Psychologys opinion on love

Psychology’s opinion on love

February 14, 2022

February is arguably the month that gives people the “love feels” but what role does psychology play in this?

To know this, one must know what the meaning of love is. Love is very complex but is defined on merriam-webster.com as “a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person.” When someone gets this feeling, their body releases oxytocin, phenethylamine, and dopamine that makes them feel feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. But if love is so complex, why not avoid it?

Love doesn’t just release these chemicals but also strong emotions toward the person. It also feels real and instinctive, with a lot of it associated with experiences. In fact, studies over the years have shown that romantic love is one of the most complicated emotions a human can experience and are capable of feeling. 

With this emotion being so complex, there are believed to be different components to it. According to psychologist Robert Sternberg, the three components of love are intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy surrounds the topics of closeness and connectedness, something that one thinks about when thinking about love. Subjects like limerence (the strong desire for the exchange of obsessive feelings) fall under the passion category. Finally, commitment is the decision to remain with the latter and their shared achievements. 

Love is a scary thing. The drive for the feeling of love and validation is a concept that I don’t think I’d ever be able to grasp, as it is so powerful and almost confusing.

— anonymous

However, love can also be harmful. Being in a toxic, unhealthy relationship takes a toll on mental and physical health. 

Nonetheless, love is an exceptionally intricate feeling that science and psychology don’t know too much about. Does this make it wrong to fall in love? Of course not, but knowing limits and boundaries can help the mental stability of one who is in love. 

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  • K

    KuntFeb 24, 2022 at 1:21 pm

    Love is, also, what endangers passion, commitment, interests and happiness. Love could be one of mankind’s most dangerous tools. The dopamine you release during sex, conversing, when feeling accompanied and other romantic interactions which are possible with love are among the highest of daily dopamine releases – they may be equivalent to the amount of dopamine you release when you inject heroin intravenously. When you release a lot of dopamine, you strip away what biologist call “dopamine receptors”. Ipso facto, you would crave what love can provide you with. And there are many other adverse effects associated with the dopamine release too, many actions that used to make you happy – don’t make you happy any more. Because you stripped away your dopamine receptors. So you continue to consume “love” … to an extent that only “love” and only a few other things can actually make you happy. Then you foster what is arguably history’s most notorious bio-psychological problem ever – addiction. Now, you are addicted to love and the addiction is – for many or most people – almost impossible to fight. And you still continue to consume “love”, making the addiction more and more severe. So, love – a feeling encouraged by most- has just turned you into a junkie – making you shunt away away too many important goals and tasks.

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