Emotional Responses and Emotional Regulation in Affect Engineering

This is the fourth article in a series designed for the layperson that will explain the basics of Affect Engineering as a theory of emotions. Each article will begin with a list of questions that it will aim to address. The sections that follow will be in two parts each. The first part will be a short statement that answers each question as succinctly as possible. The second part will either be an explanation that goes into more detail where needed or explain some of the implications of the short answer.

QUESTIONS

1. What is an emotional response in Affect Engineering?
2. What does heeding an emotion’s call to action mean in Affect Engineering?
3. What variables can amplify, or alternatively, reduce an emotion’s call to action to the individual?
4. How is emotion regulation by an individual modeled in Affect Engineering?
5. How might someone use their understanding of Affect Engineering’s framework to better regulate their own emotional responses and actions?

What is an emotional response in Affect Engineering?

SHORT ANSWER

An emotional response in Affect Engineering consists of the feelings and reactions (e.g., facial expressions) that arise from a change in an individual’s valuation of an entity for the fulfillment of a purpose.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

A novel experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, will often lead to an individual having future expectations. One’s first time eating a delicious brownie or cookie in response to hunger will typically lead to expectations of enjoying eating another food like it again in the future under similar circumstances. Likewise, an individual breaking a bone for the first time would likely have expectations that breaking a bone again in the future would be a painful and unpleasant experience that is best avoided.

While emotions, strong feelings, and affect can arise for both novel experiences where the individual has no prior expectations, and for scenarios in the future where the individual has predictions for what they expect to feel based upon their prior knowledge, most people would agree that an individual has a better chance to manage an emotional response to a situation where they have the advantage of holding past experience as a precedent. The focus here will be on emotional responses and emotional regulation for situations where the individual has relevant prior experience and knowledge about what they foresee will happen (e.g., an expected contingency). An emotional response in Affect Engineering consists of the physical sensations, feelings, affect arising from, and behavioral expressions (e.g., smiling when happy, crying when sad, frowning when angry) related to a change in an individual’s valuation of an object for the fulfillment of a specific purpose. Emotional responses serve as a call to action to the individual, and sometimes observers around them, to engage in behavior that will influence outcomes for the immediate situation at hand or alternatively future scenarios.

For example, a situation where an individual experiences a wave of good feelings and smiles after eating a food that looks strange but tastes appealing will create at least two messages. The individual both receives feedback from their own emotional response, a signal to continue eating, and the emotional response signals to observers that what the individual is eating is perhaps worth trying for themselves.

As mentioned in the first article of this series, affect that is unattached to a particular entity or purpose, such as a vague feelings of delight for no apparent reason to the individual, are best thought of as white noise or static interference in Affect Engineering. An individual unknowingly exposed to a drug for instance (e.g., in vapor form or dissolved in a consumed beverage), may feel the physical effects of it without knowing why they are occurring. Oftentimes, an entity, purpose, or explanation may be attributed to the feelings later, but until that happens it is not considered an emotional response in Affect Engineering. Instead, it is energy that is unavailable to do work by valuing entities until it is either demobilized, or attributed to something. In the context of Affect Engineering’s functions, this would be the equivalent of starting on the other side of the equation (i.e., the affect itself), and then working backwards to try to figure out an explanation for why the individual feels a certain way. In Affect Engineering’s framework, this is perhaps the best way to describe an individual’s formation of emotions for novel experiences where there are neither prior expectations nor context for the individual draw from, and also for accounting for physiological approaches to the study of emotions (e.g., James-Lange theory of emotions, Canon-Bard theory of emotions). However, for the purposes of explaining Affect Engineering’s basic framework here, a cognitive appraisal based approach (i.e., one emphasizing thoughts, mental processes, and interpretations) will be used here instead of a physiological one; but both approaches can be accounted for in Affect Engineering’s framework depending on which side of the functions one wishes to begin, or which variables are known initially.

There are pros and cons to each approach. If emotions are thought of as survival tools, then in some cases thinking one’s way through a situation and taking command of which emotions will be acted upon may be preferable. In these cases, the individual having absolute control over the tool will usually lead to more favorable outcomes, much like a construction worker adeptly wielding a heavy sledgehammer instead of being suddenly knocked off balance and falling over if they are carrying the tool on their back and its weight suddenly shifts.

In other cases, more favorable outcomes will tend to arise from the individual going along with wherever the emotion takes them, feeling their way through a situation in a more physiological approach. In these cases, going with the flow and letting one’s feelings guide a course of action will typically lead to more favorable outcomes, like a surfer on a surfboard following the path of least resistance, riding it where the waves take them instead of trying to fight against both the waves and board to go in a different direction.

Different situations often call for one approach over the other in terms of what is practical. Typically, the time one has available to act, or a deadline for action will determine which approach will yield a better outcome. When time and urgency are not a factor, approaches that emphasize thinking, interpretation, and mental processes (e.g., cognitive appraisal based) are often ideal. In contrast, when time is of the essence and acting quickly is important, physiological approaches oftentimes will yield better outcomes.

What does heeding an emotion’s call to action mean in Affect Engineering?

SHORT ANSWER

In Affect Engineering, heeding an emotion’s call to action means that the individual has chosen to carry out an action that will help in the acquisition of an entity related to the fulfillment of a purpose; this includes actions that can prevent a threat of harm to the entity or that can ensure a benefit befalls it.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

Heeding an emotion’s call to action concerns efficacy components and actions the individual can do to either acquire an entity, prevent a threat of harm to the entity, or to ensure a benefit happens to the entity. Acquiring an entity may be as straightforward as physically obtaining a piece of candy [entity] for the purpose of eating, or alternatively, something more abstract like acquiring the experience [entity] of simply witnessing an event taking place, such as seeing a display of fireworks at night. An entity could be anything tangible or intangible, depending on the context of the situation, and provides a greater degree of flexibility for analyzing different situations in Affect Engineering’s framework.

What variables can amplify, or alternatively, reduce an emotion’s call to action to the individual?

SHORT ANSWER

All of the variables in the functions have an influence or may potentially alter the magnitude and type of emotion felt by an individual.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

The variables that can alter the magnitude of an entity’s valuation, and subsequently alter the type of emotion felt and with the strength of its call to action include:

• Existence: The variable of Existence concerns whether or not the entity exists to the individual. It answers the question, “Does the individual know about the entity at all?” If an entity does not exist to an individual, then no emotional response to it can be modeled in Affect Engineering (i.e., the individual does not know about it at all and it is presumed that no emotions are felt towards it).
• Sufficiency: The variable of Sufficiency is concerned with the degree to which the entity in question is able to fulfill the task at hand on its own. It answers the question, “Is the entity enough for the purpose?”
• Uniqueness: The variable of Uniqueness is concerned with the degree to which the entity in question is the only entity capable of fulfilling the task at hand. It answers the question, “Is this the only option for the purpose?”
• Sentiment: The variable of Sentiment is concerned with the importance of the purpose at hand for which the entity is being valued. It answers the question, “How important is the purpose at hand relative to other purposes held by the individual?”
• Appraisal: The Appraisal variable is concerned with whether or not acquisition of the entity to fulfill the purpose at hand will lead towards or away from a restoration of equilibrium between the purpose being considered and its opposite or complementary purpose. The Appraisal variable in Affect Engineering is used to determine which type of function — Avoidance of Pain or alternatively the Pursuit of Pleasure — to use. It answers the question, “Will acquiring this entity lead to a restoration of equilibrium between this purpose and its opposite?”
• Threat (Threat of Harm to an entity): The variable of Threat, when at a high level, is modeled to amplify Anxiety invested in an entity and raise negative affect; alternatively, it is modeled to reduce Negative Anxiety invested and lower positive affect. It answers the question, “How severe is the threat of harm and how likely is it to happen?”
• Benefit (Promise of Benefit to an entity): The variable of Benefit, when at a high level, is modeled to reduce Anxiety invested and lower negative affect; alternatively, it is modeled to amplify Negative Anxiety invested and raise positive affect. It answers the question, “How helpful is the promise of benefit and how likely is it to happen?”
• Efficacy (Efficacy to prevent a threat of harm or to prevent a promise of benefit to an entity): Efficacy is modeled to counter the influence of Threat or Benefit, depending on which is used in a function. Functions in Affect Engineering use either Threat or Benefit, but not both. It answers the question, “How effective is the recommended action and what is the likelihood the individual can do it?”
• Attention: The variable of Attention is generally modeled to decay with a half-life in Affect Engineering, though it can be modeled in other ways. When modeled to decay, whatever variable it is influencing will diminish over time, similar to radioactive decay. Attention is typically directed towards features that have salience in an environment, such as a high level of contrast in brightness, sharpness, color, etc. It answers the question, “Which variables in a scenario are being noticed?”
• Reason (Reasoning or Executive functions): The variable of Reason generally influences valuations by holding Attention constant on one or several variables while permitting other variables to fall into attentional decay, that is to say, attention to them diminishes until they are all being ignored. It answers the question, “To which variables in a scenario is the individual directing their resources?”

The chart above illustrates a sample theoretical neural pathway for how an emotional response might arise based upon relationships and interactions between the above variables for an Avoidance of Pain function (i.e., used when the Appraisal variable is positive, explained in Article 3 of 12 in this series) in Affect Engineering. The original entity is given a base valuation for a purpose by the individual derived from its utility components (Sufficiency, Uniqueness, Sentiment felt for the purpose) and the fact that it exists to the individual. This valuation is then amplified or reduced further by expected threats of harm to it (e.g., via excitatory synapses that lower the threshold for neural activation) and the efficacy of the individual to prevent the harm to it (e.g., via inhibitory synapses that raise the threshold for neural activation). The groups of neurons that are used to mark the value of the entity (e.g., Anxiety in Affect Engineering) would also lead to pathways that correspond with negative affect (e.g., unpleasant feelings, or pain) in this setup.

This second chart illustrates a sample theoretical neural pathway for how an emotional response might arise based upon relationships and interactions between the above variables for a Pursuit of Pleasure function (i.e., used when the Appraisal variable is negative) in Affect Engineering. The setup is similar to the Avoidance of Pain function with a few exceptions. The original entity is still given a base valuation for a purpose derived from the same utility components (Sufficiency, Uniqueness, and Sentiment), and the fact it exists to the individual. The groups of neurons that are used to mark the value of the entity, Negative Affect in this case, would alternatively lead to pathways that correspond with positive affect (e.g., pleasant feelings, pleasure). The Threat components and Efficacy components have their excitatory and inhibitory roles reversed from the previous setup, with Threat having an inhibitory effect and Efficacy having an excitatory effect.

The above chart illustrates Attention being directed towards the Efficacy components for the first sample depicted, for the Avoidance of Pain function. If information concerning response-efficacy (i.e., the expected effectiveness of a response at preventing a threat of harm) and self-efficacy (i.e., the likelihood the individual believes they can perform the action) are more salient than the threat components (i.e., threat severity and threat susceptibility), then this would likely have the effect of helping the individual feel less overwhelmed in a potentially stressful or dire situation. This might prove helpful to the individual for conserving resources (i.e., Anxiety) in circumstances where the threat of harm is actually at a very high level and the efficacy appears low by comparison, or a classic underdog story (e.g., a David vs. Goliath scenario).

This final chart illustrates an executive function such as reasoning, being used to hold attention on efficacy components constant while permitting attention towards threat components to fall into attentional decay (e.g., neglect). This might be arranged by the individual if the purpose in question has a high level of importance to them and they are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it.

Though the four sample neurological models above illustrate a more cognitive appraisal based approach, as mentioned earlier, the route is reversible. A route beginning with positive affect or negative affect (e.g., the feeling itself) and ending with the individual later identifying or assigning factors that caused it later would be a more physiological based approach and more useful for novel experiences for the individual. In Affect Engineering, this would be the equivalent of starting on the other side of the equation (e.g., knowing variables on one side of the function before the other). This is not to say that everyone’s internal organizational scheme would be identical to the above sample models, but most would likely possess a structure more or less similar to it. Every brain is wired differently of course, and variations are to be expected. However, a general template does provide a starting point from which more nuanced discrepancies can be made (e.g., with coefficients alongside some variables).

How is emotion regulation by an individual modeled in Affect Engineering?

SHORT ANSWER

Emotion regulation in Affect Engineering is modeled to be primarily guided by the level of importance the individual holds for the purpose the emotion is being felt for (i.e., Sentiment variable), attentional processes, and executive functioning processes that can direct attentional processes toward or away from components of a scenario (i.e., other variables in the functions).

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

In Affect Engineering, emotion regulation by the individual is primarily modeled by the variables of Sentiment (i.e., the ranking of the purpose in question against the purpose with the utmost importance to the individual) and Reasoning. The variable of Sentiment works to influence emotion regulation by changing the importance of the purpose at hand for the individual, particularly in indeterministic setups of functions where free will is presumed and behavior cannot be predicted. Executive functions like Reasoning are modeled to influence emotion regulation primarily by directing Attention towards or away from other variables and maintaining it for an extended duration of time, or away from other variables to allow them to fall into attentional decay or neglect.

How might someone use their understanding of Affect Engineering’s framework to better regulate their own emotional responses and actions?

SHORT ANSWER

Someone might use their understanding of Affect Engineering’s framework to better regulate their own emotional responses, develop better resilience in the face of adversity, and potentially to influence the regulation of emotional responses in others.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION AND PREVIEW

One of the aims in developing Affect Engineering was to organize and model different approaches to the study of the psychology of emotion underneath the umbrella of a single, unifying language, math in this case. Knowing what resources one has at their disposal, what the relationship between these resources might be with one another, where to direct attention to perform at an optimal level, and recognizing how to best interpret emotions in oneself and others has practical applications that extend beyond emotional regulation. Some of these uses extend to rhetoric and persuasive techniques, simulated intelligence, behavioral forecasting, and worldbuilding for writers to name a few.

Preview:

Interpreting emotions in others falls under the domain of empathy, and is the subject of the next article.

Previous: Article 3 of 12 Reframing Anxiety as a Resource

Next: Article 5 of 12 Empathy in Affect Engineering

This page is also available on this website here, Article 4 of 12, Emotional Responses and Emotional Regulation in Affect Engineering

Cognitive Appraisals in the Context of Affect Engineering

This is the third article in a series designed for the layperson that will explain the basics of Affect Engineering as a theory of emotions. Each article will begin with a list of questions that it will aim to address. The sections that follow will be in two parts each. The first part will be a short statement that answers each question as succinctly as possible. The second part will either be an explanation that goes into more detail where needed or explain some of the implications of the short answer.

QUESTIONS

1. What is a cognitive appraisal towards the restoration of equilibrium between a purpose and its complementary purpose in Affect Engineering?
2. What are Positive Anxiety and Negative Anxiety in Affect Engineering?
3. Why are there two sets of functions in Affect Engineering?
4. What happens when equilibrium between a purpose and its complementary purpose are not sought, and when might this occur?

What is a cognitive appraisal towards the restoration of equilibrium between a purpose and its complementary purpose in Affect Engineering?

SHORT ANSWER

A cognitive appraisal, or Appraisal for short, in Affect Engineering concerns whether the acquisition of an entity is deemed to lead towards balancing the success to failure rate between fulfilling a purpose versus fulfilling its complementary purpose (i.e., two opposing goals), bringing it closer to the ideal for the individual, or towards unbalancing the success to failure rate between the purpose and its complementary purpose.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

The survival related need to assess whether or not objects and events in an environment will help or hinder the individual’s effort to balance the fulfillment of opposing objectives is what Appraisals address in Affect Engineering’s framework. If, for example, a glass of water is considered by an individual for the fulfillment of the purpose of hydrating versus not hydrating or dehydrating, then there are two things that are taken into consideration in Affect Engineering.

First, the glass of water is given a valuation by the individual for both the purpose of hydrating and also for the purpose of not hydrating (i.e., dehydrating). This upholds the 1:1:1:1 Ratio established in the second article of this series. In most cases, the individual would recognize (i.e., from past learning) that the glass of water is more valuable for helping the individual to hydrate if it is consumed than it is for helping the individual to not hydrate if consumed. For instance, based upon the glass of water’s Sufficiency for the fulfillment of the purpose of not hydrating, at bare minimum another entity would be required for the glass of water to be sufficient for dehydrating, (e.g., heat to vaporize it). The two valuations of the glass of water by the individual are separate because they are for two different and opposing purposes. An individual who has learned that water alleviates thirst would be expected to give the glass of water a higher valuation for the purpose of hydrating, while giving the glass a water a valuation closer to its existential value (i.e., base valuation for existing) for the purpose of not hydrating.

The individual’s valuation of the glass of water will tend to be larger for the purpose of hydrating (LEFT) than for the purpose of not hydrating (RIGHT). Subsequently, the emotion felt for the former will be given more weight by the individual, while the latter’s influence would be offset completely, but is nonetheless present.

Secondly, the individual’s current state of being and where it is relative to their ideal success-to-failure rate for the two purposes (e.g., striking a balance or maintaining homeostasis) will need to be determined. If the individual is very thirsty, then the glass of water’s acquisition would be expected to lead towards a restoration of equilibrium. As stated in the previous paragraph and image, the glass of water would still have a valuation for the purpose of not hydrating (dehydrating), but this valuation would be dwarfed and offset by the valuation of the glass of water for the fulfillment of the purpose of hydrating. This would persist as long as the individual considers water to be more useful for hydrating than dehydrating oneself.

For a very thirsty individual, the individual would be expected to give the glass of water a positive Appraisal towards the restoration of equilibrium (larger value to far left) and a coefficient of +1.

The smaller valuation (on the right), for the purpose of not hydrating, would be given a negative Appraisal towards the restoration of equilibrium, and a coefficient of -1.

Alternatively, if the individual was overly hydrated with liquid already, to the point that consuming more water would lead away from equilibrium, then the Appraisals would flip. The glass of water would be given a negative Appraisal for the fulfillment of the purpose of hydrating, as drinking the water would lead to the individual feeling waterlogged and move them away from equilibrium/homeostasis. For the complementary purpose of not hydrating, the glass of water would have a positive Appraisal, as dehydrating oneself in this case would lead towards a restoration of equilibrium between the purpose and complementary purpose.

For an overly hydrated individual, the individual would be expected to give the glass of water a negative Appraisal towards the restoration of equilibrium (larger value on the right) and a coefficient of -1.

The smaller valuation (far left), for the purpose of not hydrating, would be given a positive Appraisal towards the restoration of equilibrium, and a coefficient of +1.

Appraisals are incorporated into Affect Engineering as a discrete variable (equaling +1 or -1), and their use means that Anxiety is of two types in its framework: Positive Anxiety and Negative Anxiety). Positive Anxiety, in this case, means the Anxiety invested in an entity has a positive Appraisal, and the individual expects that fulfillment of the purpose in consideration will lead towards restoring equilibrium or balancing fulfillment of the purpose against fulfillment of its complementary purpose (i.e., opposing purpose).

Negative Anxiety is in contrast to this, and means the Anxiety invested in an entity has a negative Appraisal; the individual expects that fulfillment of the purpose in consideration will lead away from restoring equilibrium, and will unbalance fulfillment of the purpose against fulfillment of its complementary purpose (i.e., opposing purpose).

To summarize, in Affect Engineering Appraisals concern the individual’s assessment of whether or not fulfilling the purpose at hand will lead towards its fulfillment being balanced or unbalanced against fulfillment of its opposing purpose. What makes Appraisals somewhat tricky to grasp in Affect Engineering’s framework is the notion that an entity or object is always considered to be valuable both for doing and not doing the same action, but to different degrees (e.g., water cannot be highly useful for both hydrating and dehydrating oneself). This is necessary to adhere to its 1:1:1:1 Ratio. On another note, Primary Appraisals (e.g., concerning evaluations and threats or harm) and Secondary Appraisals (e.g., concerning efficacy and coping mechanisms) as proposed by Richard S. Lazarus, are incorporated in a different manner as separate variables within Affect Engineering’s framework, as mentioned in the second article of this series, and they will be examined in more depth later in this series as other variables and concepts are introduced.

What are Positive Anxiety and Negative Anxiety in Affect Engineering?

SHORT ANSWER

Positive Anxiety in Affect Engineering concerns increases and decreases to negative affect with respect to a single purpose for the individual. Negative Anxiety in Affect Engineering concerns increases and decreases to positive affect with respect to a single purpose for the individual.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

Due to Affect Engineering’s adherence to its 1:1:1:1 ratio as a principle, Positive Anxiety and Negative Anxiety are concerned with different types of affect.

Positive Anxiety in Affect Engineering is concerned with increases and reductions to negative affect (e.g., generally corresponding to negative feelings and emotions). In the case of Positive Anxiety, positive here is in reference to whether fulfillment of the purpose will lead towards a restoration of equilibrium between the purpose at hand and its complementary purpose (i.e., yes, for the purpose at hand in this case).

In contrast, Negative Anxiety in Affect Engineering is concerned with increases and reductions to positive affect (e.g., generally corresponding to positive feelings and emotions). In the case of Negative Anxiety, negative here is in reference to whether fulfillment of the purpose will lead towards a restoration of equilibrium between the purpose at hand and its complementary purpose (i.e., no, for the purpose at hand in this case).

The example of the glass of water being valued by an individual for the purpose of hydrating will be considered again. For an individual who is extremely thirsty, any threat of harm to the glass of water (e.g., a rival who wants to drink it first) would be expected to raise the individual’s investment of Positive Anxiety into it for the purpose of hydrating, and subsequently raise negative affect felt if they are unable to procure the glass of water, especially if no other water sources are available nearby. If, however, the individual is able to acquire the glass of water despite the threat of harm, a reduction in the Positive Anxiety invested into it for the purpose of hydrating would be expected, as well as a reduction in negative affect felt. Both of these valuations of the glass of water would be for the specific purpose at hand, hydrating, as its value for the complementary purpose (i.e., not hydrating), would be smaller and negligible due to being offset.

The rival threatens the same glass of water being valued for a purpose and its complementary purpose. More Positive Anxiety (LEFT) and subsequently, more negative affect, is at stake because of the Appraisal of the glass of water (i.e., the individual is thirsty, and drinking the water would lead towards homeostasis).

Alternatively, if the individual is overly hydrated (i.e., drinking the glass of water would lead away from homeostasis), then any specific threat of harm to the glass of water would reduce the Negative Anxiety invested into it for the purpose of hydrating, and lower the positive affect felt at the prospect of having extra water in their system, with respect to this single purpose of hydrating. However, if the individual expects they will be able to successfully acquire the water despite the threat of harm posed by a rival who intends to drink it first, an increase in Negative Anxiety invested into the entity for this single purpose of hydrating, as well as positive affect felt, would be modeled in the framework of Affect Engineering.

The rival threatens the same glass of water being valued for a purpose and its complementary purpose. More Negative Anxiety, and subsequently, more positive affect, is at stake because of the Appraisal of the glass of water (i.e., the individual is overly hydrated, and drinking the water would lead away from homeostasis).

It bears mentioning that in Affect Engineering’s framework, the successful fulfillment of one purpose always comes at the expense of fulfillment of the complementary purpose, and these two purposes are both mutually exclusive and exhaustive. For example, an individual cannot hydrate and dehydrate themselves at the same time, but they are always doing one or the other. For an overly hydrated individual, continuing to hydrate will normally increase the sense of urgency held for the complementary purpose, as maintaining equilibrium and homeostasis becomes jeopardized the more that one purpose is held above its opposite. This would happen if the individual intends to continue living by maintaining homeostasis, as most goals held by an individual also require the individual to be alive in order to successfully achieve them. There are exceptions to this, nonetheless.

Why are there two sets of functions in Affect Engineering?

SHORT ANSWER

Two sets of functions are needed to help model and classify emotions depending upon the Appraisal of the entity towards the restoration of equilibrium between fulfilling a purpose and fulfilling the complementary purpose or opposing goal.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

The Appraisal variable in Affect Engineering is used to determine which function type is used to model a valuation for an entity as it relates to the fulfillment of a purpose held by an individual. The two function types in Affect Engineering’s framework are the Pursuit of Pleasure functions, and the Avoidance of Pain functions.

Functions with a positive Appraisal in Affect Engineering concern changes to negative affect and are used when the individual determines that fulfillment of the purpose at hand would lead toward restoring equilibrium between it and its complementary purpose. These are referred to as the Avoidance of Pain Functions.

Functions with a negative Appraisal in Affect Engineering concern changes to positive affect and are used when the individual determines that fulfillment of the purpose at hand would lead away from restoring equilibrium between it and its complementary purpose. These are referred to as the Pursuit of Pleasure Functions.

There are of courses parallels and contrasts between the two functions that are worth examining based upon the classification methods for different emotions in Affect Engineering, such as between guilt and sadness, or between anger and happiness. Moreover, where equilibrium is believed to be, that is to say, what the idealized failure to success rate is between a purpose and its opposing purpose, is not assumed to be constant between individuals.

What happens when equilibrium between a purpose and its complementary purpose are not sought, and when might this occur?

SHORT ANSWER

When equilibrium between the fulfillment of a purpose and its complementary purpose is not sought, the individual is in danger of perishing if a primary drive is involved. This could occur if an individual seeks to fulfill a purpose and the successful fulfillment of the purpose can only come at the expense of the individual’s own life.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

An individual might choose to hold the fulfillment of one purpose above its complementary purpose, even at the risk of death, if they possess a high degree of resolve to achieve a certain aim or perform a specific action. This could happen in cases of martyrdom (i.e., sacrificing oneself for a cause), or altruistic sacrifice, as in the case of an individual putting their own life in jeopardy or even in the line of fire in order to save someone else, a group of people, or even inanimate objects.

Preview:

The next article will address emotional regulation in Affect Engineering. Though the classifications and descriptions for specific emotions have not been covered yet — they will be in the second half of this article series — the mechanisms proposed to influence them can be addressed before then.

Previous: Article 2 of 12 Reframing Anxiety as a Resource

Next: Article 4 of 12 Emotional Responses and Emotional Regulation in Affect Engineering

Reframing Anxiety as a Resource

This is the second article in a series designed for the layperson that will explain the basics of Affect Engineering as a theory of emotions. Each article will begin with a list of questions that it will aim to address. The sections that follow will be in two parts each. The first part will be a short statement that answers each question as succinctly as possible. The second part will either be an explanation that goes into more detail where needed or explain some of the implications of the short answer.

QUESTIONS

1. What does reframing Anxiety as a resource entail for Affect Engineering and what are its implications?
2. How are primary and secondary drives incorporated into Affect Engineering?
3. How are the concepts of will, willpower, and free will addressed in Affect Engineering?
4. What is the 1:1:1:1 Ratio in Affect Engineering and what are its implications?
5. What do maintaining and breaking a double bind mean in the context of Affect Engineering?

What does reframing Anxiety as a resource entail for Affect Engineering and what are its implications??

SHORT ANSWER

Within the context of Affect Engineering, to value an entity with respect to the fulfillment of a purpose entails an investment of Anxiety or energy. In short, to value something is to have Anxiety invested into it.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

In the first article of this series, entities were described as possessing a value comprised of two parts: an existential part and a utility part with respect to a particular purpose. To mark an entity with both an existential value and a utility value requires requires an investment of energy from the individual. Entities that have more energy invested in them than other entities are seen in Affect Engineering as having a high value, while entities that have less energy invested in them are seen as having a low value. This energy is labeled Anxiety in Affect Engineering, and is measured in Emotional Units within its framework.

To give an example using the sport of golf, five different balls and holes for courses will be considered for an individual. The individual has five separate goals, but they are all identical, that is to say, the goal is to make par for each hole. Each course has a different par, ranging from par 1 to par 5. The size of the flag above each hole is representative of how much Anxiety is invested into making each shot for each hole. A larger flag means more Anxiety is invested in each stroke.

Golf flags where the size of the flag parallels the amount of Anxiety invested into making each stroke. The individual’s goal is simply to make par, and each ball is the same distance from its hole as the others.

Each ball is the same distance from their respective hole as all of the other balls. The par 1 hole will have the most Anxiety invested into each stroke because there is only one chance to get the ball in the course; that is to say, the Uniqueness of the stroke is 1/1 for the par one hole. The par 5 hold will have the least amount of Anxiety invested into each stroke because the Uniqueness of each stroke is 1/5. Hypothetically speaking, if an individual had 100 units of Anxiety (i.e., Emotional Units) invested into landing the ball into the hole in one stroke for the Par 1 course, then they might be expected to have approximately 20 units of Anxiety (i.e., Emotional Units) invested into each stroke for the par 5 course. A similar estimate could be made for the par 2 (i.e., 50 E.U.), par 3 (i.e., 33.3 E.U.), and par 4 (i.e., 25 E.U.) courses.

Graph for the Anxiety invested into each stroke for each course where the goal is to simply make par. Anxiety invested is measured in Emotional Units (E.U.).

The overall Anxiety invested for making par on each course is the same. However, all of the Anxiety is invested into the single stroke permitted for the par 1 course. For the other courses, the Anxiety invested is split between the number of strokes available to make par. To say that an individual values something, in Affect Engineering, is to say that the individual has Anxiety is invested in it.

How are primary and secondary drives incorporated into Affect Engineering?

SHORT ANSWER

Both primary or biological drives (e.g., those related to survival such as the impulse to eliminate hunger, or thirst) and secondary or non-biological drives (e.g., those that are learned or associated, such as the impulse to seek social connections or work towards achieving a particular feat) are construed as motivation to do a single action and are one-directional in Affect Engineering. The impulse behind an action related to a specific drive is held in check or balanced by its opposing impulse (e.g., the impulse to eat food to acquire nutrients vs. the impulse to not eat food).

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

An impulse can generally be described as an inclination to act that arises as a reaction to either internal stimuli (e.g., seeking food in response to physical sensations of hunger) or external stimuli (e.g., moving one’s hand away from a hot stove). In Affect Engineering, the impulse behind a drive is perhaps best thought of as a vector, possessing both force (e.g., motivational force) and a single direction, while the drive itself is perhaps best thought of as a ray, that is, a half-line extending in one direction towards infinity but with no specific magnitude. The force behind a drive may fluctuate, increasing or alternatively diminishing, but its direction does not change. What this entails for Affect Engineering is that the impulse behind an action related to a primary drive, such as the motivation to eat food to acquire nutrients and energy, is considered to persist even after eating and the physical sensations of hunger have near diminished to the individual. It is at this point that the impulse behind the action (i.e., acquiring food to eat) would be held in check or balanced by an opposing impulse behind the opposite action, motivation to not acquiring food in order to not eat, or fasting in this case. Both impulses on their own, if left unchecked by one another, would lead to death, from either starvation or overeating (e.g., choking, or gastric rupture). For the primary drives, life is sustained by striking a balance between the two impulses behind the mutually exclusive actions, as one cannot eat and not eat at the same time.

Overlap of the rays (similar to a vector but extending to infinity) representing each impulse that corresponds to a drive. Life is maintained by striking a balance between the opposing impulses. Death results if either is held above the other, starvation in the case of not eating, or hyperphagia in an extreme case of overeating.

This holds true for impulses behind actions related to the other primary drives (drinking water to hydrate vs. not drinking water to not hydrate; sleeping to rest vs. not sleeping to not rest). If either impulse is taken to an extreme over the other, then death would be the end result. In the case of reproduction, either sexual (two parents) or asexual (single parent like sea stars, Komodo Dragons, and many plants species), while not engaging in it does not necessarily lead to the death of the individual, if the impulse were taken to an extreme (i.e., held above its opposing impulse 100% of the time), it would lead to the extinction of the species if every member of the species took the impulse to not engage in reproduction to that same extremity. In the framework of Affect Engineering, it bears more resemblance to secondary drives in that sense for the individual, which will be discussed next.

For impulses behind actions related to secondary drives, death would only be the result in half of the instances, when the impulse behind a specific action is held above the impulse to not do that same action 100% of the time and this interferes with any of the aforementioned primary drives that keep the individual alive. For instance, an individual who holds a particular impulse behind an action related to a secondary drive above its counterpart 100% of the time would very likely have to forgo sleeping, eating, drinking, resting, or in some cases all of the above if the impulse to do the specific action is held above its counterpart at any cost. Some examples include running without stopping (or any other endurance feat to set a world record for that matter) vs. not running, acquiring as much wealth indefinitely vs. not acquiring wealth, or acquiring fame indefinitely vs. not acquiring fame. Excessive ambition in any endeavor comes with its own risks. A popular phrase in mountain climbing sums up this point up clearly, “Every dead body on Mount Everest was once a highly motivated person.”

Any impulse to act, if taken to the extreme over not doing that same action, will lead to death. For impulses related to primary drives, the distinguishing feature is that the impulse and its opposing impulse must both be balanced against one another, so that the individual does not die or so that the species persists in the case of reproduction. For impulses related to secondary drives that are non-biological and learned or associated, the impulse only needs to be balanced on one side of the spectrum to ensure that death does not happen for the individual. Notwithstanding, there are notable instances where this could occur that would still need to be accounted for and explained in Affect Engineering or any theory of emotions, such as in cases of altruistic suicide, and political or religious martyrdom to name a few.

How are the concepts of will, willpower, and free will addressed in Affect Engineering?

SHORT ANSWER

Closely related to drives, the will in Affect Engineering refers to the resolve to do a particular action in Affect Engineering. Willpower refers to an individual’s capacity to continue doing an action, oftentimes in the face of obstacles from external pressures in the environment or internal pressures within the individual. Free will refers to an individual’s capacity to decide to change or not change what they are doing at whim.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

Defining the will as the resolve to do an action means that the individual has reached a firm decision about what action they plan to take at any given moment. This will oftentimes be influenced by a deadline for action, where the window for opportunity to acquire certain entities is limited. The variables that will influence the resolve to do an action and a deadline for action will typically be those that threaten the entity, benefit the entity, or are related to the individual’s ability to do anything about the situation. The concepts of threat components (e.g., threat severity and threat susceptibility) along with efficacy components (response efficacy and self-efficacy), are borrowed from communication and psychology literature on the subject, but they are implemented differently within Affect Engineering’s Framework, (i.e., as contingencies within larger functions). Threat severity in Affect Engineering is understood as the degree to which an event in the future or a second entity is expected to damage, destroy, or deny access to the original entity the individual is valuing for a purpose, while threat susceptibility refers to the chance the threat of harm will take place. Response efficacy in Affect Engineering, is understood as the expected effectiveness of an action the individual can take to prevent the threat of harm to the original entity, while self efficacy refers to the likeliness the individual believes they can perform the response. For those interested on more information on the concepts outside of this framework:

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215.

Rogers, R. W. (1975). A Protection Motivation Theory of Fear Appeals and Attitude Change1. The Journal of Psychology, 91(1), 93–114.

Witte, K. (1992). Putting the fear back into fear appeals: The extended parallel process model. Communication Monographs, 59(4), 329–349.

The distinction between an expectation of benefit and a threat of harm is largely one of interpretation in Affect Engineering, as the absence of a threat of harm may be viewed as an expected benefit, just as the absence of an expected benefit may be viewed as a threat of harm. A benefit is the counterpart to threat, and in Affect Engineering is the degree to which an event in the future or second entity might repair, create, or enable access to the original entity being valued. Threats of harm and expected benefits are used in different setups of the functions as one may have more salience to an individual than the other for any number of reasons (e.g., environment, culture, language, social factors in one’s upbringing, etc.). For instance, if an individual is more oriented towards pursuing rewards than avoiding costs, or vice versa, different emotional responses could result from the same scenario depending on how information is presented to the individual. If costs resonate more to an individual, then threats of harm would be expected to lead to emotions that have a greater intensity. Alternatively, if rewards resonate more to an individual, then expectations of benefits would be expected to lead to emotions that have a greater intensity for the individual.

In Affect Engineering, threats of harm, expectations of benefit, and efficacy with respect to an individual’s ability to do anything about the situation are expressed as expected contingencies (e.g., positive contingencies, such as event A always happens whenever event B happens; or negative contingencies, such as event C never happens whenever D happens). The implementation of these concepts (i.e., threat, benefit, efficacy) in Affect Engineering is more nuanced as they are variables that make up part of larger functions, are affected by other variables in the function, and their influence is not always readily apparent. Generally, these variables further raise or lower an individual’s valuation of an entity with respect to a purpose even more. If an individual has a particular threshold for action, that is to say, a point at which the energy invested into entity being valued for a purpose becomes too great for the individual to ignore (i.e., a powerful call to action), then the individual will resolve themselves to do something about it and take action of some sort if possible.

To explain this, an individual’s desire to eat an ice cream cake later in the day will be considered as an example. The entity in question is the ice cream cake, it is being valued for the purpose of eating, and it has a high value to the individual. The ice cream cake was delivered and left on the individual’s porch, but they were not at home to receive it. Upon learning that the ice cream cake was delivered, they check the weather forecast and discover that an extreme heat advisory is in place all day, with temperatures forecast to be at or above 115 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat wave is a threat to the ice cream cake, and would be expected to elevate the individual’s valuation of the cake and the Anxiety invested in it, as the heat threatens to melt and spoil the cake. However, if the individual knows that they can successfully perform an effective action to safeguard the ice cream cake against the heat, such as returning home and placing it in a refrigerator or freezer before it becomes ruined, then the valuation of the cake will lower, as excess Anxiety no longer needs to be invested into protecting the cake’s edibility.

Defining willpower as an individual’s capacity to continue doing an action concerns an individual’s ability to maintain a certain sense of urgency in a situation. For most forms of the functions, the variables that influence willpower in Affect Engineering are those related to attentional control, the spotlight of attention, and reasoning. This concerns the individual’s ability to maintain the spotlight of attention over certain aspects of a situation while permitting other aspects to fall into attentional decay. For example, if faced with a seemingly near impossible task to complete, an individual with a strong sense of will power might delegate all of their attentional resources to what they can do about the situation while ignoring the threat of harm or impending danger to themselves (i.e., permitting it to fall into attentional decay). This would help with managing available Anxiety resources, so as to not overinvest them and feel overwhelmed by the task at hand. One example of this would be a firefighter attempting to save people from a burning building who devotes less attention to the risks posed to their own life from the fire in order to stay calm while they focus on finding and rescuing trapped individuals.

Defining free will as an individual’s capacity to decide to change or not change what they are doing at whim concerns whether or not one wishes to construct a function that is more indeterministic in its outlook and where free will is permitted, or a function that is more deterministic and/or fatalistic in its outlook. As mentioned in the first article of this series, the Sentiment variable is generally modeled as an individual’s capacity for free will, but the efforts taken by the individual and their capacity to regulate their own emotions and valuations (i.e., willpower above), also contribute to this.

What is the 1:1:1:1 Ratio in Affect Engineering and what are its implications?

SHORT ANSWER

The 1:1:1:1 Ratio is one of the principles that Affect Engineering follows. It holds that one person may give one value (i.e., feel one emotion) for one entity as it relates to the fulfillment of one purpose.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

The 1:1:1:1 Ratio, holds that one person may give one value for one entity as it relates to the fulfillment of one purpose to avoid premature or erroneous conflation in Affect Engineering. One example of premature conflation would be in assuming that a single entity elicits the same value and the same emotion to an individual for every purpose that it is being considered. For example, a cell phone may be valuable to an individual for the purpose of making phone calls, but if it has a low quality camera, then it may be less valuable to the individual for the purpose of taking pictures; if it has an ideal design and interfacing for texting then it may be valuable to the individual for the purpose of texting, but if it cannot be used to browse the internet or run a navigation app, then its value for the purpose of browsing the internet and the purpose of navigating to find a restaurant will be less.

What this entails for Affect Engineering is that each entity an individual cognizes has a single value, and subsequently a single emotion, mapped onto every purpose for which it is being considered. An individual would feel multiple emotions for a single entity, the cell phone in the above case, but each would be for a different purpose that is being considered. For example, if a knife is being considered by an individual for three different purposes, then it would have at least three valuations and there would be at least three emotions felt for the knife by the individual.

The entity of a knife would be given different valuations by an individual for different purposes, and each would correspond to a different emotion felt:

1. Value for cutting a banana
2. Value for opening a box
3. Value as a potential murder weapon

These valuations may be combined or averaged thereafter if one wishes, but they are first calculated separately. This also applies in the case of a purpose and its complementary purpose or opposite purpose. For instance, returning to the entity of the ice cream cake, it would be given a value by an individual for the purpose of eating food and a separate value for the purpose of not eating food. The valuation of the entity will tend to be higher for one purpose or the other, while the lesser valuation will approach its existential value. The ice cream cake cannot be highly useful for both the purpose of eating and the purpose of not eating, as that would be a contradiction.

What does maintaining a double bind mean in the context of Affect Engineering?

SHORT ANSWER

In Affect Engineering, maintaining a double bind means balancing the success to failure rate between a purpose and its opposing purpose that are both related to a primary drive in such a way that the individual’s life can be sustained. Breaking a double bind means unbalancing the success to failure rate between a purpose and its opposing purpose that are both related to a primary drive by holding the priority of one purpose above its opposite to the point where the individual’s life cannot be sustained. For purposes related to secondary drives there is no double bind and this does not apply directly, but a balance between purposes still must be maintained for at least one of the purposes if the individual is to continue living.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION

A double bind is, in short, a dilemma where conflicting messages leave the individual with no satisfactory choice due to both courses of actions leading to undesirable results. Affect Engineering’s adherence to the 1:1:1:1 Ratio necessitates a specificity of word choice that admittedly borders on pedantic, but it is nevertheless crucial in order to avoid premature conflation, that is, erroneously combining two emotions for a single entity into one, or even two purposes into one purpose when there should be two separate purposes considered.

For example, to hold the statement, “I will eat until I am full,” as a single purpose would be a violation of the 1:1:1:1 Ratio in Affect Engineering, as there are two purposes in this statement being considered, and not one. The first purpose the individual is considering is to eat. The second purpose is to not eat or to fast at some point, however one wishes to phrase it. If taken to the extreme and fulfilled indefinitely (e.g., at the maximum rate and without stopping, such as a pie eating contest, or alternatively a politically minded hunger strike), each of these objectives — to eat, and to not eat — would lead to the individual’s death if left unchecked. Both end results, from the two mutually exclusive purposes of eating and fasting, are generally considered undesirable to someone who wants to continue living, as most of an individual’s goals depend upon them being alive in order to achieve them.

In Affect Engineering, to say that an individual is “Maintaining a double bind” is another way of saying the individual is striking a balance between fulfilling two purposes that would each lead to the individual’s death if the fulfillment of one was taken to an extreme level above the other. The individual swings back and forth between fulfilling the two purposes in order to sustain their life. In the framework of Affect Engineering, maintaining a double bind of this sort is a necessary condition for survival; it is the equivalent of maintaining homeostasis; this will be the topic of the third article in this series.

It follows then that breaking a double bind entails upholding one of these purposes over the other to such a degree that life can no longer be maintained. An individual who takes a hunger strike the full distance, or an individual who in their ambition to win the pie eating contest chokes or dies from a rupture of the stomach, is said to have broken a double bind in Affect Engineering. In the framework of Affect Engineering, breaking a double bind of this sort always leads to death, and it is the equivalent of not maintaining homeostasis.

Because purposes and their opposing purposes that concern secondary drives (e.g., learned or associated ones, such as the acquisition of fame or wealth) do not lead to death for both purposes, they are not considered double binds. However, purposes that concern secondary drives typically will lead to death on one end if their fulfillment is pursued incessantly and indefinitely over their opposing purpose, albeit it indirectly, as this would likely cause a primary drive to be neglected in the process. The success to failure rate only needs to be balanced on one side if it concerns a secondary drive, as performing the action (e.g., the acquisition of fame) indefinitely without rest or stopping would also make it impossible to balance the primary drives, but not performing the action (e.g., not seeking the acquisition of fame) is not necessarily fatal.

Preview: Appraisals in the Context of Affect Engineering

Appraisals in the context of Affect Engineering concern the maintenance of homeostasis, and will be covered in the next article.

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