What is Love?

"What is love love, baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me.. no more" I'm sure that just about anyone reading this recognizes those ever so popular lyrics. So, what is my topic today? You guessed it! The psychology of love. It's mere human nature to get all googly eyed of that 'one' special person. Growing up I remember hearing all those stories about princesses and 'true' love, but does it really exist? Is it humanly possible to be made for one person? Well, I'm here to find out, I am going to go through some pretty hard core google-ing on the psychology of love. Enjoy:)

Love is a tough area for psychologists, they have created countless questionnaires to help them piece together the truth behind this prominent human emotion. Over the years studies have come to the conclusion that love (like most things) comes in different variations, such as: Jealous love, Playful love, Erotic love, Slow attached love and Practical love. All of which appear to have one similarity, intimacy.

It is believed that love is set up like a triangle, it contains three main elements that give it support, these elements are: intimacy, passion and commitment. Intimacy is defined as the closeness, caring and emotional support that is put into the relationship. Passion is more of the emotional and.. physical aspects of a relationship (if you know what I mean). While commitment is the willing-ness of the partners to decide that they are able to be together and create a lasting love. But this triangle set-up isn't perfect. It can be thrown off balance and create love that is like: non love (lacking all elements), 'liking' (mostly intimacy), infatuation (passion), empty love (only commitment) and many others, but I think you get the point. A love cant last on only one or two of these elements, it needs all three working together to give it real potential.

Of course there is some variation when it comes to who you love. I mean, you don't love your mom the same as you love your boyfriend. This is explained as; in all kinds of love there is a triangle base, but depending on the relationship the levels of each element vary slightly.

So, if you are trying to figure out where your relationship is going I hope you found this information helpful. Good luck with your love affairs, as you can see, they aren't an easy task!