ETR (Emotional Theory Of Rationality): A New Emotional Paradigm
Historically, emotions have been an “uncomfortable” element within research on human cognitive abilities and behavior.
Some researchers have defined them as “noise”, which ceaselessly interferes with really important processes, such as attention, cognition, consciousness or decision making.
In recent decades, however, the importance of emotions has been gaining ground, finding its own place within the field of psychology and neurosciences. Nowadays it is commonly accepted that we cannot understand the human psyche in its complexity without taking into account emotions and their relationship with the rest of the executive capacities.
However, we still do not fully understand these relationships, nor do we have models that allow us to integrate them naturally.
These limitations in our knowledge are caused by two main factors. The first is the fact that emotional experiences are subjective phenomena that can hardly be scientifically evaluated in all their complexity; The second is the need to address its functionality within an evolutionary context, reasoning its existence within the milestones that have defined us as a species and as individuals.
ETR (Emotional Theory of Rationality): what is it?
Recently, a new paradigm called ETR (Emotional Theory of Rationality, Garcés and Finkel 2019) has provided an original approach that allows us to address these knowledge gaps from a different perspective.
This new approach is based on the basis that every living being, in order to survive, is subjected to a series of constraints that force it to develop a subtle balance between the capabilities it acquires and the energy and resources necessary to maintain them.
This means that fundamental physical laws, together with evolutionary and adaptive processes sustained over long periods of time, have configured the nervous system as a highly optimized mechanism in information processing, which allows the development of responses that facilitate interaction. effective and efficient interaction of living beings with the environment, thus improving their chances of survival and reproduction.
As part of the optimization mechanism, due to uncertainties about the characteristics and simultaneity of the stimuli that an individual will face, evolution has designated the emotional system as responsible for carrying out three main functions:
Its influence on cognitive systems
According to the ETR model, the emotional system is always active and controls attention, which in turn is responsible for regulating and prioritizing the access of information to the cognitive systems.
Cognitive systems develop responses that modulate emotional responses, thus closing a circular, complementary, dynamic and interdependent architecture. According to this model, emotion and cognition do not compete, but rather collaborate and complement each other to achieve a more efficient way of solving the challenges that the individual faces.
This new approach clearly describes and substantiates the relationship that exists between emotional mechanisms attention and cognitive abilities, which in turn modulate the emotional response, thus closing the system and defining its global dynamics.
Thus, within this new paradigm, emotions would be the element of optimization of brain functioning, allowing us to understand how and why they regulate the relationships of the rest of the executive functions, conditioning their dynamics and, sometimes, generating behavioral phenomena. far from the socially established ideal, but very close to the evolutionary ideal of survival.
Likewise, the model opens the door to incorporate the somatic component, associated with emotional responses, as a new stimulus that is processed by the system, generating dynamics that give rise to very diverse and complex mental and behavioral phenomena.
Applications of this new model
This new model has important implications for explaining these psychological and behavioral phenomena that until now could only be described. It also allows us to identify specific factors that can help improve the approach and understanding of these phenomena having important applications in areas such as education, motivation, decision making or the explanation of certain non-adaptive behaviors, among many others.
At the organizational level, this new model is already being used to develop personal capabilities related to adaptation to change, creativity and innovation, as well as the improvement of interpersonal relationships, leadership or the restructuring of the organizations themselves. .
