Understanding and Managing Emotions in Decision Making
Many of us appear to live unreflecting lives and to be content with simple answers to the questions surrounding experience. Seldom do we consider that much of our lives are not a logical thought through process but one which is influenced by our emotions.
Faced with any experience, the emotional learning that life has given us, such as the memory of a past disastrous relationship, sends signals that streamline our decision-making process by eliminating some options and highlighting others at the outset. In this way the emotions are involved in reasoning - as is the thinking brain (Stapley, 2006, p. 37).
The purpose of these Seminars is to provide opportunities for members to explore and gain an understanding of the way that emotions affect our decision - making; The way that emotions that are occurring beneath the surface can lead to seemingly irrational activity; and, the way that this can have an effect on relationships and organisational dynamics.
The seminars are based on Individuals, Groups and Organisations: Beneath the Surface (Stapley, 2006). A copy of the book will be provided to each member and is included in the fees. The approach taken is to encourage maximum participation and application to work and other roles.
This series of Seminars provides a deep exploration of the way that emotions affect individual and group processes that develop out of our everyday experiences. It is based on the notion that the individual is the dominant element in the meaning-making process and that he or she develops a pool of internalised knowledge and feelings which is compared with sense data in the environment to produce meaning. Beneath the surface processes that help the individual to make sense of his or her world and those that we use to help us deal with unbearable thoughts and feelings, become part of our internal world. In all instances, these processes will have an impact on group and organisational dynamics and these are the areas of study in the Seminars where members are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences and their own emotions.
