Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Falling in love
What motivational and emotional processes underlie romantic attraction and falling in love?
Overview
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Romance from a psychological perspective, can be targeted from many different angles. Love is one of the few neuropsychological phenomena that the study of can include more than study the study of the brain and its effect on emotion, motivation, and behaviour. The full breadth of this study may include human literature, stories, and highly personal accounts of these emotions particular display in an individual. Relating the human experience to the neuropsychology of love has been proven to be consistently difficult in this branch of study (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1986). Romantic relationships have been observed to imove the mental health of individuals in stable romantic relationships, with benefits such as:
- Emotional stability
- Reduced stress reactivity
- Positive effects on health (Coan et al., 2006)
- Decreased depression, anxiety, and loneliness (Proulx et al., 2007)
It is even supported that individuals in quality, romantic relationship experience longer lives and lower mortality rates, in comparison to those who are single or have ended in divorce (Bouchard et al., 2023). The study of this field can add to the psychology community by explaining a neuropsychological phenomena that has permeated human society for centuries, yet preclude total understanding to this very day.
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Focus questions Break the sub-title down into three to five focus questions. Align the top-level headings with these focus questions.
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Love
[edit | edit source]Rubin (1970); Hendrick & Hendrick (1986); Almedia & Rodrigues (2024); Bode and Kushnick (2021)
What is love?
[edit | edit source]Love is one of the most difficult psychological experiences to describe, as it encompasses many different facets of the human experience.
Rubin explained the psychological process of love through attachment, caring, and the need for closeness (Rubin, 1970).
Furthering on this, Hendrick & Hendrick (1986) conceptualised love as consisting of different styles, such as passionate, playful, friendship-based, practical and obsessive.
Love can be understood as both as a motivation and an emotion. Fisher et al. (2005) found that regions in the brain associated with reward and motivation showed activity in relation to early-stage romantic love, suggesting that dopamine and motivational mechanisms underlie romantic pursuit. Bode and Kushnick (2021) suggest that Tinbergen's questions outline the analysis necessary understanding romantic love:
- What are the mechanisms that cause romantic love?
- How does romantic love develop over the lifetime of an individual?
- What is the fitness-relevant functions of romantic love?
- What is the evolutionary history of romantic love?
Uses this broader framework, love can be seen as something that motivates individuals to approach, chase, invest into, and maintain.
What causes love?
[edit | edit source]Fisher et al. (2005) argue that when 'in love' a person can become a 'highly salient motivational target', relating to the motivation and reward regions that are connected to love. These partnerships then form attachment history, where this process mirror the attachment styles first explored in infancy (secure, avoidant, anxious/ambivalent (Hazan & Shaver, 1987).
How does love affect the human body?
[edit | edit source]Fisher et al. (2005) showed that love can be associated with brain activation and the reward/motivation regions. Similarly, Zeki (2007) described love as a reward circuitry that changes in systems related to negative emotion and social judgement. Coan et al. (2006) argued that romantic partners can provide support in responses to threats, where these relationships when formed, can provide psychological and physiological functions that benefit each individual. 
What is the difference between romantic and platonic love?
[edit | edit source]Romantic love tends to have a stronger motivational and reward system trigger, where fisher et al. (2005) explained that broader concepts of sexual desire and attachment theory are mutually separate ideas. Friendships can involve love and attachment styles, but the difference between romantic and platonic has markers that fail to be met in platonic love:
- Physical desire
- Longing
- Intimacy
Although not all romantic relationships have sexual desire or the desire for intimacy, the line between romantic and platonic become blurry when these traits are taken away. Neuroscience has observed the various overlap between platonic and romantic love, but they are still generally viewed as distinct enough to be studied differently (Acevedo, 2012).
Do all humans experience romantic love?
[edit | edit source]Through challenging the assumption that 'all humans need romance', understanding whether all humans experience romantic emotions can shed light on that assumption. Bode and Kushnick (2021) preface that despite romantic love being widespread, it does not appear universal. The need to belong become the broader idea that permeates human society, over romantic love.
Some people may believe they need romantic relationships to belong, but it may be the other way around. Belonging can be fulfilled in friendships, family, community, or romantic relationships. The need to belong has been explored to be a necessary human experience to regulate emotions and encourage a long healthy life, whereas romantic relationship explores a similar but fundamentally different experience (Beaumeister & Leary (1995).
Love vs Lust
[edit | edit source]What is the relationship between physical intimacy and romantic love?
[edit | edit source]Fisher et al., attachment literature + sexuality/relationship research
The relationship between physical intimacy and desire, and romantic love has been studied but the research is relatively lacklustre in contrast to other research topics of love. For example, Fallis et al. (2016) found that sexual satisfaction can be considered as one factor that contributes to healthy long-term relationship satisfaction. However, the significance sexual satisfaction hold does not provide a large enough picture to suitably say sexual satisfaction is necessary for relationship satisfaction.
Factors of physical intimacy that relate to romantic love:
- Affectionate touching (Sorokowska et al., 2023).
- Sexual satisfaction may contribute to relationship satisfaction (Fallis et al., 2016).
- Intimacy may not be a result of loving someone but rather may contribute to reinforcing the relationship (Beaulieu et al., 2023).
Unstable romantic love
[edit | edit source]Why do some people stay in abusive or non-beneficial romantic relationships?
[edit | edit source]Attachment - investment model - IPV literature
If Fisher provided evidence that romance is associated with reward/motivation, then one question must be answered to ensure total clarity: "Why do people subsist in abusive or non-beneficial romantic relationships?"
The investment model in figure 2 show how the factors that go into commitment leaves produce the difficulty of ease of leaving relationship. Satisfaction, investment, and quality of alternatives may add up to an individual being complacent in a toxic relationship (Rhatigan & Street, 2005).
Conclusion
[edit | edit source]- The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
- Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
- Together, the Overview and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing it
- Recommended length: 150 to 330 words
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See also
[edit | edit source]Provide internal (wiki) links to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related motivation and emotion book chapters) and Wikipedia articles. Use sentence casing and alphabetical order. For example:
- Sex differences in sexual arousal patterns (Wikiversity Book Chapter, 2026)
- Need to love and be loved (Wikiversity Book chapter, 2026)
- Love (Wikipedia)
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References
[edit | edit source]Almedia, T. Rodrigues, D. (2024) Editorial: The psychology of love. Frontiers in psychology, 15, 1518730. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1518730
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.49
Beaulieu, N., Bergeron, S., Brassard, A., Byers, E. S., & Péloquin, K. (2023). Toward an Integrative Model of Intimacy, Sexual Satisfaction, and Relationship Satisfaction: A Prospective Study in Long-Term Couples. Journal of sex research, 60(8), 1100–1112. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2129557
Bode, A., & Kushnick, G. (2021). Proximate and Ultimate Perspectives on Romantic Love. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 573123. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.573123
Bouchard, G., Gaudet, M., Cloutier, G., & Martin, M. (2023). Attachment, Relational Maintenance Behaviors and Relationship Quality in Romantic Long-Distance Relationships: A Dyadic Perspective. Interpersona : An International Journal on Personal Relationships, 17(2), 213–231. https://doi.org/10.5964/ijpr.9771
Coan J. A., Schaefer H. S., Davidson R. J. (2006). Lending a hand. Psychol. Sci. 17, 1032–1039. 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01832.x
Fallis, E. E., Rehman, U. S., Woody, E. Z., & Purdon, C. (2016). The longitudinal association of relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction in long-term relationships. Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 30(7), 822–831. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000205
Fisher, H., Aron, A., & Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: an fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. The Journal of comparative neurology, 493(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of personality and social psychology, 52(3), 511–524.
Hendrick, C., & Hendrick, S. (1986). A Theory and Method of Love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50(2), 392–402. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.2.392
Proulx C. M., Helms H. M., Buehler C. (2007). Marital quality and personal well-being: a meta-analysis. J. Marr. Family 69, 576–593. 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2007.00393.x
Rhatigan, D. L., & Street, A. E. (2005). The impact of intimate partner violence on decisions to leave dating relationships: a test of the investment model. Journal of interpersonal violence, 20(12), 1580–1597. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260505280344
Rubin, Z. (1970). Measurement of romantic love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(2), 265–273. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0029841
Sorokowska, A., Kowal, M., Saluja, S., Aavik, T., Alm, C., Anjum, A., Asao, K., Batres, C., Bensafia, A., Bizumic, B., Boussena, M., Buss, D. M., Butovskaya, M., Can, S., Carrier, A., Cetinkaya, H., Conroy-Beam, D., Cueto, R. M., Czub, M., Dural, S., … Croy, I. (2023). Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world. Scientific reports, 13(1), 5497. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31502-1
Zeki S (2007) ‘The neurobiology of love’, FEBS letters, 581(14):2575–2579, doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2007.03.094.
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External links
[edit | edit source]Provide external links to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use sentence casing and alphabetical order. For example:
- The science of falling in love - Shannon Odell (youtube.com)
- What Makes People Fall in Love? – Partners in Prevention (Partners in Prevention. mopip.org)
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