The Concept of Love: an Exploratory Study with a Sample of Young Brazilians1 Thiago De Almeida, José Fernando Bittencourt Lomônaco
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International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science (IJAERS) [Vol-7, Issue-3, Mar- 2020] https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.73.38 ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O) The concept of love: an exploratory study with a sample of young Brazilians1 Thiago de Almeida, José Fernando Bittencourt Lomônaco Department of Psychology of Learning, Development and Personality Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Abstract — Studying love scientifically is an arduous task due to methodological difficulties and conceptual improprieties intrinsically related to this type of investigation. Is love, as a psychological phenomenon, capable of being scientifically studied by psychology? The present study proposed to study love in a less subjective way and had as objectives: (1) to identify the characteristics most commonly attributed and / or associated to the word love by Brazilian subjects of different ages and social conditions and (2) to verify if there are statistically significant differences depending on the variables: gender, age group and education level. Six hundred subjects participated in this study (390 women - 65%; 209 men - 34.83%), with an average age of 23.82 years, distributed in seven groups according to the city of origin of the collection and the education level of the participants. From the collected data, 14 categories were created, which were independently assessed by five judges chosen by the proponent of this study. The analysis of the results, based on the theoretical view of the concepts, allowed to verify that: (1) over time, people associate love more with positive representations and less with romantic, family and friendships; (2) women associate love more than men, related to friendship, family, animals and as a source of positive emotions, attitudes and behaviors; (3) the higher the level of education of the participants, the more they associate love with positive aspects. Keywords— Love, concept, concept formation. 1 ꙳This work derives from the doctoral thesis of the first author, supervised by the second author. Complete reference: Almeida, T. (2017). O conceito de amor: um estudo exploratório com uma amostra brasileira (Tese de Doutorado). Instituto de Psicologia da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo. I. INTRODUCTION unknown to each other, to approach and express the desire The popular concept of love implies, in general, the to build a life together? establishment of an emotional bond with someone, or with For many centuries different conceptions of love have some object that can receive this loving behavior and been proposed by poets, philosophers and novelists, but sending the sensory and psychological stimuli necessary there is still no consensus (and, perhaps, never there) on a for its maintenance and motivation (Almeida, 2017; definition of the love phenomenon capable of identifying Almeida, & Lomonaco, 2018; Almeida, & Dourado, 2018). its essence, given its diversity and subjectivity. Therefore, It is considered by many to be the greatest of all human love as a phenomenon that can be studied does not allow achievements. Or again, an ethical experience of otherness, itself to be easily scanned by all those who try to since it presupposes the capacity to strictly respect the understand it in its entirety. In this way, many thinkers differences of the other, asserting itself as if these were our expressed their ideas about love, sometimes emphasizing own qualities (Hunt, 1974). In this sense, love leads a its positive and exclusively human value, identifying in it couple to commit to each other, by establishing a deep the ineffable expression of transcendence, now treating it bond between them. In this sense, the love between as an unattainable goal and, even, as something to be partners, henceforth, for our interests, called only love, can avoided by its consequences harmful. be understood as a complex and dynamic system that But although there are many doubts about what love is, involves cognitions, emotions and behaviors often related it never stopped being talked about. Currently, in the most to the happiness of being. Thus, the term love is used very different contexts, many questions are asked about it. freely in everyday life. But what is this extraordinary These questions intrigue not only the individuals who ask phenomenon that makes it possible for people, hitherto them, but also many psychologists, even those www.ijaers.com Page | 239 International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science (IJAERS) [Vol-7, Issue-3, Mar- 2020] https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.73.38 ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O) professionals whose focus is apparently not on the question The dynamics of the interpersonal relationship between of interpersonal loving relationships. a man and a woman only began to be studied in a more To understand the love, many people sought to systematic way less than six decades ago. After a series of formulate definitions in order to identify its essential investigations in sexology, after the Second World War, it attributes. The difficulty of the task is very well expressed began to invest in the scientific study of phenomena related in this quote by Hunt (1974): “Love is, without a doubt, a to romantic love, in its strictest sense. Among the works mercurial word; although we can clearly see where he is, that preceded such studies are the research by AC Kinsey, just touch your finger to find that he is not there, but WB Pomeroy and CE Martin, which resulted in the famous somewhere else ”(p. XI). Kinsey Report on male sexuality (Sexual behavior in the human male, 1948) and female sexuality (Sexual behavior Despite such a finding about the difficulty in in the human female, 1953); the works of William H. conceptualizing it, some psychologists insist on asking: Masters and Virginia E. Johnson (Human sexual response, what, in fact, is love? How can we conceive it to 1966, and Human sexual inadequacy, 1970); and Shere encompass all its varied expressions? Is love, as a Hite's The Hite report: a nationwide study of female psychological phenomenon, capable of being scientifically sexuality (1980s and 1990s). studied by psychology? Is it possible to define it precisely? These are some of the questions of interest in this work. Scientific publications in psychology, until the 1950s, were incipient, few and often related to the love between mother and children. What until then were published were II. THE GENESIS OF THE INTEREST IN publications more focused on self-help. Despite the LOVE IN PSYCHOLOGY conceptual difficulties in understanding the phenomenon of Although some efforts to understand people's romantic love, some scholars have proposed to work in this area and attitudes, such as that of the sociologist Llewellyn Gross, in to conceptualize love through psychological science. Some 1944, with the construction of one of the first 80-item scale examples of authors who considered love in their works to identify romantic attitudes or a realistic view of romantic and theories can be remembered: Erich Fromm (1900 - relationships, have only been developed more recently. , 1980), Carl Rogers (1902- 1987), Erik Erikson (1902- positive emotions and feelings are no longer considered a 1994), Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970) and, more recently, marginal area of scientific research in psychology. The Martin Seligman, professor of psychology at the University science of psychology was very reluctant to study love for of Pennsylvania, United States, creator of the so-called understanding it as something so abstract and subjective Positive Psychology. that it defied any attempt to measure it. In fact, for decades Rogers, an American psychologist, is considered a psychology has been very concerned with the precursor of humanistic psychology and creator of the psychopathological aspects of human beings, much more theoretical line known as the Person Centred Approach about mental disorders than about understanding or (PCA) (Rogers, 1951). According to the author, the developing positive mental health. According to Seligman existence of a context of interpersonal relationships in (2002, 2009) “during the second half of the 20th century, which the child feels accepted and loved unconditionally, psychology was consumed with a single topic - mental is the crucial factor in the evolution of a personality that illness - and everything went reasonably well. Currently, allows the maximum expression of the natural tendency of psychologists are able to measure previously confusing what he called a actualizing tendency. concepts like depression, schizophrenia and alcoholism, Fromm (1956/2002) takes up the Augustinian thought with considerable precision”. (p. 11). that indicated that love was the force that would free Seligman (1998) considers the historical context that human beings from their bonds and limitations and points led psychology to stick only to the study of pathologies and it as the only satisfactory answer and solution to the comments on the missions that psychology has failed to problem of human existence. According to Fromm, there fulfill. According to him, psychology proposed three are six types of love, namely: (1) Filial love: it is the bond missions: (1) to cure mental illnesses; (2) making people's that unifies the family nucleus through fruitful lives more productive and happier; and (3) identifying and relationships between parents and children; (2) Maternal creating talent. However, with the Second World War, the love: it is the bond of unconditional