According to Goleman the term emotion refers to “a feeling and thoughts, biological states, psychological states and the type of tendencies to action that characterize it”, on the other hand, we can define emotion in a simpler way as the result of an interpretation and that gives a personal meaning to what happens. In this way, the same event, for example, parachuting, can generate a pleasant or unpleasant experience in different people, generating emotions such as joy or fear. This situation is known as Cognitive Evaluation, since it makes the difference so that the same experience is lived in a different way by each of them; added to this,there are different elements that can predispose a person to make an interpretation of the facts and therefore making a decision at those times may not be appropriate.
This happens very frequently in organizations, because when it comes to implementing a change even if it is to improve the general situation of the company, it can generate different emotions in employees and this would be an important factor for their acceptance or rejection..
It should be taken into consideration that thoughts, beliefs and feelings are involved in all mental processes, therefore it is important to work on self-control to release emotions at the appropriate time and establish guidelines for conciliation and negotiation in various situations. Then it is said that various elements come into play in decision-making, including trust and emotions.
Loria says that emotions have a similarity to Newton's third Law, since the response that is given is the consequence of an action, although many times the expected response does not coincide with the applied stimulus. From this it follows that emotions can modify or influence people's behavior. It is said then that the most powerful precursor of behavior is emotion.
Researchers Greenberg and Pavio define emotions as a compound made up of three elements:
- Affection
Here certain biological manifestations are identified or expressed, due to the release of chemical substances to give a response.
- The feelings
Those physical or bodily sensations
- Consent evaluation
It refers to the integration between affection and feelings
Likewise, emotional states are divided as positive or negative and according to Loria these help us to adapt and survive, but it becomes necessary to experience both types of emotions if what you really want to obtain are life experiences and that the person can have a coexistence healthy at home, at school or at work.
In my opinion, emotions are physiological reactions that allow an individual to adapt to everything that is perceived through their senses, memories and experiences acquired throughout their life. I think it is important that people are aware of this and how, in certain situations, they can respond to the stimuli and changes that are presented to them. This will help the person to adapt to different situations in their life and that when changes occur, adaptation to these new paradigms is easier. On the other hand, it sounds interesting how some authors comment that, in different emotional states, the decisions that are made may or may not be appropriate. For example,mention that people who have an emotional state of rage or anger can sign a millionaire contract because they are in a position to take some risks and on the contrary, people in an emotional state of fear, will always look for a safe place, because making any decision will cause them anguish and even depression.
Making good decisions depends on some factors associated with what is known as incidental emotions, these are understood as those induced emotions that occur because the individual experiences an emotion not associated with the decision making itself. Likewise, feelings can also have an important impact, especially when decisions are considered as strategic. Dunn and Schweitez conclude, in a study carried out at Wharton, that emotions are key in the processes of negotiation and strategic decision making; They showed that people who are in a previous state of happiness tend to feel an increase in trust in the other person and the opposite happens if the previous state is anger, that is, trust towards the other person is diminished. So,The degree of trust may depend on the prior knowledge of the person, but it is given even more importance to apparently irrelevant events, the emotional state at the time of closing the negotiation and the participant's propensity to take risks.
It is a fact that emotions " must be lived " in all stages of life, in this way individuals learn to deal with some of them. Confidence in this control necessarily results in emotional training, this makes people prepared to survive and make appropriate decisions at the right time.
Little by little, you can feel a growth in the management of your own emotions.
Mar Romera in her speech on emotions, says that many emotions are imposed by society and that it has also defined that some of the emotions are negative and others positive. She mentions that it is important to feel emotions to generate adaptive and physiological responses, and in this way create a self-concept and coverage to be able to use them for one's own benefit. It is important to have references to make decisions.
One of the objectives is to manage emotions, for this the level of sensitivity, affectivity, among others, must be taken into account.
A good friend told me that there were no negative and positive emotions, he classifies them between pleasant and unpleasant, since it is important to experience them all for the development of some mechanisms that can achieve adaptive responses in people according to their environment. At this point, the context in which the emotion occurs must be considered, for example, when a loved one dies, it is natural that the emotion that persists in a person is sadness and even anger. From here, the person has to learn to manage these emotions and keep them in balance, this helps the person to make a decision according to the context that requires said decision and not under the influence of a previous perception.
Romera recommends that emotions should be experienced with the right intensity at the right time, for this it is necessary that training in the management of emotions. People should not necessarily feel joy all the time, since the time may come that this generates a dependence on the endogenous production of dopamine (a neurotransmitter considered the hormone of happiness or pleasure) and in the end this can trigger another type of emotions such as sadness or guilt.
Therefore, decision-making must be done in an appropriate emotional state, for example, from security, you can sign a contract for the sale of a house, accept a marriage proposal from admiration or love, generate learning from the curiosity, avoid self-destructive situations from disgust. On the contrary, some emotions can be used to maintain control, such as fear, guilt or sadness.
Then it can be said that emotions are not considered bad or good, in general they all have a specific function that helps to modify behaviors in an individual and establishes a state of alertness or preparation to respond to a specific situation.
Some authors have classified emotions as basic, a list of these is shown in the following table:
| EMOTION
(According to Plitchik) |
EMOTION
(According to Romera) |
EMOTION
(According to Goleman) |
| Fear | Fear | Fear |
| Anger | Go to | Go to |
| Joy | Joy | Joy |
| Sadness | Sadness | Sadness |
| Trust | Security | |
| Dislike | Disgust | Aversion |
| Anticipation | Anger | |
| Surprise | Surprise | Surprise |
| Admiration | Love | |
| Guilt | Shame | |
| Rage | ||
| Security |
In Robert Plutchik's psycho-evolutionary theory of emotions, it is said that animals have developed different behaviors as a result of 8 basic emotions, which have a specific purpose, that is, fear is to protect from a dangerous situation real or imaginary preparing the person to flee or attack, the function of sadness is to seek reintegration, which allows the individual to assimilate harmful events. The so-called disgust (same that Romera calls disgust and Goleman aversion) draws my attention, because the specific purpose of this is rejection, removing the individual from a situation that can be harmful such as drug use, moving away from a toxic person or reject some food that could be poisonous.
It is clear that experiencing emotions prepares the individual to face situations that arise during his life, develop adaptation to his environment and of course have the ability to make decisions in specific contexts.
I can conclude that emotions are complex responses to a stimulus, which occur due to the interaction of various chemical substances produced in our body and which are controlled by different neural systems. These are an important point for an individual to develop skills that help him adapt to the environment in which he develops.
From my point of view, it can be considered that a person's emotional health is increased over the years and this predisposes them to make better decisions. It is undeniable that not having adequate control over emotions can lead a person to make unreasonable decisions. By letting go for the moment, it can result in unwanted consequences for them.
Emotional training achieves that before a multitude of possibilities and under the influence of external factors, a decision can be made by quickly analyzing the costs, benefits and even the repercussions when making a decision. In the best of cases, we have time to carry out an adequate analysis of the situation and even to modify our mood, but when there is no time to carry out the decisive process, it will then be important to identify our emotional state (Cognitive Assessment), make the decision hoping that the consequences are not such that they seriously affect our own situation. It is here where our trained mind must look for mental shortcuts to be able to decide on the benefits, disadvantages and risks of our response, through memories, feelings,Values and previous experiences.
Bibliographic references:
- Loria, A. (2018). Decision making: The role of emotions. Centrodeneurocienciassociales.org. Available at: http://centrodeneurocienciassociales.org/articulos/143-la-toma-de-decisiones-el-rol-de-lasemociones-psic-alberto-loria.html. Munyo, I. (2014). Tell me how you feel and I will tell you what decision you are going to make. IEEM Business Magazine, pp. 1-2. Available at: http: //ARTICULO%20-DIME%20COMO%20TE%20SIENTES.pdf. Romera. Emotions are not learned by notes, you have to live them. (2018). Directed by: Let's learn together-El País. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. Bantam Books. com. (September 19, 2012). Retrieved on June 26, 2018, from
