perceive feelings, and to communicate this understanding to the other. When an individual is experiencing hurt, confusion, depression, anger, anxiety, uncertainty, or terror, then an understanding is called for. To express empathy, the social worker reflects understanding of the importance of what has been communicated by the individual on a feeling level. Such empathic understanding would require the social worker to be both sensitive and imaginative, especially if the social worker has not experienced similar situations as that of the client or the individual having problems. Statements reflecting empathy are highly effective because they tell the person that the social worker heard the feeling content, as well as factual content, of the communication. Empathy statements are neutral and nonjudgmental. They can be used to establish trust in very difficult situations such as when the individual is very angry or very depressed. Another way is sharing of hope. Everyone knows that hope is essential for healing and learn to communicate a sense of possibility with others. Appropriate encouragement and positive feedback are important in fostering hope and self confidence and for helping people achieve their potential and reach their goals. Sharing a vision of the future and reminding others of their resources and strengths can also strengthen hope. Sharing feelings is also another way. Emotions are subjective feelings that result from ones thought and perceptions. It might be that a person displays anger but deep inside it is not only anger that the person feels. Therefore it is needed that the individual has to vocalize out what he or she really feels. Feelings are not right, wrong, good, or bad, although they may be pleasant or unpleasant. If feelings are not expressed, stress and illness may worsen, which would also worsen how a person would react to his or her environment. Social workers can help their clients and other individuals express emotions by making observations, acknowledging feelings, encouraging communication, giving permission to express negative feelings, and modeling healthy emotional self-expression. At times, the individual may direct anger or frustration prompted by a situation toward the social worker who is counseling, but the social worker should not take such expressions personally. The social worker must think that taking out anger or frustration is healthy and it just so happens that at that time the individual decides to vent out the anger to the social worker. When social workers deal with their clients they must be aware of their own emotions, because feelings are difficult to hide. Sharing emotion makes the social worker more human and may even be viewed by the client as a friend and can bring them both closer. Indeed, emotions are observable by an outsider, but only if we reject the notion of feelings as the raw data of emotion. The uniquely human ability of language provides a means for people to make their feelings known to the outside world, even though putting words to emotional experience poses challenges for the verbal community. All the ways to improve a situation wherein a client or individual is showing extreme manifestations of emotion mentioned involve verbal communication between the social worker and the individual affected. However, one other way is to use silence, as opposed to verbally communicating. It takes time and experience to become comfortable with silence. Most people have a natural tendency to fill empty spaces with words, but sometimes what those spaces really need is time for the social worker and the client to observe one another, sort out feelings, think how to say things, and consider what has been communicated. Silence can prompt people to talk. Silence allows the individual to think and gain insight.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

EMOTIONS

EMOTIONS Emotion is any strong feeling about somebody or something. Everybody feels an emotion. The enigmatic nature of emotion may b...