What is LOVE According to Psychology: Definition and Types

On special dates such as Valentine's Day, both the streets and social networks are filled with affection and love phrases. During that day couples tend to express feelings towards each other. But not all of them are living a true love because reaching this point in a relationship is something that requires effort and dedication.

Therefore, in Psychology-Online, we want to explain to you in a more detailed and scientific way what is love in psychology. In this article we will address the concept of love and its variants, as well as a series of helps to achieve pure and true love.

Index

1. The meaning of loving
2. What does the concept of love include
3. What is true love: characteristics and how to identify it
4. What is romantic love according to psychology
5. What is romantic love according to psychology

Loving a person is often confused with feeling chemistry with them. Love goes much further than having an affinity with another person.

Within the concept of loving, we find different types of love depending on the person to whom it is addressed. For example, we find the family love, which is felt by the members of a family towards the rest of it. We also find the love towards our friends. Another type is the love couple.

Regarding the term loveAccording to the Larousse dictionary, it is the affected or the tendency to look for something or someone who represent the true good or imaginary to enjoy it. It can manifest as an attraction, which need not be purely sexual, towards another person.

As we have seen in the previous point, we know that there are different types of love, however, that does not imply that one is better than the rest or that it is more love than another.

It is considered as true love that feeling of affection and commitment which one person has for another. This type of love is known as idealized, which comes from the old idea of ​​romanticism, where all people are destined for another with whom we will experience a pure love and total.

Sternberg (1949) creates the triangular theory of love, where he interacts three fundamental concepts to explain the different types of love. Here you will find The seven different types of love according to Sternberg. The components of love are intimacy, commitment and passion. If people can successfully combine these three concepts, consummate or true love develops. This is the representation of the complete form of love.

As we have said many times, each person is completely different from the rest, so try to give exact guidelines for identify true love it is completely impossible. However, we can propose a series of indications which can help you assess whether you have found a true love:

1. Love is the foundation. Despite the ups and downs, when love is true both members of the couple will work as a team to overcome that difficulty.
2. Communication and trust. You must be able to speak with your partner with total confidence about your relationship, as it is the best way to ensure a complete understanding between the two of you.
3. Liberty. Identify if your partner puts limits or conditions on you, because true love is unconditional and part of the foundation of trust.
4. Absolute respect between the two of you is a very good sign of being part of a true love.

Couple love is the affective relationship that two people share. Couple love is the decision to share time with a person and to live experiences together or together. In this type of love, as we have seen in the previous section, 3 components must be present. According to Stenberg:

• The intimacy: the love of a couple must consist of the feeling of closeness and union, the feeling of connection and the intention to create a bond.
• The passion: in the love of a couple according to psychology passion must be included, that energy and force that pushes us towards that person. The attraction and excitement that it produces.
• Commitment: This component of couple love corresponds to the desire to maintain the bond and actions aimed at preserving the relationship in the long term.

Here you will find information about What is true love for a couple.

Within this point again we have to emphasize that love sold for movies, books, works of art. To romantic love based on romanticism and perfection where the girl meets her prince charming and where the man meets her princess.

However, this type of love "imposed" in our society has only managed to consider love as a basic necessity in life. of people, where, if you do not have a partner and you show yourself completely in love, this implies that you are going to finish the rest of your lifetime.

This kind of love more and more detractors, shows couples as members of an interaction where one is the property of the other, with the sole objective of showing in a narcissistic way how good and perfect their relationship is.

Thus, we should not let society impose guidelines on us to love or to express our feelings to our partner, but we have to focus all our attention on creating a base of trust and affection regardless of the other people around us.

In the following article you will find more information about How to recognize the love of your life.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is love according to psychology, we recommend that you enter our category of Social psychology.

• Larrouse Dictionary, 2003. Sant Salvador. SPES Editorial SL. Barcelona.
• Pascual Fernández, A. (2016). On the myth of romantic love. Film loves and education.
• Sangrador, J. L. (1993). Psychosocial considerations on romantic love. Psychothema, 5(Sup), 181-196.
• Serrano Martínez, G., & Carreño Fernández, M. (1993). Sternberg's theory of love. Empirical analysis