How does romantic love develop

Think about your own romantic relationships for a moment. To whom are you attracted? Chances are they are people with whom you share common interests and encounter in your everyday routines such as going to school, work, or participation in hobbies or sports. In other words, self-identity, similarity, and proximity are three powerful influences when it comes to whom we select as romantic partners.

We often select others that we deem appropriate for us as they fit our self-identity; heterosexuals pair up with other heterosexuals, lesbian women with other lesbian women, and so forth. Social class, religious preference, and ethnic or racial identity are also great influences as people are more likely to pair up with others of similar backgrounds.

Logically speaking, it is difficult although not impossible with the prevalence of social media and online dating services to meet people outside of our immediate geographic area.

In other words, if we do not have the opportunity to meet and interact with someone at least a little, how do we know if they are a person with whom we would like to explore a relationship? We cannot meet, or maintain a long-term relationship, without sharing some sense of proximity.

Love can come in many different forms. There is a love between a mother and her child. The love between two brothers. The love between a dog and its human companions. These different types of love have many similarities yet have phenomenal differences. Love can be sexual, but it is definitely contextual. I love pizza. I love my mother. I love my dog. Look at the table below to see what Greek word for love you would use in these sentences.

We are certainly not suggesting that we only have romantic relationships with carbon copies of ourselves. Over the last few decades, there have been some dramatic shifts when it comes to numbers and perceptions of interracial marriage. It is more and more common to see a wide variety of people that make up married couples. Just like the steps we examined for developing friendships, there are general stages we follow in the development and maintenance of romantic relationships.

The first stage in the development of romantic relationships is No Interaction. As the name suggests, the initial stage of a romantic relationship occurs when two people have not interacted.

The second stage for developing romantic relationships is Invitational Communication. When we are attracted to someone, we may signal or invite them to interact with us. What did you think? It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning. Quite often, we strategize how we might go about inviting people into communication with us so we can explore potential romantic development.

Chances are that there is someone who has caught your eye somewhere on campus. Quite possibly, there is a person in your class right now that you find attractive maybe someone is even attracted to you at this very moment and you would like to get to know them better.

Take a chance and go introduce yourself. Hopefully things will turn out magical between the two of you. The third stage of developing romantic relationships is Explorational Communication. When individuals respond favorably to our invitational communication we then engage in explorational communication. In this stage, we share information about ourselves while looking for mutual interests, shared political or religious views, and similarities in family background.

Romantic love, in particular, seems to be a beautiful mystery we find hard to explain. Although poets and songwriters can put many of our romantic thoughts and feelings into words, love is so inexplicable we need the help of science to explain it.

After all, psychologists have a lot to say about how and why people fall in love. This is Your Brain on Love During romantic love there are many changes that both men and women experience. Rachel Needle, specific chemical substances such as oxytocin, phenethylamine, and dopamine, have been found to play a role in human experiences and behaviors that are associated with love.

They function similar to amphetamine, making us alert, excited, and wanting to bond. Daniel G. Once a romantic couple begins to spend time together, they are in a sort of love euphoria. According to the triangular theory of love developed by psychologist Robert Sternberg, the three components of love are intimacy, passion, and commitment.

Intimacy encompasses feelings of attachment, closeness, connectedness, and bondedness. Life events and transitions can also make it challenging to experience passion. People have competing responsibilities that affect their energy and limit opportunities to foster passion. Parenthood is an example of this. In contrast, companionate love is typically found to increase over time. Love is an emotion that keeps people bonded and committed to one another. From an evolutionary psychology perspective, love evolved to keep the parents of children together long enough for them to survive and reach sexual maturity.

The period of childhood is much longer for humans than other species. As offspring rely on adults for many years to survive and to develop the skills and abilities needed for successful living, love is especially important for humans.

Not only is there an evolutionary foundation to love, but love is also rooted in biology. Neurophysiological studies into romantic love show that people who are in the throes of passionate love experience increased activation in brain regions associated with reward and pleasure.

In fact, the brain regions activated are the same as those activated by cocaine. These regions release chemicals such as oxytocin, vasopressin, and dopamine, which produce feelings of happiness and euphoria that are also linked to sexual arousal and excitement. Interestingly, these brain regions are not activated when thinking about non-romantic relationships such as friends. These findings tell us that liking someone is not the same as being in love with someone.

Research has found three primary styles of love. First coined by psychologist John Lee , the love styles are eros, ludus and storge.