Resilience has progressively emerged as a central concept in the study of complex adaptive systems, spanning biology, psychology, and social sciences. However, most existing frameworks treat these domains separately, limiting the possibility of a unified explanatory model.
This article introduces the TERPCS framework (Transdisciplinary Energy Regulation of Psychocorporal and Social Systems), which proposes an integrative perspective in which resilience is defined as the capacity of a system—biological, psychological, or social—to maintain functional organization in the presence of internal or external perturbations.
Rather than viewing resilience as a static trait, TERPCS conceptualizes it as a dynamic regulatory process operating across multiple levels of organization.
TERPCS is built upon three interdependent dimensions that jointly shape systemic stability and adaptation.
Psychocorporal regulation refers to the interaction between neurophysiological processes and cognitive functions involved in maintaining homeostasis. This includes stress response systems, autonomic regulation, and cognitive-emotional appraisal mechanisms. Together, these processes enable the organism to adapt to environmental challenges while preserving internal stability.
Social Resilience
Social resilience describes the capacity of individuals and groups to sustain cohesion, communication, and adaptive functioning within dynamic social environments. It emerges from relational structures, shared norms, and the density of social interactions. In this sense, resilience is not only individual but distributed across networks of social relationships.
Aesthetic Experience as Regulatory Mechanism
Within TERPCS, aesthetic experience is considered a functional component of regulation rather than a purely subjective phenomenon. It is defined as a neurocognitive process involving the perception of coherence, harmony, and structured complexity. Such experiences can activate emotional stabilization mechanisms, enhance motivation, and contribute to psychological integration.
A central innovation of TERPCS is the reinterpretation of energy and entropy within a systemic framework.
Energy is understood as the capacity of a system to maintain and regenerate its functional organization. Entropy, in contrast, represents the degree of disorder, instability, or loss of coherence within the system.
From this perspective:
Low entropy corresponds to stable, adaptive, and coherent system states
High entropy corresponds to stress, fragmentation, and functional disorganization
Resilience emerges as the dynamic ability to regulate entropy through multi-level energy redistribution processes.
TERPCS identifies three primary mechanisms through which resilience is produced and maintained.
Adaptive Regulation
Human systems continuously adjust their internal states through interacting physiological, cognitive, and emotional processes. This adaptive regulation ensures equilibrium between environmental demands and internal capacity.
Feedback Loops
Feedback mechanisms play a central role in system stability. Social interactions, emotional exchanges, and aesthetic perceptions act as recursive loops that influence both individual and collective states of organization.
Multi-Level Integration
TERPCS emphasizes the integration of biological, psychological, and social levels of organization. Rather than treating these levels as independent, the model views them as co-evolving subsystems within a unified adaptive architecture.
To support empirical validation, TERPCS proposes measurable indicators across its three dimensions.
Psychocorporal resilience may be assessed using physiological markers such as heart rate variability (HRV) and cortisol levels, reflecting autonomic balance and stress response regulation.
Social resilience can be operationalized through network analysis, including the density, stability, and quality of social interactions.
Aesthetic experience may be studied using neurobiological indicators such as dopaminergic system activation, as well as validated psychometric scales measuring aesthetic engagement and emotional response.
This operational framework enables interdisciplinary research bridging neuroscience, psychophysiology, and social sciences.
TERPCS offers several applied perspectives across different domains.
In research, it provides a unified framework for studying resilience across biological, psychological, and social systems.
In clinical contexts, it supports the development of mind–body interventions, including somatic therapies and art-based therapeutic approaches aimed at restoring systemic balance.
In organizational settings, the framework can inform strategies to enhance collective well-being, improve communication structures, and strengthen social cohesion under conditions of uncertainty or stress.
The TERPCS framework proposes a transdisciplinary perspective on resilience as a multi-level regulatory phenomenon emerging from the interaction between psychocorporal processes, social dynamics, and aesthetic experience.
By integrating these dimensions within a complex systems approach, TERPCS contributes to a more unified understanding of adaptation and stability in human systems. It also opens new pathways for empirical investigation into the mechanisms through which individuals and societies maintain coherence in the face of increasing complexity.
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