The mental program is made up of two types of instructions:
- Innate: they are embedded in certain brain structures involved in information processing and are common to all people.
- Acquired: they emanate from the social sphere and depend on the socio-economic-cultural context of the moment and the authority that establishes them. They evaluate, order and classify the information received from the environment.
The set of these instructions, if they are consistent, allow the result obtained from processing our brain's perceived information from the environment to be coherent (the coherence is a mechanism that associates the information incorporated by the stimuli that our senses perceive with that which is already stored in other neural frames pre-existing). The mental program "sees" sequences in the data it perceives that coincide with those stored in memory and slowly develops rules that relate them.
This mechanism prevents any results from being accepted to explain the event, limiting them to those that are coherent and, furthermore, it avoids the psychological tension of cognitive incongruities (cognitive dissonance, self-deception, repression mechanism of unpleasant and traumatic memories, etc.).
Cognitive operators constitute a first line of ordering of the stimuli perceived from the environment, but they do not have the capacity to offer a more specific explanation. It must be taken into account that human society is very complex in many aspects and requires greater depth and precision in the explanation of the events that take place in our environment.
To solve this situation, the mind needs specific instructions more in line with the real situations of the moment to help you organize the perceived information. These instructions (normative codes, value system, historical beliefs and traditions, fashions) emanate from social organisms and are integrated in the areas of the cognitive and emotional systems where the perceived information of an event is processed to give it a meaning and a assessment.
The instructions acquired form a broad and highly diverse set and are not identical in all people, but they do have in common the principles from which they are nurtured. These principles serve as a reference to interpret and assess the different scenarios through which our daily lives pass, and among the most relevant are:
1. Benefit-harm principle
It serves as a reference to qualify a wide variety of situations as beneficial and acceptable, or harmful and rejectable. This principle prompts us to assess the hazards, risks and damages of any kind (physical effort, time spent, moral dilemmas, financial cost, resignations personal, compliance with legal norms and traditions, possibility of family, labor or social conflicts, etc.) and compare them with the benefits that brings the situation. One consideration of this principle is that, because people tend to live in groups, it allows a distinction between "what is good or bad for me" and "what is good or bad for the other."
2. Principle of relativity
Based on this principle, we organize, classify and value the elements and events in the environment: big, small, good, bad, useful, useless; and also to the people with whom we interact: clever, proud, criminal, wise, etc. To do this, the strategy of relate and compare some elements with others and some events with others, in such a way that an element adopts a value when compared with another element, since none has a concrete value by itself. Something is big or small, high or low, sweet or salty depending on what it is compared to. Likewise, no one is absolutely intelligent, rich, tall, honest, etc., but rather in comparison to a typical model for each characteristic (what we call an archetype).
3. Principle of interrelation between the emotional and cognitive systems
Both systems tend to act together, although sometimes the emotional system acts first and sometimes the cognitive system, depending on the circumstances. When emotion, which by its nature is rapid and ambiguous, becomes the dominant “qualifying” force, it prevents or at first it hinders the passage to reasoning and reflection (and thus to good sense) leaving them in the second place.
If reason intervenes later (a few milliseconds later), takes care that the performance promoted by emotion takes place within "reasonable" limits and it is not harmful, analyzing the possible results and their consequences (temporal projection of the action). But sometimes, this control of reason is not strong enough and gives in to the dictates of emotion. The problem can arise when the two systems provide opposite qualifications, that is, the emotion we feel before an event does not correspond with the reasoning carried out to interpret it. The conflict between both options can lead, if it persists, to a mental disorder.
4. Contingency principle
Our actions are part of the causal chains that lead to an expected result, but it may happen that, due to various causes, this result does not happen and an unforeseen one takes place. For this reason, the expectations that certain events will occur must be considered as possibilities that will be more or less likely to occur. This principle brings us to an important question: the distinction between the possibility of an event occurring and the probability that it actually occurs. An event may be possible but unlikely (fear, for example, makes us see an event very likely that, although possible, would be unlikely to occur).
5. Affinity principle
Life tends to form groups (from simple cells to complex organisms), and something similar happens in human groups, loneliness is not natural, because survival is more feasible in groups, and these are formed by virtue of the principle of affinity (the most common affinity criteria are: physical appearance, beliefs, traditions, desires, hobbies, interests, etc.). Despite individual differences, the need for coexistence leads to the creation of like-minded groups in which each person contributes in a specific way (a function) to its balance and survival.
Two types of "mental" forces act on this principle: some of attraction that incite the relationship with other people, and others that tend to rejection from the same. If the former predominate over the latter, the relationship will be stable and fruitful; but if those of rejection or indifference do, the relationship will tend to disappear or become "toxic".
Finally, the fundamental question about these instructions, since they are created by groups and social entities, is designate who decides what are the instructions that must be followed in each matter or situation and the limits that must impose. They are usually created by a local or national authority, a group of experts, international organizations, etc. Your task will be to decide which references we should use to evaluate and qualify the daily events that affect us. It is about defining what is good and what is bad, fair or unfair, acceptable or unacceptable, right or wrong.
