A simplified explanation of the RoUCa that doesn’t decompose the sectors.
Introduction to the RoUCa grid
We come up with opinions about the world. These opinions are a result of something happening in it.
All our opinions and behaviours are created as a response to an Event in the environment.
The processes that form that an opinion happen Automatically. We are not privy to them.
We can call our current opinion of the environment in front of us U. It represents things we think should happen. We come to this conclusion as the result of choosing the best lottery available to us.
A lottery is made up of an element of Uncertainty, which we seek to reduce, and Capital, which we seek to maximise. Just like taking a bet, the best bets for us to take are the ones that are most certain and have the biggest prize.
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After we have formed our opinion – U – we have to check whether the conclusions we have come to are feasible for us to carrying and obtain a benefit.
This happens in the Cognitive sector.
Cognition is generally things we think rather than things we feel.
If we judge our opinion as feasible we might enact a set of behaviours to pursue the benefit we see in the environment or else stop ourselves from pursuing it if it is not.
We do not have to physically enact an opinion to continue around the grid, we can envisage or mentally rehearse its impact.
If an opinion is not feasible we can discard it through the Joy pathway.
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People can be restricted in their ability to judge their opinion as feasible by their Wiper. People with a narrow-Wiper may have difficulty in realising that their opinion is not feasible.
People usually focus on “How” or “What” makes their opinion correct. This is reflected by the “sidedness” of their Wiper, whether it is left-side focusing on Uncertainty (How) or Capital (What). Most people are Whats and they have a right-sided Wiper.
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Sometimes we don’t get the results we expect from enacting our opinion. If we repeatedly can’t get what we want, we need a way to stop us from going to the effort of doing something that doesn’t work or provide us with a benefit.
When we are confronted with error (i.e. we don’t get our own way) we Trigger a response in the Emotional sector.
Emotions are generally things we feel rather than what we think.
All emotions (small e) are felt when there is a mismatch between our opinion and what actually happens. In the RoUCa grid, Emotions (big E) are Triggered because we received less than we thought we would or had a negative experience. Of course, you might be lucky and get more than you expected. In that case you would experience Joy, which in the RoUCa grid is an emotion from receiving a positive experience.
We treat Joy differently as it allows us to confirm our opinion and shift our thoughts on to other things. In essence we can escape or resolve the grid
Responses in the Emotional sector focus on getting our own way when the environment doesn’t reflect our opinion – we want the world to bend to our wishes rather than align to what it is. Sometimes this can be effective (such as complaining about poor service at a shop) or pointless (shouting at a self-service check-out machine when it breaks).
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If we do get the results we expect the Trigger is not activated and the signal from the Cognitive sector can flow around the grid to the Influencing sector.
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On occasion we might want to give the environment a helping hand to reflect our opinion. We can add lotteries to help get our way. We do this by attempting to Influence the environment. Think about advertising. It often gets us to buy a product based on other factors than its physical properties. The advertisers are trying to Influence us by adding lotteries to our environment.
Influencing behaviours impact upon the environment and we sense this impact by a signal going through our Automatic sector and closing off the grid to complete a loop.
A new or updated version of U is formed (in another loop of the grid). If this opinion of the results of our enacted behaviours matches the opinion of our expectations we can escape the RoUCa grid through the Joy pathway or else continue cycling around it to try and resolve it.
Some people, especially when they are confronted with error, spin around the grid unable to resolve it. We can call this ruminating or hypermentalizing.
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The grid has to be followed anti-clockwise starting from an Event being fed into the Automatic sector.
The only way to get back to a preceding sector is to follow it around and create another iteration, unless the grid can be resolved and escaped from through the Joy pathway.
This might not mean physically enacting a response to the environment. Sometimes we can imagine the results or consequences of our actions if they were to be enacted.
The four sectors are contained within our “self”, whereas our actions and Event in the environment are external to us.