Do You Know What Love Really Is?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow Do You Know You’re Feeling Love for Someone?TypesIs Love Influenced By Biology or Culture?How to Show Love to Another PersonImpactTips for CultivatingNegative Emotions Associated With LoveHistoryTake the Love Quiz

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

How Do You Know You’re Feeling Love for Someone?

Types

Is Love Influenced By Biology or Culture?

How to Show Love to Another Person

Impact

Tips for Cultivating

Negative Emotions Associated With Love

History

Take the Love Quiz

Close

Many say it’s not an emotion in the way we typically understand them, but an essential physiological drive.

Love is a physiological motivation such as hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex drive.—PSYCHOLOGIST AND BIOLOGIST ENRIQUE BURUNAT

Love is a physiological motivation such as hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex drive.

—PSYCHOLOGIST AND BIOLOGIST ENRIQUE BURUNAT

There are countless songs, books, poems, and other works of art about love (you probably have one in mind as we speak!). Yet despite being one of the most studied behaviors, it is still the least understood. For example, researchers debate whether love is a biological or cultural phenomenon.

5 Psychological Theories of Love

What are some of thesigns of love? Researchers have made distinctions between feelings of liking and loving another person.

Zick Rubin’s Scales of Liking and Loving

According to psychologist Zick Rubin, romantic love is made up of three elements:

Are There Different Types of Love?

Yup—not all forms of love are the same, and psychologists have identified a number of different types of love that people may experience.

These types of love include:

8 Signs You’ve Met Your Twin Flame—The Soulmate’s Lesser-Known Cousin

Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

Specifically, psychologistRobert Sternbergdeveloped his well-regardedtriangular theory of lovein the early 1980s.Much research has built upon his work and demonstrated its universality across cultures.

Sternberg broke love into three components—intimacy, passion, and commitment—that interact to produceseven types of love.

Some researchers suggest that love is a basic human emotion just like happiness or anger, while others believe that it is a cultural phenomenon that arises partly due to social pressures and expectations.

Research has found that romantic love exists in all cultures, which suggests that love has a strong biological component. It is a part of human nature to seek out and find love. However, culture can significantly affect how individuals think about, experience, and display romantic love.

Is Love an Emotion?Psychologists, sociologists, and researchers disagree somewhat on the characterization of love. Many say it’s not an emotion in the way we typically understand them, but an essential physiological drive. On the other hand, the American Psychological Association defines it as “a complex emotion.“Still, others draw a distinction between primary and secondary emotions and put love in the latter category, maintaining that it derives from a mix of primary emotions.

Is Love an Emotion?

Psychologists, sociologists, and researchers disagree somewhat on the characterization of love. Many say it’s not an emotion in the way we typically understand them, but an essential physiological drive. On the other hand, the American Psychological Association defines it as “a complex emotion.“Still, others draw a distinction between primary and secondary emotions and put love in the latter category, maintaining that it derives from a mix of primary emotions.

There is no single way to practice love. Every relationship is unique, and each person brings their own history and needs. Some things that you can do to show love to the people you care about include:

Does Unconditional Love Make Healthy Relationships?

How Love Impacts Your Mental Health

Love, attachment, and affection have an important impact on well-being and quality of life. Loving relationships have been linked to:

What It Means to Be a Hopeless Romantic and 5 Signs You Are One

Tips for Cultivating Love

What Are the Five Love Languages?

As Shakespeare said, the course of love never did run smooth. Love can vary in intensity and can change over time. It is associated with a range of positive emotions, including happiness, excitement, life satisfaction, and euphoria, but it can also result in negative emotions such as jealousy and stress.

No relationship is perfect, so there will always be problems, conflicts, misunderstandings, and disappointments that can lead to distress or heartbreak.

Some of the potential pitfalls of experiencing love include:

While people are bound to experience some negative emotions associated with love, it can become problematic if those negative feelings outweigh the positive or if they start to interfere with either person’s ability to function normally.Relationship counselingcan be helpful in situations where couples need help coping with miscommunication, stress, or emotional issues.

The Best Online Couples Counseling Programs

History of Love

Research on love has grown tremendously since Freud’s remarks. But early explorations into the nature and reasons for love drew considerable criticism. During the 1970s, U.S. Senator William Proxmire railed against researchers who were studying love and derided the work as a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Despite early resistance, research has revealed the importance of love in both child development and adult health.

Our fast and freelove quizcan help you determine if what you’ve got is the real deal or simply a temporary fling or infatuation.

As a Relationship Coach, These Are the 5 Things About Love I Tell Every Couple

13 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Burunat E.Love is not an emotion.Psychology. 2016;07(14):1883. doi:10.4236/psych.2016.714173

Karandashev V.A Cultural Perspective on Romantic Love.ORPC.2015;5(4):1-21. doi:10.9707/2307-0919.1135

Rubin Z.Lovers and Other Strangers: The Development of Intimacy in Encounters and Relationships: Experimental studies of self-disclosure between strangers at bus stops and in airport departure lounges can provide clues about the development of intimate relationships.American Scientist.1974;62(2):182-190.

Langeslag SJ, van Strien JW.Regulation of Romantic Love Feelings: Preconceptions, Strategies, and Feasibility.PLoS One. 2016;11(8):e0161087. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161087

American Psychological Association.APA Dictionary of Psychology.

Wong CW, Kwok CS, Narain A, et al.Marital status and risk of cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Heart. 2018;104(23):1937‐1948. doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313005

Robards J, Evandrou M, Falkingham J, Vlachantoni A.Marital status, health and mortality.Maturitas. 2012;73(4):295‐299. doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2012.08.007

Roberson PNE, Fincham F.Is relationship quality linked to diabetes risk and management?: It depends on what you look at.Fam Syst Health.2018;36(3):315-326. doi:10.1037/fsh0000336

He X, Shi W, Han X, Wang N, Zhang N, Wang X.The interventional effects of loving-kindness meditation on positive emotions and interpersonal interactions.Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2015;11:1273‐1277. doi:10.2147/NDT.S79607

Freud S.The Freud Reader.New York: W. W. Norton & Company; 1995.

Winston R, Chicot R.The importance of early bonding on the long-term mental health and resilience of children.London J Prim Care(Abingdon). 2016;8(1):12-14. doi:10.1080/17571472.2015.1133012

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