What’s love got to do with it? Thinking touch in education with theories of love

Can our beloved cats and dogs love us back? This chapter aims to find a satisfactory theory of love that substantiates the claim that they can. It begins by reconstructing and critically evaluating recent attempts by scientists to show that dogs can love humans back. Although these attempts are argued to be unsuccessful, it is further argued that they illuminate the need for an adequate theory of love and offer us some plausible ideas about love that direct us to two recent philosophical theories of love that support the idea that dogs can love humans back. These two theories are discussed in detail before it is argued that dogs, but not cats, seem capable of loving humans under these theories. These theory-based defenses of the belief that dogs can love humans back are then criticized on the grounds that the theories they use are unsatisfactory because they fail to capture three central truths about love. This leads to a third theory of love that, after some friendly amendments, is argued to be a tentatively adequate theory that provisionally vindicates the claim that dogs, but not cats, can love humans back.

This article reconsiders one of the most important theories of romantic love in contemporary philosophy, the theory of love as union. Drawing on observations from transpersonal research, the article raises the question whether it is not worthwhile to accept, at least partially, a strong sense of union in the context of love. Thus the article takes a position that is not taken by anyone in contemporary philosophy. In this context, the article also briefly analyses one of the most important variants of love as union, a union with God. At the end, the suggestion is made that it makes more sense to talk about connections rather than relations in the case of fulfilled love.

This article presents a construct of love based upon a triangular theory and inverted symmetry. The work opens with a review of some of the major theories of love, and with a discussion of some of the major issues in love research. Next it briefly reviews selected elements of the triangular theory of love, according to which love can be understood as comprising three components intimacy, passion, and decision/ commitment. The aim of this study is to examine the plays in the geometry perspective based on triangular theory and inverted symmetry. The dramatic action informs, educates and entertains the readers. In Wole Soyinka’s plays, love triangular theory and the principle of inverted symmetry operate to show the victory of tradition over modernity on the one hand, women aggressivity and religion contribution to tragedy in Nigeria on the other hand.

Lovers do not relate to their beloveds as seats of valuable qualities that would be replaceable for anyone with relevantly similar or more valuable qualities. Instead, lovers take their beloveds to be irreplaceable. This has been noted frequently in the current debate on love and different theories of love have offered different explanations for the phenomenon. In this paper, I develop a more complex picture of what is involved in lovers taking their beloveds to be irreplaceable. I argue that in order to account for the beloved’s irreplaceability, a theory of love must meet two conditions: it must explain the subjective aspect as well as the moral aspect of the beloved’s irreplaceability. I show that current theories of love fail to meet these conditions, either one or both of them, and I offer an alternative account that does - an account according to which love is understood as a special kind of desire for the beloved as a person. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to give a more nuanced picture of the beloved’s irreplaceability, acknowledging in particular that there is a moral aspect to the phenomenon that has not been attended to thus far; second, to introduce and motivate a new desire-based account of love.

Recent work on Plato has rekindled interest in his theory of love. Several studies offer partial exegeses and critical assessments of the theory. Yet a systematic reconstruction of the theory does not exist, and disagreements remain about its central features and its virtues and defects. In this paper I offer such a reconstruction. In a larger study I attempt to understand and assess the theory relative to its cultural context and relative to recent, empirically oriented theories of love in the social sciences and biology. It must be remembered that while in English the single, all inclusive word 'love' covers a wide variety of feelings, attitudes, and behavior, in Ancient Greek three different words were used to cover different, perhaps overlaping portions of this variety. Eros was used to cover primarily the case of sexual love, and philia the cases of familial love and friendship, while agape represents a significant concept perhaps only later, in the New Testament. Here we are concerned only with Plato's theory of eros in the Symposium, though comparisons to philia and agape are useful and illuminating. To understand and assess a theory of love it is useful to place it in at least two wider settings. One is the cultural setting of the writer. This is important because some of the things a writer make take as characteristic of love or as data for his theory may be culture bound; for example, sexual attitudes and customs, courting and mating practices, perceptions of beauty. In the speeches of Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, and Aristophanes Plato provides a partial cultural context for the theory expounded by Socrates and Diotima. Plato's theory must be placed in its cultural context. Perhaps the most sig-

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Evidence is presented that Freud developed three very different theories on love. These theories were not integrated into a coherent theory. In subsequent developments each theory had its own history. The paper discusses the history of the controversy on the genital character, the relation between love and gender identity, between love and narcissism, the hierarchical structure of the capacity to love, and the relation between love and object loss. The impact of some concepts such as symbiosis and the rapprochmente subphase on the understanding of conflicts in loving is raised. While at present differences in emphasis make it difficult to build a coherent psychoanalytic theory of love, it is productive to bring divergent views in touch with each other. A unified theory of love based on psychoanalytic observations is suggested.

Focusing on teaching and learning in educational institutions, Transforming Professional Practice in Education explores the value of enhancing dialogue to improve both professional relationships and practices. Offering a critique of the present state of education, this book focuses on the belief that education should be about being and becoming human, and how everyone implicated in education learns through dialogue with others, and that humans are relational beings who develop and flourish within reciprocal relationships. The authors offer an alternative to reductive and systems-driven procedures by building a case for psychologically robust educational methods. They provide an authoritative and theoretically well-grounded rationale for psychological approaches to professional practice to promote debate about the purposes of education. Rich with practical examples, the chapters discuss the risks of professional isolation, ethics vs morals in education, the nature of relationships in education, and interventions that would ground these ideas in practice. This book is important reading for clinical, educational, and other applied psychologists. It is also of value to those within educational institutions, such as SENDCos and those responsible for the safety of children and young people, who are seeking to develop their understanding of how dialogue enhances professional encounters, and who are looking for alternative ways of engaging with education, which improve mental health and wellbeing.

Preface Acknowledgments PART I. MATING RELATIONSHIPS Chapter 1. Mate Preferences Theoretical Approaches to Human Mating Methods Used to Examine Mate Preferences Empirical Evidence Continuing Debates Summary Chapter 2. Attraction and Courtship Communicating Romantic Interest The First Date Beyond the First Date: Initiating a Romantic Relationship Pathways to Commitment Summary Chapter 3. Relationship Development The Sequence of Relationship Development The Process of Relationship Development Summary Chapter 4. Marriage and Mate Selection Mating Systems Across Cultures The Nature of Marriage Division of Labor Marital Satisfaction: How Happy are Married Couples? Has Marriage Changed Over Time? Same-Sex Marriage Cohabitation: An Alternative to Marriage Summary Chapter 5. Conflict and Dissolution Conflict Relationship Dissolution Summary Chapter 6. Intervention Identifying Distressed Relationships Treating Distressed Relationships Does Therapy Work? Summary PART II. LOVE Chapter 7. General Theories of Love The Triangular Theory of Love The Colors (Styles) of Love The Prototype Approach: Mental Models of Love Summary Chapter 8. Passionate and Companionate Love Passionate Love: A Sexy Kind of Love Companionate Love: A Sturdy Kind of Love Summary Chapter 9. Love Gone Bad: Problematic Aspects of Love Unrequited Passionate Love Obsession and Relational Stalking Mismatched Love Styles Loss of Passion Summary PART III. SEX Chapter 10. Sexual Attitudes Beliefs About Sex in Dating Relationships Beliefs About Sex in Marital Relationships Summary Chapter 11. Sex in Beginning Relationships Sexuality and the Attraction Process Sexuality in Beginning Relationships Summary Chapter 12. Sex in Established Relationships Sexual Frequency Sexual Practices Sexual Preferences Sexual Satisfaction Sexual Communication Sexuality and Relationship Satisfaction Summary Chapter 13. Sex Gone Bad: Problematic Aspects of Relational Sex Sexual Dissatisfaction Sexual Aggression Sexual Infidelity Sexual Jealousy Summary PART IV. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Chapter 14. Maleness and Femaleness Biological Sex Psychological Gender or Sex Role Orientation Summary Chapter 15. Personality Supertraits Self-Monitoring Sociosexual Orientation Summary Chapter16. Interpersonal Belief Systems Attachment Styles Rejection Sensitivity Romanticism Summary Concluding Remarks References Author Index Subject Index About The Author

What is love? In this paper I argue that love is a psychological syndrome, or an enormously complex cluster of psychological attitudes and dispositions that’s accompanied by a corresponding set of symptoms that flow from it. More specifically, I argue that love is an affectionate loyalty that takes different shapes across cases and that manifests itself in some set of behavioral and emotional expressions, where this set of expressions also varies across cases. After laying down three theoretical constraints that viable theories of love must satisfy, I sketch my syndrome theory of love in detail and then defend it. First, I argue that it has a strong yet defeasible claim to satisfying the three theoretical constraints. Then I defend my theory against two objections that target its extensional adequacy. I conclude that we have good grounds for being optimistic about the theory even though it calls for further development and scrutiny.

This article presents a triangular theory of love. According the theory, has three components: (a) intimacy, which encompasses the feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness one experiences in loving relationships; (b) passion, which encompasses the drives that lead romance, physical attraction, and sexual consummation; and (c) decision/commitment, which encompasses, in the short term, the decision that one loves another, and in the long term, the commitment maintain that love. The amount of one experiences depends on the absolute strength of these three components, and the kind of one experiences depends on their strengths relative each other. The three components interact with each other and with the actions that they produce and that produce them so as form a number of different kinds of loving experiences. The triangular theory of subsumes certain other theories and can account for a number of empirical findings in the research literature, as well as for a number of experiences with which many are familiar firsthand. It is proposed that the triangular theory provides a rather comprehensive basis for understanding many aspects of the that underlies close relationships. What does it mean to love someone? Does it always mean the same thing, and if not, in what ways do loves differ from each other? Why do certain loves seem last, whereas others disappear almost as quickly as they are formed? This article seeks answer these and other questions through a triangular theory of love. This tripartite theory deals both with the nature of and with loves in various kinds of relationships. The presentation of the theory will be divided into three main parts. In the first part, the main tenets of the theory will be explained and discussed, and the theory will be compared with other theories of love. In the second part, the implications of the theory for close relationships and satisfaction in them will be described. In the third part, the theory will be shown account for many of the empirical phenomena that have been observed with regard love.

This article presents a construct validation of a love scale based upon a triangular theory of love. The article opens with a review of some of the major theories of love, and with a discussion of some of the major issues in love research. Next it briefly reviews selected elements of the triangular theory of love, according to which love can be understood as comprising three components—intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. Then the article presents two studies constituting the construct validation of the love scale. The construct validation comprises aspects of internal validation—determination of whether the internal structure of the data is consistent with the theory—and external validation—determination of whether the scale based on the theory shows sensible patterns of correlations with external measures. The data are generally, but not completely supportive of the utility of the triangular love scale. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This essay considers psychoanalytic theories of love in the work of Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, and Jacques Lacan. Though there is no coherent theory of love in psychoanalysis, paying attention to love in the analytic situation—that is, to transference—allows us to read analytic love as a transformative practice through which subjects affiliate with one another as subjects rather than as objects. In considering the importance of love to solidarity, the work of Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Black feminist theory is mobilized to offer two short readings of Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved and the autobiography of Dorothy Day. Across these theoretical and narrative works, the author formulates an account of analytic love as a site of negative plenitude that rearranges conventional accounts of identity and difference.

This chapter explores the relationship between educational research and professional practice in education by examining the place accorded in current policy and developments in Scottish education. Scottish education is undergoing an extensive period of reform where change to the curriculum and assessment programs, the Curriculum for Excellence (CfEx) (SE 2004, 2006), is now to be realized through a program of teacher development (National Implementation Board 2012). The chapter begins by outlining briefly this extensive program of reform and details the way in which teacher policy is constructed as the means of achieving the aims of the CfEx. A core element in this program of reform is to ensure a more coherent and sustained approach to career long teacher education. Within this are emerging forms of professional practice where research and pedagogy are entwined in ideas such as practitioner enquiry/inquiry. However, while there is an increasing focus in Scottish educational policy on teacher research, there is a lack of clarity about what this is and how it relates to the enhancement and sustaining of professional practice. There is a range of terms used to describe teacher research. This chapter outlines some of the key underpinning concepts found in the literature in order to explore the meanings attributed to this term in policy in Scotland. The chapter analyzes the view of teacher research articulated in the policies related to teacher development in Scottish education. There will be a particular focus on those related to teacher professional standards.

This paper investigates the concept of online learning community (OLC) to address the issues of teacher professional development practice in twenty-first-century Indonesia. Teachers in Indonesia are trained in a ‘conventional way’, hence, not ready to prepare the younger generations for entrance into the twenty-first-century complex life and work environment. The pedagogical transformation of a teacher can be facilitated through teacher professional development. Recent studies show that OLC holds great promise in improving teachers’ professional practice. This paper presents key results of the introduction and trialling of OLC with Indonesian teachers and teacher educators between 2009 and 2010 and aims to explore the feasibility of this model to support professional development of teachers in this era. The social learning interactions among community members were examined using Scardamalia’s Twelve Socio-Cognitive Determinants of Knowledge Building and Hoftsede’s Cultural Dimension Review for Indonesia. Karya ilmiah ini mengangkat topik mengenai penggunaan penggunaan komunitas pembelajaran online untuk meningkatkan kemampuan professionalisme pendidik Indonesia di abad 21. Seorang pendidik di abad ini tidak hanya diharapkan bisa mengajar mata pelajaran tertentu saja, tetapi juga harus bisa memberikan bekal kepada generasi muda untuk memasuki era kehidupan yang lebih kompleks. Sayangnya, banyak pendidik yang tidak siap untuk menyesuaikan diri dengan tantangan jaman ini karena mereka sudah terbiasa dengan pola pikir yang lama yang dibentuk dari system pendidikan yang tradisional. Perubahan pola mengajar guru sebenarnya bisa dilakukan melalui pendidikan profesional guru, tetapi pada prakteknya pendidikan guru yang ada saat inipun masih mengikuti sistem yang tradisional. Beberapa riset yang yang terakhir menunjukkan bahwa konsep komunitas pembelajaran online (OLC) cukup menjanjikan sebagai sarana untuk mendukung proses pengembangan profesional guru masa sekarang. Dalam riset yang dilakukan oleh peneliti, konsep ini diujicobakan dengan para pendidik di Indonesia sejak tahun 2009. Dalam kajian ini, peneliti menggunakan teori Knowledge Building yang dikembangkan oleh Scardamalia dan Cultural Dimension dari Hofstede untuk meneliti proses pembelajaran bersama dan interaksi sosial yang terjadi di dalam komunitas pembelajaran online ini.