ETR (Emotional Theory of Rationality): A New Emotional Paradigm

We explain this new model with important applications.

Historically, emotions have been an "uncomfortable" element in the investigation of human cognitive abilities and behavior.

Some researchers have defined them as "noise", endlessly interfering with the really important processes, such as attention, cognition, consciousness or decision making.

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In recent decades, however, the importance of emotions has been gaining groundIt has found a place of its own within the field of psychology and neuroscience. It is now commonly accepted that we cannot understand the complexity of the human psyche without taking into account emotions and their relationship with the rest of the executive capacities.

However, we do not yet have a good understanding of these relationships, nor do we have models that allow us to integrate them in a natural way.

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 their functionality within an evolutionary context, reasoning their 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 premise that every living being, in order to survive, is subjected to a series of constrictions that force it to develop a subtle balance between the capacities it acquires and the energy and resources necessary to maintain them.

This means that the 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 the processing of information, which allows the development of responses that facilitate the 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 an individual will face, evolution has designated the emotional system as responsible for carrying out three main functions:

• Implementing innate responses Implement broad-spectrum innate responses that allow exploration and rapidly address novel or unexpected stimuli for which there is no specific response.
• Activate cognitive systemsResponsible for the search and development of new responses, only on demand, thus improving response time and resource consumption.
• Evaluate the criticality of the stimuli to solvemodulating attention to allow priority access to the most advanced and scarce resources, if concurrence with other processes occurs.

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 collaborate and complement each other to achieve a more efficient way of solving the challenges faced by the individual.

This new approach clearly describes and supports the relationship between emotional mechanisms, attention and cognitive abilities.This new approach clearly describes and substantiates the relationship between emotional mechanisms, attention and cognitive capacities, 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 optimizing element of brain functioning, allowing us to understand how and why they are the ones that regulate the relationships of the rest of the executive functions, conditioning their dynamics and, on occasions, 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 enters to be 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 the identification of specific factors that can help to improve the approach and understanding of these phenomena, with important applications in areas such as education, motivation, decision making or the explanation of certain non-adaptive behaviors, among many others.It has 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 capacities related to adaptation to change, creativity and innovation, as well as to the improvement of interpersonal relationships, leadership or the restructuring of organizations themselves.

Bibliographical references:

• Garcés, M., & Finkel, L. (2019). Emotional Theory of Rationality. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2019.00011. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2019.00011