Different Aspects of the Love Relationship - Essay Example

Love relationship: Boyfriend-Girlfriend Abstract This research paper is focused on different aspects of love relationship. It is claimed by the authors that in the modern world it is very difficult to support love relationship. There are very many external factors, which are influencing our behavior and potential development of relationship in case some behavioral changes occur. It cannot be denied that the scope of various researches and studies are helpful tools in identification of a real essence of love relationship and possible strategies for relationship management. Key words: love relationship, love confession, appreciation, relationship maintenance. Introduction What is love? Actually, it is very difficult to give the exact definition to this concept. It is evident that without love social lives of people are unsound and they constantly feel depressed without this strong supporting feeling. Romantic relationship is initiated from the very beginning and first words of love confessions uttered by a woman or a man. Then, love relationship can be developed briskly, or it can be examined through many years. Anyway, mutual support and understanding of both partners is a key factor for successful development of love or romantic relationship. These are common truths and very often people want to penetrate into the secret laboratory of love relationships development and find out the effective background for relationship development. Literature Review Ackerman (2011) claimed that women are ready for expressing their love and are more willing to hear the words of love themselves. This seems to be a good and an interesting start for the study…At first I was sure that in accordance with stereotypes men make love confessions first, and then this can be done by women. This study has a little bit changed by attitude to social stereotypes about love confessions. Emotional expression is more appropriate for women. There are many turning points, which are marked by serious emotional upheavals and emotional expressions, which are reflected in saying "I love you". The researcher claims that time and gender are related to romantic love confessions. Ackerman (2011) conducted research on romantic love. He collects data from different literature resources. This researcher underlined the following peculiar features of love confessions: "In the current research, we propose that timing and gender are critical factors for illuminating the ultimate function of romantic love confessions because these factors speak to the successful exchange of evolutionarily important resources" (Ackerman, 2011).This researcher considers romantic relationships from an evolutionary-economics perspective. This context is an innovative research background and it was rather fruitful for his study. Ackerman (2011) conducted researches on the basis of interviews on the corner of a northeastern US university campus. He developed six main studies and found out that men are in a more positive mood to confess love prior to sex. Women often perceive love confessions from men as sex signals. Are men or women more likely to confess love first in romantic relationships? Different potential gains and benefits are obtained by men and women in the result of love confessions. This study revealed a different perspective on studies on love confessions. In the article by Eastwick, Finkel and Eagly (2011) it was found out those ideal partner preferences are often connected with the prospects of real romantic relationships development. Laboratory experiments were conducted and it was found out idiosyncratic ideals were often related to the images in their real lives. Basically, the match between ideals and features of a partner in a real life coincide in the beginning. These researchers make an emphasis on the following important factors: "People often process and evaluate a stimulus differently when they have online, immediate, and direct experience with it than when they have offline, delayed, or indirect experience with it" (Eastwick, Finkel and Eagly, 2011). Unfortunately, in the result of these types of stereotypes the participants claim that real and unreal images do not coincide. On the example of the given set of studies the ideal-perceived trait match was prior to life interaction. Basically, it was found out that ideals are often referred to a conceptualized desire and real traits of partners do not reflect the real life features. It was also found out that in case relationships is based on ideal imagination of a perfect partner, then these relationships in the real life will be destroyed. These findings are true-to-life, to my mind. I can surely claim that a reliable basis, which was used by the researcher in this study, justifies results of it. The article by Edenfield, Adams, Briihl (2012) is devoted to the study of relationship between adult romantic attachment style and relationship maintenance strategies. The empirical basis was based on interviewing of 101 postsecondary students. Statistical analysis was mediated by means of ANOVAs and bivariate correlations. The results of this study confirmed a previous hypothesis that avoidance is positioned as the main component in the implementation of emotionally expressive maintenance strategies, such as assurances, positivity and openness. They make an emphasis on the basic components of relationships: "The five relationship maintenance strategies identified by this model include positivity, openness, assurances, sharing tasks and social networks" (Edenfield, Adams, Briihl, 2012). Moreover, it was found out that there are many differences in attachment life styles of individuals. The participants claimed that romantic attachment styles were dependent on their social networks, contacts etc. Gordon, Impett, Kogan, Oveis, Keltner (2012) conducted the study, which is devoted to considerations about potential risk regulations in relationship maintenance. On the basis of cross-sectional methods, as well as evaluation of our daily experiences, methods of observation and some other methods, people showed devotion to their romantic partners if they were highly appreciated by them. There is a mutual interdependence between partners and their attitudes to each other. In fact, if one partner appreciates another one, then his partner would treat him the way he is being treated. Appreciation is easily transferred from one partner to another and the effect occurs at once. There is a need to put much effort to develop harmonious relationships between partners, but these efforts are easily compensated. The researchers were mainly focused on the concept of "appreciation" and the formation of relationships depended on development of romantic bonds at personal levels. These researchers claim: "feelings of being appreciated arise when individuals perceive that their partners see them as valuable. Thus, feeling appreciated provides people with a sense of security and confidence in their partners’ regard" (Gordon, Impett, Kogan, Oveis, Keltner, 2012). They introduced different approaches and conducted four separate studies to research the concept of "appreciation". Linardatos and Lydon (2011) underline that people are often limited in their time and energy. Relational threats are very intimidating in romantic relationships. There are four studies conducted by in the process of this research. Horberg and Chen (2010) claimed “who we are—our values, feelings, goals, behaviors, self-evaluations, and related attributes— depends in part on our significant others” (Linardatos and Lydon, 2011). It was found out: "relationship-specific identification should therefore outperform commitment in predicting spontaneous relationship maintenance in the face of relational threat. However, given that commitment encompasses a variety of motivations, it should outperform the more specific relationship-specific identification when it comes to a more downstream effect of relationship maintenance processes, namely, relationship longevity" (Linardatos and Lydon, 2011). A transformed self exerts a great influence on relationships development. A self is changed when there is a threat for relationships. The main part of the self can be under pressure too. In other words, different external pressures and hazards are intimidating for relationships, but for the personal selves too. Conclusion Love relationship can be developed in a positive manner in case a relationship is referred to the concept of "we", then romanticism is exposed to some positive changes and unbreakable development. The relationships development in our daily lives is a dynamical process and they concluded that cultivating appreciation is very important concept. Romantic relationships determined further performance of people in the society and were greatly influenced by their social roles and behaviors. Thus, different researchers found out a positive role of romantic relationships in our social lives. Very often it has been claimed that partners in their real lives are often disappointed by the reality and they have much more expectancies from their partners. Thus, men showed more happiness and joy when they heard love confessions from women and often were the first confessing their love. My attitude changed to social stereotypes, where men can make love confessions first, but the fact that they feel a real joy and pleasure, which even exceeds positive feelings of women, impressed me greatly. Different researches and studies have been focused on different aspects of relationships. Both romantic relations and personal attitudes of people between people are developed under influence of their romantic and love relationships. It should be noted that statistical analysis, interviews of people interpret different aspects of romantic relationships. Different aspects of researches and studies of this type have different ethical issues. To make the unbiased researches in the field of romantic relationships requires much effort, anonymous recipients. References Ackerman, J.M. (2011). Let's Get Serious: Communicating Commitment in Romantic Relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100 (6), 1079-1094. Eastwick, P. W., Finkel, E. J., Eagly A.H. (2011). When and Why Do Ideal Partner Preferences Affect the Process of Initiating and Maintaining Romantic Relationships? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101 (5), 1012–1032. Edenfield, J. L., Adams, K.S., Briihl, D.S. (2012). Relationship Maintenance Strategy Use By Romantic Attachment Style. North American Journal of Psychology 14 (1), 149-162. Gordon, A. M., Impett, E. A., Kogan, A., Oveis, C., Keltner, D. (2012). To Have and to Hold: Gratitude Promotes Relationship. Linardatos, L., Lydon, J.E. (2011). Maintenance in Intimate Bonds. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103 (2), 257–274. Linardatos, L., Lydon, J.E. (2011). Relationship-Specific Identification and Spontaneous Relationship Maintenance Processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101 (4), 737–753. Read More