The Commitment
Theory of Emotions
Tentative applications
to the diagnosis
and treatment
of affective disorders
Michel Aubé
Université de Sherbrooke
A sample story
about my uncle’s
GRIEF and GUILT
…….
The words that came to my mind that day
were directly inspired by my model
and by the way
I envision emotions through it
When I started working on emotions,
I soon realized, as so many theorists before,
that emotions and needs were related,
that they actually shared a common structure
I also realized that they both were kind of motivations,
actually they were motivational structures
and they belonged to MOTIVATION as the larger set
Motivational systems have
a prototypical control circuitry
1986
When you look closer into what
actually gets compared
between actual and desired states
you essentially find resources :
nutriments, water, rest, shelter, etc.
Motivation is essentially about
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
(acquisition, maintenance,
protection, replenishment)
Question
If emotions do constitute
a motivational system,
and if such systems are there
to manage ressources, then
what kind of resources
do emotions manage?
A little hint from Herbert Simon :
In
human
behavior,
situations
involving interactions with other
human beings are characteristically
more heavily laden with emotions than
any
other
situations.
(H. Simon, 1967: Motivational and emotional controls of cognition.
Psychological Review, 74, p. 37).
The essentially interactive
nature of emotions
a) The argument from neurosciences
b) The argument from the antecedents
c) The argument from expression
d) The argument from psychopathy
e) … and the opinion of (a lot of) researchers
Question
If emotions are interactive,
could the resources
be other agents…
even if they are unreliable?
Actually, things are more subtle:
the resource is not the agents
but their predisposition to be helpful
The baby’s distress cry is not addressed
to the caregiver herself
but to the attachment structure
that relates her to the baby
I tried to find a concept
capturing this predisposition
and I found one that had appeared
at about the same time
between the mid-fifties and the mid-sixties
in three domains of the social sciences,
three domains actually ignoring each other :
THE CONCEPT OF COMMITMENT
Genealogy of the
Commitment concept
1960
Points of convergence between the
domains at the root of the concept
Each domain:
• reflects upon the enactment of intentions
• sees commitments as a coordination device
• stresses the cost in terms of resources involved
• stresses the motivational character of commitments
• sees commitments as dynamic processes
So I adopted the concept
and gave it my personal color :
I envisioned commitments as 2nd-order resources,
resources that one can’t get directly but only
through an agent disposed to offer them
The processes that manage these resources
are the emotions :
EMOTIONS ARE
COMMITMENTS HANDLERS
Basic structure of commitments
Going back to my
a sample story …
Commitments are all over
at the very core of emotions!
How use this to help relieve
those suffering from
attachment wounds?
One interest of the model
for this Workshop’s theme
is that it pinpoints
various locus of intervention
for the therapist involved
in treating affective disorders
Locus of action for
Emotionally Focused Therapy
Locus of action for
Emotionally Focused Therapy
Locus of action for
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Locus of action for
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
The Commitment
Theory of Emotions
Tentative applications
to the diagnosis
and treatment
of affective disorders
Michel Aubé
Université de Sherbrooke