Psychology of Love

of Triangular cognise possible action and The set up on Our Brain Merry Alijoski College of New Rochelle Author Note This musical theme was prep ard for Psychology 101, taught by Professor Hertler. Abstract This paper devotes the categorization of pick out in Robert Sternbergs angular delight theory and how the learning capacity falls in chouse within the lead comp mavinnts of be intimate. The research findings use up signifi nookyce to pot who atomic number 18 or substantiate been in spot and carry interest in classifying their go to sleep and understanding how they cope.In this paper, research is cited to get and solve the biological mystery behind lamb and how love basin be broken down into comp angiotensin converting enzyments. The witticism plays a major theatrical role in lovely otherwise passel and the components help define our relationships with the antonym sex. To gather schooling and gos on this topic, I analyzed several books and article s on the psychology, evolution, and brain reactions of love. As a result of completing the above procedure, stu develops aim how dopamine creates happy feelings. Sternbergs triangular love theory provides components that puddle score which increase and decrease over time.The larger implication of my findings reveals how love is complex and so is the biological function of it. Keywords love, brain, components Introduction What is love? The interpretation is infinite. In history, scholars lose primarily studied the nature of love. For slip, in 1886, the German pioneering sexologist and physician Richard von Krafft-Ebing assort five guinea pigs of love. These graphic symbols were k this instant as true love, artificial love, platonic love, friendship, and sensual love. Albert Ellis (1954) suggested further love varieties go to bed itself . . . ncludes many distinguishable types and scores of affection, much(prenominal) as conjugal love, p atomic number 18ntal love, fam ilial love, religious love, love of gentleity, love of zoologys, love of things, self-love, cozy love, obsessive-compulsive love, etc. (p. 101). bash is actually complex and has been broken down into many theories such as the triangular love theory, types of love, and styles of love by Robert Sternberg. In terms of the biological grimace of love, it is extremely difficult to explain. Discoveries show how the brain processes though the body when a man or woman selects a mate.Results suggest that the chemistry of drawing card between people comes from chemic processes within the brain. Components of Triangular Love Theory Robert Sternberg (1986, 1998) identify terzetto terms of three basic components that create the vertices of the love triangle, known as conversancy, temper, and decision/ cargo. The meanness component refers to close, connected, and bonded feelings in loving relationships (Sternberg, 1989, p. 120). The warmthate component has the motivational drive that kindle lead to such amatory and physical attractive feature, sexual consummation, and related wonders.Many factors contri alonee to lovingness such as the need for sexual arousal, self-esteem, association with people, power over others, homage to others, and to achieve ones potential. The decision and freight component dwells of twain aspects, one short term and one long term. In a short term relationship, the decision one loves roundone. Long term relationships consist of commitment to maintain that love. In most cases, decision will countenance commitment. If the love components begin to combine, then eight subsets that represent the classification of love are created.These eight types are extremes for satisfyingity. On occasion, someone would have an instance in which there is rut with no intimacy at all. The undermentioned represents the triangular love theory including the eight subsets. Figure 1. 1 Sternbergs triangular theory of love represents the three componen ts of love and they are shown in the vertices of the triangle. The different types of love formed through various combines of the components are in the brackets of the triangle. _____________________________________________________________________________________ SOURCE From Sternberg, R.J. (1988). Triangulating love. In R. J. Sternberg & M. L. Barnes (Eds. ), The psychology of love (pp. 119-138). for each one component of love has feelings that we experience when meeting a person who mess be a potential long term mate. With the use of different chemicals, the brain regulates these feelings. To commove long term commitment all sections must be involved. However, this a good deal does not happen. While these brain circuits and emotions work with each other in a safe and ful carrying love relationship, they can and do function separately of one some other.You can be bonded with one person, nonsensical with another and have sex with yet a third person (Schaeffer, pg 27). Schae ffers disceptation connects to the three-brain system theory. The main idea of the theory is that there are three sections of the brains of humans have developed along with the brain of previous animal ancestors. Our brains are not too different from animals because the main difference is that our brain functions on three different levels. such(prenominal) aspects of the human brain are reasons for diverse magnet cues and how they vary based on the person when choosing a mate. IntimacyIn detail, the intimacy component alone, which is identified as liking, materializes in certain instances. Such liking occurs when someone experiences only the intimacy component of love during the absence seizure of the passion and decision/commitment components. The person often feels closeness, a bond, and fervency toward each other, without intense passion or long term commitment. The passion component, unlike the intimacy component, has passion without commitment and intimacy. Intimacy or liki ng, associates with attraction and how the sense impression of sight allows one to see the image of an attraction person, creating an event on the brain. The chemical that results from physical attraction (or lust) is phenyl ethylamine or pea. It is a of course occurring amphetamine substance from within the brain that stimulates and increases physical and emotional energy. The sign attraction between both individuals causes one to capture more PEA which results in those dizzying feelings associated with romantic love. Another substance that is released by PEA is dopamine. This chemical increases a desire to be physically close and intimately connected. When these chemicals are being secreted in larger doses, they send signals from the brain to the other variety meat of the body.If you wonder why you or someone is attracted to the wrong person, it may be because you are noble on the physical response to these substances, which overwhelm your ability to use your head and exe rcise good judgment and commonalty sense (True Love and Chemistry). Attraction is extremely powerful and it can be the root system of a long lasting relationship. Research shows that signals that come from the body can have an effect of a persons feelings of attraction for another. Psychologists Donald G. Dutton and Arthur P. Aron created three experiments which show a relationship between strong levels of anxiety and attraction.Male passersbys were communicated either on a fear-arousing suspension bridge or a non-fear arousing bridge by a beautiful female evaluator who asked them to fill out questionnaires. Aside from the control group, there were results proving that more anxiety was produced during the experimental bridge. In other words, attraction caused anxiety. Passion The passion component alone, assort as infatuated, is commonly phrased as being love at graduation exercise sight. In this particular component, love is changed into obsession by treating the abetter _or_ abettor as an idealized object rather than as him or himself.There is a cure for infatuation and one must get to know the object of ones infatuation very well. An alternative solution is to manufacture convinced that one has absolutely no hope of attaining the object of ones infatuation. Infatuations major problem is that it track downs to be obsessive. flock experiencing infatuation tend to steadily focus on the love, which causes one to waste time, energy, and motivation from other significant things in ones life. On Roberts triangle, infatuated love relationships form in an asymmetrical figure.In research (Sternberg & Barnes 1985) reveals that the higher the degree of asymmetry, the increasing chance that a relationship is prone to distress. The passion component, or infatuation stage, is correlated with being intoxicated. These feelings originate from chemical of dopamine. PEA is a substance that discharges dopamine and when we fall in love our brain directs signals for exc ess dopamine. People are in a happy state of mentality due to dopamines effects on us. These feelings are common when we have aloneterflies or we are weak in the knees during the time we are around the person we love.A study created in 2002 by an anthropologist named Helen Fisher, revealed these feelings due to the dispersal of dopamine. Fisher gathered 40 young participants who were madly in love. half(prenominal) were loved in return, magic spell the other half was experiencing love rejection. Each participant was placed in a MRI with a take in of their beloved and one of an acquaintance. They all stared at the word picture of their sweetheart for 30 seconds, then after a distraction, they would look at the acquaintance photo for another 30 seconds. Everyone was switching back and forth for approximately 12 minutes.This study discovered that the photos of the participants sweethearts created the diffusion of dopamine into various sections of the brain including the posteri or dorsal caudate and its tail, which are the main parts of the brains system for reward and motivation. In cases where dopamine levels are high the feeling of falling in love is rapid and powerful, create an obsession to occur with the person who gives them that feeling. The increasing levels of dopamine explain why people long for the feeling that loved one give them. decisiveness/commitmentOne of the most meaningless components has to be the decision/commitment component alone, known as empty love. The empty love forms as a result from someone simply making a decision to love one another without intimacy or passion being present. Usually this type of love is found in motionless relationships and marriages that have lost the attraction and emotional support for one another. Lazarus (1985) identifies that when marriage is solely based on commitment, the other missing components are very difficult to restore in the marriage.Empty love is known for being one-sided in the triangle. A fter Sternberg explained the components in an individual manner, he began combining the components and created different forms of love. Commitment is connected to how the human brain correlates with reproduction. We are biologically made to reproduce and carry on genes. As far as your genes are concerned, your principal job while youre alive is to conceive offspring, bring them to adulthood and then obligingly die so you dont consume resources better spent on the young. Anything that encourages you to reed now and breed plenty gets that job done (The Science of Romance). These drives are contributed to the process of selecting a partner with the help of biological cues. Todays social club refers this process to romance and a feeling of love. Our society has changed the drives for commitment with others. There is an excess amount of time devoted to the process of love instead of reproducing children. Commitment is a significant factor for having healthier babies but the societies to day are focusing on how and why people have decided to commit to one spouse. Kinds of Love amatory love is formed through the combination of intimacy and passion. People who experience romantic love have a physical attraction and emotions for one another. For example, a summer love can demonstrate romantic love, but there is not a real chance for it to last beyond the summer. Such lovers feel an intense passion for one another and feel that they can bare their souls to one another as well. A counter argument is given by Hartfield and Walster (1981) by stating that romantic love does not differ from infatuation. Many possibilities may occur in such a love.Romantic lovers can realize that they may or may not have many things in common. In some cases, a friendship can easily change into a romantic love, due to the admiration for one another and the passion that draws them together. Companionable love results from the combination of intimacy and decision/commitment components of love. C ompanionate love is identified as a long-term committed friendship. The passion goes away although the intimacy remains. Most people are happy with this type of love. However, some people find it difficult living without some kind of romance loss on.As a solution, people might have affairs to feed their crave for such romance. Fatuous love requires the combination of passion and the decision/commitment components of love. Hollywood courtships experience fatuous love most of time. Once the passion wears out, commitment is left. However, commitment requires a lot of time and energy to develop. People involved in fatuous love think that marriage is promised land and a solution to all their worries and concerns. They are not aware of what is demand to maintain a marriage. These people sacrifice a lot for passion and lack intimacy.The combination of intimacy, passion, and commitment forms consummate love. All components being present in consummate love allow people to strive for this type of love, especially those in romantic relationships. Having this love can be extremely difficult, but maintaining this love is far more challenging. We do not look to consummate love because we have the tendency to reserve it for those that have much more meaning for us. The following chart shows Sternbergs typology of the love relationships. - remit 1. Sternbergs Typology of Love races Love Component ___________________________ Kind of Love Relationship Intimacy Passion Decision/Commitment Nonlove low-spirited Low Low Liking spicy Low Low Infatuation Low full(prenominal) Low Empty love Low Low senior high school Romantic love High High Low Companionate love High Low High Fatuous love Low High High Consummate love High High High ______________________________________________________________________________ NOTE check to Sternberg (e. . , 1986), the three basic components of loveintimacy, passion, and decision/commitmentcombine to produce eight different types of love re lationship. For example, infatuation-based relationships are characterized by relatively high levels of passion but relatively low levels of intimacy and commitment. Evidence for Sternbergs Triangular Love Theory Sternberg designed a questionnaire, the Sternberg Triangular Love SCALE (STLS), in order to measure the components of love in his theory. a few(prenominal) studies were done on the scale alone (e. g. Sternberg, 191987, 1997 Whitley, 1993). The scale has risen to have good measures of the components, particularly of passion and commitment. Scores were stable for up to ii months for the same relationship. Sternberg made assumptions that over time the scores will change. In one study, there were 204 adult participants between the ages 18 to 68 65 percent were married (Acker & Davis, 1992). On average, the relationships were going for 9. 5 years. As Sternberg predicted, the scores of commitment raised within relationships that shifted from dating to marriage.Roberts predictio n of intimacy decreasing over time was also proven in the study. However, two different measures of intimacy increased over time. A different study assessed German adults for their relationship between the three components, sexual activity, and satisfaction (Grau & Kimpf, 1993). In the theory, it is predicted that the measurement of passion should be strongly correlated to sexual activity, but the results prove that intimacy is closely related to sexual behavior and sexual satisfaction. Conclusions and Future StudyThe preceding information matters because love is hard to define and varies for others, which makes Sternbergs theory an informative model of all types of relationships. An addition to all the components, information on how the brain works while falling in love, allows people to understand the biological process of love. Love can be classified in many forms and the brain helps select our mates based on the innate genetics of needing to reproduce. Arguments in the paper fit together and prove the thesis statement, such as dopamine creating happy feelings when in love and genes principle job is to reproduce.Further steps that need to be taken in the area of the papers research, is researching the aim of love. There can be a study done on participants and how they view of the purpose of love. Objective information should come from science and religion. Then the subjective and accusatory findings can be compared and contrasted to form a conclusion. ReferencesFisher, H. , Aron, A. , & Brown, L. (2005). Dr Helen Fisher Biological Anthropologist syndicate Page. Retrieved from http//www. helenfisher. com/downloads/articles/13JourCompNeur. pdfFisher, H. E. (1992).Anatomy of love The natural history of monogamy, adultery, and divorce. New York Norton. Franzoi, S. L. (2009). Social psychology. New York McGraw-Hill higher(prenominal) Education. Regan (2002, October 30). General Theories of Love. SAGE the natural home for authors, editors and societies. SA GE is a lede international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets Welcome to Sage. Retrieved from http//www. sagepub. com/upm-data/3222_ReganChapter1_Final. pdfSchaeffer, B. (2009). Is it love or is it addiction? The book that changed the way we think about romance and intimacy. middle City, Minn Hazelden. Sternberg, R. J. , & Barnes, M. L. (1988). The Psychology of love. New Haven Yale University Press. The Science of Romance Why We Love TIME. (2009, November 6). Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews TIME. com. Retrieved from http//www. time. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1704672,00. htmlTrue Love and Chemistry Exploring Myth and Reality. (2009, November 6). Retrieved from http//www. enotalone. com/article/2946. html