Beyond Needs: Emotions and the Commitments Requirements

Abstract

This chapter proposes a model of emotions relying upon an analysis of the requirements that are to be met by individuals of nurturing species, so as to adapt themselves to their social environments. It closely reflects the structure of other motivational systems, which consist of control structures dedicated to the management of resources critical for survival. The particular resources emotional systems seem to handle have to do with social bonding and collaborative behaviors. Herein, they are called second-order resources. They refer to the resources made available by other agents, and they are captured in the model through the concept of commitments. Emotions thus appear as computational control systems that handle the variation of commitments lying at the root of interactive and collaborative behaviors. Some critical consequences of the model for the implementation of emotions in artificial systems are drawn at the end of the chapter.