Science Behind Love and Defining Falling in Love: Analytical Essay

Introduction

Falling in love is the development of strong feelings of attachment and love, usually towards another person. This essay may explain, “Can love be studied scientifically? And the interpersonal attraction and the development of relationships.”

Many research studies have been proven that mostly the “love” works from the physiology side, and will define how people fall in love? Like most aspects of human behavior, the science and psychology of love, attraction, sex and relationships has been well documented by researchers over the years.

This will discuss about the positive side of falling in love also included every study below was taken from authorized theories and research works.

How Physiology Conducts Love?

Love isn’t just about the heart. Your brain and other parts of your body have just as much to do with how we fall in and experience love. Emotions reveal themselves by showing various effects on our bodies. Love shares a proven chemistry with hormones and this situation carries that feeling beyond being just an emotion (Newsstaff, 2010). People experience love differently, the chemistry behind the initial rush of attraction shows us that there are biological explanations.

To start with, dopamine, which is created in the brain and adrenal glands, enhances the release of testosterone. Dopamine affects the genitals and the sweat glands, as well as the senses. Have you ever noticed in the early stages of love you sweat more? Dopamine is responsible as a consequence it is being released, mood and emotions are also influenced, leading to feelings of excitement and happiness. Meanwhile, testosterone increases sexual desire, but also increases aggressive behavior and may push someone to pursue the one who is fueling this intense response (Fisher, 2013).

The difference between lust and love could be in the eyes. Your heart may not determine your partner as right. The study found that if you look at your date’s face, you see him or her as a potential romantic partner, if you’re mostly looking at his or her body, your feelings are probably just sexual. Showering your partner with chocolates, diamonds and flowers may not be the key to a long and happy relationship. Instead, you must invest in some oxytocin- a hormone released by the pituitary gland, of the brain, this facilitates bonding with others. In 2012 study, found that couples with highest levels of oxytocin were still together six months later and finished each other’s sentences, laughed more and touched each other more often. (Rosenfeld, 2015).

[bookmark: _Hlk30445468]Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has found that lower levels of serotonin hormone make you become focused and you cannot stop thinking about the person you’re infatuated with. When fall in love, excessive secretion of dopamine triggers noradrenaline (Hoyt). It is a known fact the people’s dependency on their loved ones increases gradually. This situation is caused by the excessive secretion of two hormones: – Oxytocin and Vasopressin (Yerebakan, 2016).

Oxytocin is produced when couples have sex, and touch, kiss and massage each other- the hormone makes us more trusting, helps overcome “social fear” is important for bonding (John Pickrell, 2006).

In one study conducted by Fisher, seventeen new lovers (ten women and seven men) who had been happily in love for around seven and half months, had their brains scanned. The scan show activity in the ventral tegmental area, a region of the brain that makes dopamine and send the stimulant to other areas. This factory is part of the brain’s reward system, the brain network that generates wanting, seeking, craving, energy, focus and motivation.” Fisher writes. This, she found, means lovers are ‘high’ on a natural speed. Everything about the beloved takes on special meaning, said Fisher. The car they drive, the books they like, the dress they wear, the perfume they use, everything becomes special of that particular person (Christian, 2017). Brain scans have actually revealed that the brain responds differently to love than it does to lust. Lust activates the brain regions associated with rewards and pleasure; love activates the regions that deal with the most basic rewards. Love is a long-term drive. Lust for one person last for hours, months and years without stopping. Romantic love is not the only option for boosting your overall health, some form of love in your life is crucial to living a long and healthy life. Research has shown that those who are deeply emotionally attached to someone tend to feel fitter and live longer (Fritscher).

People are monogamous because they love each other, they have found the person they want to spend the rest of the lives with, the reason these types of relationships exist. Monogamy may have evolved out of a need to prevent infanticide among primates, according to a 2013 study (Rosenfeld, 2015). When we actually fall in love with a person it might seem like quite a momentary experience, however brain is working really hard to compute and to produce that feeling. This is what Fisher labels romantic love, something she describes as a basic drive that evolved millions of years ago in order to enable us and focus our attention on just one partner and start the mating process. It’s a complex series of computations of the subconscious brain that gives us an emotional experience we can’t control (Christian, 2017). Long distance relationships can actually work. In this study, they have found that distanced couples reported as much more trust and satisfaction with their relationships than those who lived relatively near each other. From an evolutionary perspective, kissing may not have much of a purpose, but from a romantic perspective, it can actually help you choose a prospective partner. A recent study found that kissing helped people determine their compatibility with a partner (Rosenfeld, 2015). Physically, love causes dry mouth, feeling of butterflies in the stomach, weak knees, separation anxiety and craving of sex (Christian, 2017).

Positive feelings or moods whatever their source cause us to like others we meet while experiencing. Negative moods are other way round while we are feeling low (Daniels, 1992). Partners in intimate relationships are likely to think of the other couple as ‘we’ rather than as two separate individuals (Orbuch, 2014). Relationships are also more satisfactory and more likely to continue when the individuals develop and maintain similar interests and continue to share their important values and beliefs overtime (Rusbult, 2001). People also use their close partner’s positive characteristics to feel better about themselves (Lockwood, 2004).

Consider newly married couples. They are at the start of what they hope will be a life- long commitment. As human beings they are able to see others around them and recognize attraction, common interests, and enjoyment of people other than their spouse. Because of their frame of mind, however, they are not in mentally or emotionally open to establishing a “falling in love” kind of connection with others. They made a choice to be with the person they married and find happiness and satisfaction with him or her. No matter how intriguing another person is, they are not likely to fall in love with them (Smith, 2018)

Conclusion

According to my personal experience and majority answer concludes that love can be studied and explained scientifically. When a person is in a state of love, his/her interpersonal attraction is greater therefore the essay above has explained the physiological changes causing when your partner is nearer to you. There is term called “Frequency of exposure effect,” this tells more frequently you expose to a given stimulus, the more in general we tend to like it (Alicke, 1995) (Byren, 1971, 1992).

Falling in love is one of the deepest emotional experiences of a person’s life. Humans are born with unconditionally loving, moral instincts, the ‘voice’ of which is our conscience. To establish a “love” connection you have to be in the right frame, it is not easy as you think, you have to like that person from your sight and talk to that person, engage him/her towards you and both should form a relationship as equally sharing their love through an emotional bond and later on, physical bond- touch, kiss, smell etc.

Falling in love with someone we are, in effect, letting go of reality and transporting ourselves to another world, an ideal (Griffith, 2013). Close relationships also keep us healthy.

People fall in love for many reasons: – to expand the self and to increase our abilities and our effectiveness in others self- expansion, lack of self- dependency. Some people don’t even know why they end up in love. Love can’t just be pheromones, surely body chemistry changes that is why people break up after a while. Maybe they were attracted to each other, at one point but then the pheromones they were giving off change and the other person is no longer attracted to them (Bartleby Research, n.d.)

References

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