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British Journal of Healthcare and Medical Research - Vol. 10, No. 2

Publication Date: April 25, 2023

DOI:10.14738/jbemi.102.14560.

Bertolín-Guillén, J. M. (2023). The Subjective Need for Social Interaction. British Journal of Healthcare and Medical Research, Vol -

10(2). 519-530.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

The Subjective Need for Social Interaction

José Manuel Bertolín-Guillén

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8934-8051

Psychiatry and Mental Health Service, Valencia-Arnau de Vilanova-Llíria

Department of Health, and Ministry of Universal Health and Public Health,

Government of Valencia, Valencia, Spain, EU

ABSTRACT

Introduction: With regard to emotional phenomena, the aim of this thematic review

is to provide a synthesis of the most recent and highest-quality psychological and

psychobiopathological information, endorsed by the scientific community. Material

and Method: A relevant electronic and manual search of several major national and

international repositories, directories and bibliographic databases has been

carried out until the end of March 2023. Results and Discussion: Well-known

strategies of predictive regulation or allostasis are discussed in relation to human

emotions, feelings and interactions. Emotions will be able to induce feelings, which

will influence personal actions mutually. Psychobiologically, the default or default- operating neural network is important in any interactions. Distinct networks of the

so-called social brain display volumetric changes in the presence or absence of

social support groups. Social connection and interaction are a strong preventive

factor for psychopathologies such as anxiety, depressive and personality disorders.

On the other hand, interoceptive awareness, linked to empathy, is key to social

interaction. Understanding of personal interrelationships is shaped in the brain

regions that are considered social cognitive. Dysfunctional social behaviours may

be strongly conditioned by genetic as well as environmental factors. Furthermore,

one should consider both individual cognitive reserve and cognitive performance.

Conclusions: The known relationships between emotions, feelings and personality

with respect to human interactions have been made succinctly explicit. Also, where

relevant, the psychobiopathological influence on personal relationships and

communication skills.

Keywords: Cognitive function, Cognitive reserve, Connectivity, Population neuroscience,

social behavior, Subjective age

INTRODUCTION

Humans and other animal species need to interact and communicate with the living beings

around them, so it can be said that communication is an inherent condition of any organism.

Expressing one’s emotional, sensory and sentimental life is also an intraspecific social

requirement, which is natural from the second year of life for children. In this period, language,

awareness of otherness and of being oneself – that is, self-consciousness or the subjective

experience of existing as a separate person – attain fresh properties or attributes.

Emotions are transient, involuntary, neurochemical and hormonal responses that predispose

and prepare us to react in a certain way to external or internal stimuli. Emotional phenomena

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British Journal of Healthcare and Medical Research (BJHMR) Vol 10, Issue 2, April- 2023

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

are closely related to subjective experiences, which in turn are linked to cognition and

affectivity. For emotions, the two essential premises of human interaction are awareness and

knowledge, which are also prerequisites for learning and the performance of future behaviour.

Below, we will succinctly discuss subjective knowledge on the need to interact with other

people, other living beings and things. Subjective knowledge refers to the cognitive process of

internal, immediate perception that one is aware of something. The subject is very diffuse and

varied, involving numerous popular, philosophical explanatory studies and conjectures, as well

as more opportune scientific approaches. This article aims to provide a synthesis of the most

recent and highest-quality general psychological and, in particular, psychobiopathological

information endorsed by the scientific community.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

An online manual search of several major national and international, medical and psychological,

bibliographic databases, repositories and directories was undertaken until the end of March

2023. The main but by no means exclusive sources consulted were: 1) PUBMED, US National

Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health; 2) Scientific Literature – SCILIT Indexing; 3)

ÍnDICEs CSIC, for the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; 4) American

Psychological Association – PSYCINFO JOURNAL; and 5) Excerpta Medica Data Base EMBAS –

University of Kansas Medical Center.

In order to make the result operational, the most important contributions have been selected

(mainly considering the journals by their impact factor or index), relating to quality scientific

information on the subject and most recent publication. A total of four contributions in the form

of a book or book chapter were also highlighted, giving a total of 64 references. This selection

represents non-probabilistic convenience sampling, which aims to be objective. Primarily,

qualified scientific publications of varied approaches have been included, which converge

regarding the presumed common subjective need for adequate social interaction. The main

methodological limitation on this study is that the process for assessing the scientific quality of

the selected papers included in the bibliography, is not specified due to their extreme diversity.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Emotions, Feelings and Human Interactions

Feelings are the usually fairly stable sum of emotions and associated thoughts, thoughts that

are often conditioned by previous emotions. Feelings are not under volitional or conscious

anticipatory control. Emotions are neurobiological processes that are subjectively transformed

into feelings when the individual becomes aware of them, when they are interpreted and

decisions are made, i.e., when they are managed and regulated. Emotional regulation refers to

the set of skills and manoeuvres necessary to influence or modify emotional experiences in

order to improve psychological functioning and well-being (usually prospectively).

This refers to [1,2], who has proposed a new theoretical psychological model that stresses the

importance of being able to pay attention to the joys, pleasures and other positive feelings and

sensations experienced or to be experienced throughout life. This model implicitly assumes any

possible interventionist approach (whether or not carried out by a specialist mental health

practitioner), which is aimed at enhancing strategies to improve positive psychological

adjustment. Bryant also proposes that people should be proactive in this regard, i.e., promote

deliberate acts of seeking or creating positive stimuli.

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Bertolín-Guillén, J. M. (2023). The Subjective Need for Social Interaction. British Journal of Healthcare and Medical Research, Vol - 10(2). 519-530.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/jbemi.102.14560.

Predictive regulation strategies or allostasis [3] mean aiming for stability through change.

Whereas in homeostasis the continuity and suitability of the environment is achieved through

stability, in allostasis it is achieved through instability and variation. Body mass index and C- reactive protein have been the most informative biomarkers for determining ‘allostatic load’

[4]. It hypothesises that recurrent exposure to stressful environmental demands leads to

progressive dysregulation of multiple physiological systems. When allostasis is ineffective,

inadequate or the causative agent is prolonged over time and adaptation is not achieved,

disproportionate or futile activation occurs, giving rise to what is known as allostatic load, the

management of which is essential for survival.

In the subjective need to interact with others, emotions and feelings are crucial. From a

psychobiological perspective, the natural functioning of synaptic mechanisms involves a

permanent remodelling of neural circuits. Prefrontal structures are located rostrally to the

motor and premotor encephalic areas and are involved in emotional processing and the

orchestration of complex behaviours. The main ones are the ventromedial and dorsolateral

cortex, as well as the anterior cingulate cortex. The ventromedial connects to different cortical

and subcortical areas. The latter include the lateral hypothalamus, hippocampus and amygdala;

the cortices include the temporal cortex, dorsolateral cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal

cortex. That said, for the necessary neuronal plasticity, with or without relevant

psychopathologies, physical activity is important, as it has been shown that it can protect

against some mood disorders such as depressive disorders, as well as help with anxiety or fear- related disorders [5-7].

After the initial emotions and feelings, subsequent actions decided upon will necessarily

influence the feelings of the actors and the feelings of the observers involved. Feeling is a form

of knowledge [8], so that subjectivity complements or completes the condition of knowing,

paradoxical as it may seem. The subjective impression of possessing any knowledge will

therefore be basically emotional, not cognitive. It has even been proposed to use

subjectification as a conceptual approach to study different values, practices and elements that

constitute the culture of scientific research [9].

From a psychoneurological perspective, it appears that emotional and relational processes in

the right brain operate non-consciously not only in early human development, but throughout

life [10], which in individuals will be essential for synchrony and interactions of any kind.

Cognitive, affective and social neuroscience that is integrative and multidisciplinary can help to

understand the most intimate personal subjectivity. Consider, however, that biological systems,

and specifically brain functions, are based on the principle of randomness [11]. Overall, the

intrinsic stochastic or non-deterministic process (as in gene expression, as a biological example)

helps keep the brain in a flexible state to explore various alternatives as a prerequisite for

making decisions.

Precisely in relation to these interactions, traditionally, in contrast to reactive behaviour,

activities or actions are understood as any human behaviour, provided that the actor attaches

some subjective reason or meaning to it [12]. Action will be social when the subjective sense

refers to past, present or future behaviour that is observed or assumed in others and to which

the observer’s behaviour will be oriented. Thus, social behaviour is actually an interaction, as it

entails the necessary involvement of at least two people. The need to interact is expected to be