Emotions and Decision making...

Emotions and Decision making

"Don't make emotional decisions."?We have all heard this advice in our lives.??Studies in several branches of cognitive research have now?revealed that, contrary to what was previously believed, human intuition and emotional reactions play a significantly larger role in influencing human behaviour?and decision making.

What varies is only the order of emotion. Emotions?create energy fields around us. These emotions have orders.??The lowest order being the emotion of shame. The good side of?a person?who is acting out of shame will be conforming to the moral and ethical standard of behaviour widely accepted in the society.?However the downside is that in?this emotion the person will avoid taking any risk and always act to conform certainty.?Anger is another emotion which can impact your decision making.??If??you are?consumed by this emotion then it can prove to be detrimental??but should you choose to convert into positive action then it can bring change.?The?order of these emotions are??shame,?guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, pride, courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, and enlightenment.?It is great work to come to a?level?where you have the power of discretion over your emotions?and to operate from a higher level of energy.

People warn you against making emotional decision because?they have limited understanding and awareness of how emotions work. They think emotions mean sadness or anger or frustration, etc. They lack education about other emotions, concept of emotional management and are not able to make?deliberate decisions involving higher order emotions. People acting out of fear all the time will never be able to achieve higher goals for themselves and their contribution to the world will be limited.?

Emotions are not some extraterritorial thing to be despised rather they?result from knowledge, practice, and quick information processing.?They help you navigate life and make decisions to grow.

You are given a stimulus- external events,??that cause a feeling, and this is how it works. Feelings originate from the release of a particular combination of brain chemicals and hormones by the emotion.?This creates sensations in the body. This creates movement inside your body.??To put it another way, some sentiments are brought on by your emotions, which then influence your decision-making process. Those emotions can affect your cognition in a favourable or bad way. Now people who have?greater self awareness are able to choose their response?likely to?have a more?desirable outcome.?

?Dr. Antonio Damasio, a neurologist well-known for his research on the connection between emotions and decision-making, said that emotions may be crucial for coping with judgements?which??involve?equal possibilities and choices which do not have a clear??rationale.

In his book Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain from 1994, Damasio demonstrates how people who have prefrontal cortex injury are unable to produce the emotions required for wise decision-making.

As an illustration, he uses Elliot's narrative to show how he was unable to make easy decisions, like what colour socks to wear, when emotion was absent. This implies that feelings may play a crucial role in decision-making at the time of decision. The choice itself may be based on emotion, even when we think it is based on reason.

When adolescents?are under high stress there is less coordination and collaboration of the reasoning brain and amygdala which is the emotional centre of the brain.?They are more prone to?mental health issues and less likely to perform well academically and will have issues in social interaction.??

How to make good use of the Prefrontal Cortex and the Amygdala in decision making.

(a) Be a head and heart person.

Be mindful of both your?emotions?and?your thoughts. Most of the time, emotions?are attempting to warn you about something you should think about before making a decision and can be life saving. As an example, think about Anger. Anger increases one's propensity to take risks and downplays the dangers associated with such risks. It may also be an attempt to alert you to the fact that you are being treated unfairly and to the fact that you need to take action.

If you use your discretion to find a way to be?assertive without being annoying, you will have a better chance of being heard. Listen to your emotions but act with your head.

(b) Take time before you act.?— When there is an undesirable situation in front of you just wait and think how it can turn out to be an advantage than a defeat. Then do your homework, collect your data and make informed decisions.

(c) Do not let external events influence you.??Make sure that emotions arising from an unrelated event, or the weather, or natural calamities, pandemic or something that is not in your control – don’t colour your evaluation of the expected outcomes.?

(d) Taking decisions is also a change making process.???Kurt Lewin??devised a method in which you take all elements into consideration to make important decisions. It is called as??Force-Field Analysis. In this he says if you have to make some decision on for example?you want to send your child to a particular school. Take a sheet of paper and divide the page in two halves. In one write all the factors which are the driving force and on the other write all the resisting force.??Then assign a value to?each of them and tally the results.?

Just make sure you list not only rational options, but also your possible emotional reaction to those options. Try and include both intrinsic and extrinsic factors of considerations. This shall give you an accurate result and help you make good decision.