system that embodies the gist (the pros or obs, and activity) of the scheme’s
semantic-pragmatic organization; (b) a set of conditions (ads, obs, or pros)
that release the scheme; and (c) a set of effects (pros, obs, or ads) that follow
from the scheme’s application to experienced reality. Schemes must be inter-
nally consistent to be formed, and they are recursive. Conditions, effects of
schemes, or both can in turn be constituted by (copies of ) other schemes.
These complex schemes, often calledstructures, could be interpreted as se-
mantic networks (Fuster, 1995; Kagan, 2002).
Notice that schemes are self-propelling (i.e., they tend to actively assimi-
late or structure experience); and they are natural units of functional infor-
mation processing, because the person’s intercourse with experienced reality
(with praxis or practice resulting from application of schemes) is in turn inter-
nalized into schemes (i.e., repeatable semantic-pragmatic invariances) that
embody components of the (external or mental) performance that satisfy the
person’s affective (positive or negative) goals.
AFFECTS, EMOTIONS, AND OTHER SCHEMES
OR STRUCTURES THAT INFLUENCE
DEVELOPMENT OF MOTIVATION
It is well recognized that affects–emotions (see Greenberg & Pascual-Leone,
1995, 2001; Pascual-Leone, 1990, 1991; for our detailed formulation of their
developmental emergence) are a set of qualitatively distinct, epigenetically
evolved, functional systems (Ekman & Davidson, 1994; Fredrickson, 2001),
whose function is to evaluate by way of feelings. As Damasio (2001) put it,
feelingsare the complex mental states that result from emotional states (i.e.,
from the activation–application within the organism of the person’s own
affective–emotion schemes—and feelings are ads, related to experiences,
brought about by these schemes as their effects). Or to say it as Merleau-
Ponty (1968) preferred: Feelings are subjective–biological feedback that we
receive from our “flesh.” Affects evaluate ongoing (or about to happen) expe-
riences and the organism’s current states, as good or bad, appealing or
aversive, positive or negative, etc., and then inform the psychological organi-
zation (in humans the self “hidden” in the brain) about these evaluations.
This automatically sets in motion modes of processing and functioning that
prepare body reactions and bias mental and behavioral functioning, in direc-
tions congruent with tacit anticipations of results. These specific action ten-
dencies are caused by affects, as they apply within the organism. For in-
stance, fear biases the organism toward escape, anger toward fighting, love
toward tender physical contact, etc. (Beck, 1996; Edelman & Tonioni, 2001;
Ekman & Davidson, 1994; Fredrickson, 2001; Frijda, 1987; Frijda, Kuipers,
& Schure, 1989; Greenberg, 2002). These conative modes of processing are
- AFFECT, SELF-MOTIVATION, AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 201