Love Research Articles

Protocol: Complementarity between informal care and formal care to adults: Knowledge mapping through a scoping review of the literature

AbstractThis is the protocol for a Campbell systematic review. The aim of this scoping review is to map, describe and characterize the available evidence on the role that formal care might have in complementing informal caregivers role – romantic partners, parallel family members (e.g., [step]siblings, cousins or in‐laws) or descendants (e.g., the care‐receivers are [step]parents, [step]aunts/uncles, [step]grandparents or in‐laws) – when providing care to adults with acquired diseases (physical or neurologic) in domestic settings and will set the ground for future research on this topic. The scoping review questions are the following: (i) What is the existing literature on the complementarity between formal and informal care? (ii) Which are the types of formal cares' services/interventions that have been described in the literature as complementary to informal care, provided to the informal caregiver and/or to the adult being cared for? (iii) Which outcomes have been assessed in the caregiver's physical, psychological, and social health domains, and how have they been measured?

More love troubles: Emma Gordon on biomedical enhancements and love relationships

In my contribution to this book symposium on Emma Gordon’s book Human Enhancement and Well-Being, I discuss and respond to Gordon’s extensive discussion and criticisms of a skeptical argument regarding the desirability of love enhancements that I presented in a 2015 paper. I start by first explaining the overall project of Gordon’s book, make a general comment about her overall approach (which I am broadly sympathetic with), and then proceed to a detailed discussion of Gordon’s critical engagement with my 2015 argument. I defend my argument against Gordon’s interesting criticisms and argue that Gordon has not defused my skeptical challenge to the desirability of love enhancements, but I also end by identifying key points of agreement between me and Gordon. Specific topics discussed include the distinction between ways of loving and causes of loving, the value of ways of loving and the value of the causes of loving, and whether or not the ideal of robust love attachments can be seen as compatible attachments causally dependent on love enhancements.

Coupling Up: A Dynamic Investigation of Romantic Partners’ Neurobiological States During Nonverbal Connection

Nonverbal connection is an important aspect of everyday communication. For romantic partners, nonverbal connection is essential for establishing and maintaining feelings of closeness. EEG hyperscanning offers a unique opportunity to examine the link between nonverbal connection and neural synchrony among romantic partners. This current study used an EEG hyperscanning paradigm to collect frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) signatures from 30 participants (15 romantic dyads) engaged in five different types of nonverbal connection that varied based on physical touch and visual contact. The results suggest that there was a lack of FAA while romantic partners were embracing and positive FAA (i.e., indicating approach) while they were holding hands, looking at each other, or doing both. Additionally, partners’ FAA synchrony was greatest at a four second lag while they were holding hands and looking at each other. Finally, there was a significant association between partners’ weekly negative feelings and FAA such that as they felt more negative their FAA became more positive. Taken together, this study further supports the idea that fleeting moments of interpersonal touch and gaze are important for the biological mechanisms that may underlie affiliative pair bonding in romantic relationships.

Impact of Love and Romantic Relationships on Adolescent Psychology and Their School Performance

Impact of Love and Romantic Relationships on Adolescent Psychology and Their School Performance

The Denotative and Connotative Meaning in Happier Song Lyrics by Olivia Rodrigo

This study aims to determine the denotative, connotative and mythological meanings contained in the object of research, namely the lyrics of the song ‘Happier’ by Olivia Rodrigo. The main theory used in this research is the semiotic theory of Roland Barthes. The method used in this research is a qualitative method with a descriptive interpretive approach. Data collection techniques are document studies by obtaining data from various sources relevant to the research. The results showed that the lyrics of the songs studied contained denotative, connotative and mythological meanings in them. The denotative meaning conveyed by the song creator in the lyrics of the song ‘Happier’, namely the main character’s wish for her ex-boyfriend that he can be happy with his new girlfriend, but not as happy as when he was with her. Then the connotative meaning contained in the lyrics of this song is the main character has not been able to let go of her ex-boyfriend with another woman. She also hopes that her ex-lover will always remember her. While the mythology contained in the lyrics of this song is that a woman doesn’t easily forget the past and hard to move on from a love relationship, because women prefer to use feelings rather than thinks.Keywords: song lyrics, semiotic, denotative, connotative, mythology

Children's Pathways into Commercial Sexual Exploitation in the United States: A Systematic Review.

This study examined current evidence on children's pathways into commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) in the United States to determine if characteristics, vulnerabilities, and social contexts were distinguishable by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and location. Using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelines, peer-reviewed studies and grey literature were included if they were focused on CSE pathways prior to age 18, available in English, U.S. based, and published in or after 2013. In total, 1,989 articles were screened and 306 were eligible for full-text review. In total, 22 studies were analyzed. Nine studies focused on cis girls or women. No studies exclusively focused on CSE among cis boys, gender diverse children, children identifying as LGBTQ+, or children initiated from infancy through preadolescence. Findings indicate that boys and girls at different life stages were initiated into CSE by five pathways, including: (a) family members and caregivers' paramours; (b) romantic partners; (c) peers, friends, and acquaintances; (d) strangers; and (e) circumstantial need. Girls and boys in infancy, toddlerhood, and preadolescence and across rural-urban classifications were exploited by family members, parent's romantic partners, and acquaintances known to their family. Adolescent girls, including those with intellectual disabilities, were trafficked by boyfriends, strangers, and out of circumstantial needs. This is the first review to provide a contemporary overview of dynamics that marked children's CSE pathways from infancy through adolescence. Findings revealed need for future research on CSE-impacted boys, gender diverse and LGBTQ+ children, and intellectually challenged children across early life stages and geographic areas.

Sexual Self-Disclosure Styles: Understanding Differences in Discussing Sensitive Sexual Topics with Relationship Partners

ABSTRACT This study explored sexual self-disclosure styles. Using an online self-report survey, participants (n = 428) reported levels of conversational goals, disclosure-related variables, and likelihood to disclose a sexual topic to their romantic partner. Cluster analysis resulted in three distinct styles of sexual self-disclosure. A seasoned self-discloser is experienced and efficacious in their sexual self-disclosures. Relationally constrained disclosers report concern for secondary goals paired with avoidance-related contextual variables. Functional self-disclosers seem to use verbal disclosure as a preferred tool for managing sexual issues in relationships, with less regard for the secondary influences of impression management, identity, and relational goals.

The (Un)Attractiveness of Dark Triad Personalities: Assessing Fictitious Characters for Short‐ and Long‐Term Relationships

ABSTRACTObjectiveThe current study assessed how individuals evaluate potential romantic partners who display either low, medium, or high levels of DT traits for short‐term (STR) and long‐term (LTR) relationships.MethodsNine fictitious persons in the form of vignettes (description of behavior and facial image) were presented to every participant. The sex of the fictitious persons was determined by sexual orientation of each participant, while the displayed faces were selected from an existing image bank and matched for physical attractiveness. Study 1 (n = 475) used a fixed composition for face and trait description, while the composition for Study 2 (n = 794) was randomized. Mixed‐effects modeling was implemented for both studies.ResultsStudy 1 demonstrated people with a male preference (mostly women) perceived medium levels of the three traits as the most attractive STR. For Study 2, both men and women found the low levels the most attractive for both STRs and LTRs.ConclusionsFindings from Study 1 were mostly consistent across previous DT attractiveness literature, while findings from Study 2 contradicted them. This could suggest that the concept of DT is not as attractive even for STRs unless it is accompanied by physical attractiveness.

The Romantic Influencer: A Review of Social Media’s Impact on Relationship Satisfaction

Social media is a significant part of the modern human experience. It infiltrates every part of life. There is great value in understanding the nature of social media in every sphere of its influence, especially the romantic relationship. The general public has long been concerned over the suspected harmful impact of social media in relationships. This literature review synthesizes studies over the past decade on the relationship between social media usage and romantic relationship satisfaction. While many problematic outcomes have been found for romantic partners due to social media, other studies have shown positive effects. Most of these social media behaviors foster unintentional consequences, whether positive or negative. A few examples of negative social media influences include increased partner suspicion, conflict, and pressure. Ultimately, these produce lower levels of satisfaction. Benefits from social media’s inclusion in the life of a couple, such as easier communication and common interest building, were found to positively impact satisfaction. Additionally, this review interacts with unique studies on the impact of intentional social media abuses, including addiction and unfaithfulness. The overarching theme is the circular causality of romantic satisfaction. There are many interacting factors involved in social media’s use and the way it is perceived among partners. These must be studied in greater depth to truly capture social media’s pull in romantic relationships. In review of the literature, specific considerations toward sampling and measurement are noted. Opportunities for further research include employing new research methods and focusing on the impact of social media on the family system. These findings have the potential to improve the quality of therapy among professionals who work with couples. Public agencies can use such information to improve education and implement preventative measures in the social media arena. In this review, social media is referred to as SM for the sake of brevity.

Finite love

ABSTRACT It seems like a problem to say that love can be merited – its value is located in its transcendence of comparative judgments. However, we commonly make judgments about who is and is not worth loving. We deem certain romantic partners, friends, and family members as worth or not worth our loving time, attention, and effort. In this paper, I argue that love can be merited, and it is merited because of a person’s intrinsic valuable qualities. However, it is not the fact that such qualities can be compared that is relevant. What is relevant is the fact that such qualities are gradable, and what it means for someone to merit love is that their qualities meet a threshold or standard of value for love. Moreover, love requires some amount of practical wisdom in discerning these thresholds and when someone meets or fails to meet them. This is important to recognize since we are creatures of finite love. We do not have the capacity to love everyone who is both worthy and unworthy of love. Given our finite capacities, I argue that making wise and discerning judgments about whom to love should be kept in mind when philosophizing about love.

Understanding the triangular theory of love in entrepreneurial ventures! Linking love dimensions to business performance through employee loyalty

PurposeThis study examines the mediating effect of employee loyalty on the relationship between love dimensions as adapted from the triangular theory of love and business performance of entrepreneurial ventures.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed structural equation modelling in data analysis. However, before conducting confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis, exploratory factor analysis was conducted because most of the items used were new to human resource management (employee–organization relationship), especially among entrepreneurial ventures. Additionally, a Hayes’ PROCESS mediation test was conducted to analyze the mediation effect of employee loyalty.FindingsThe findings suggest that love dimensions such as employee intimacy, employee passion and employee commitment have positive and significant relationships with employee loyalty. It also appears that employee loyalty plays a significant mediation role in the relationship between love dimensions and business performance of entrepreneurial ventures.Practical implicationsThe study’s findings have several implications. However, all of them are developed to include initiatives related to improving business performance through increasing employee intimacy, employee passion, employee commitment and employee loyalty.Originality/valueThe application of the triangular theory of love adds to human resource management and entrepreneurship literature. Very few studies have focused on the love relationship between employees and their organizations especially among entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries. Since in the current settings of business practices employees are considered as important internal customers, extending the triangular theory of love to employee and organizational relationships is critical, because creating an employee–job relationship is considered a short-term emotional feeling. Therefore, there is a need to look into a long-lasting love relationship between employees and their organizations. This is important for increasing employee intent to stay and loyalty within the entrepreneurial ventures.

Love Through Patience: A Contribution to the Kierkegaardian Discussion on the Spiritual Nature of Love Relationships

This paper seeks to make a modest contribution to the ongoing Kierkegaardian discussion concerning the spiritual nature of love relationships, particularly those involving romantic elements. It introduces patience as a key element in understanding the love of the spirit, diverging from perspectives commonly found in recent Anglophone Kierkegaardian literature. Since, in Kierkegaard’s works, the spirit is conceived as an intermediary being positioned between time and eternity, I argue that the spirit’s love must be approached through patience, which is the concrete space where time and eternity intertwine. The argument unfolds in three steps: first, I present Kierkegaard’s understanding of human love as a work, highlighting the significance of the neighbor, which refers to the mode of loving rather than the object of love; second, I outline the challenges inherent in Kierkegaard’s conception of love and propose an approach that emphasizes the dialectic between transcendence and immanence; third, I argue that patience is the concrete means by which this dialectic unfolds within the individual’s existence.

Empathic accuracy and interpersonal emotion regulation in close relationships.

Interpersonal emotion regulation commonly occurs in the context of close relationships. The present study examined whether accurately knowing the emotions that one's romantic partner would feel in a given situation was associated with the effectiveness of interpersonal emotion regulation attempts. One partner from 92 romantic dyads (N = 184) was randomly assigned to the role of the target, and the other was assigned to the role of the regulator. Each participant read four vignettes depicting emotion-inducing scenarios. Targets rated the emotions they would feel in each situation, whereas regulators reported how they thought their partner would feel in each situation. Targets were then asked to describe what their partner could say to help them feel good or better in each situation, using an open-ended response format. The regulators were asked to describe what they would say to their partners to help them feel good or better in each situation. Accuracy was defined as the mean difference in ratings between the regulator's estimates of their partner's emotions and their actual emotion ratings across the scenarios. Effectiveness of regulation was defined as the mean score of similarity between regulator's open-ended responses and target's open-ended responses as rated by independent coders. The results showed that empathic accuracy significantly predicted regulation effectiveness. We also found that individual differences in regulators' emotional clarity scores predicted empathic accuracy. This study sheds light on the importance of accurately perceiving a partner's emotions for effective regulation in close relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Personality and Meat Consumption Among Romantic Partners in Daily Life.

Eating is often a social activity that can be influenced by others, particularly in close relationships when dietary preferences reflect underlying value differences. We sought to examine the personality traits of meat-eating couples who differ in their preferences for meat. We recruited Swiss romantic couples in which one partner typically consumed more meat than the other (N = 272, couples = 136). At baseline, participants completed survey measures of self- and informant-rated personality traits at the domain (e.g., agreeableness) and aspect level (e.g., compassion) and meat consumption. Participants then completed 28 daily meal surveys about their meat consumption. Among high-meat eating partners, those higher in openness/intellect and compassion ate less meat. Additionally, higher intellect among low-meat eating partners predicted lower meat consumption among high-meat eating partners. These findings replicate evidence that personality plays an important role in meat-eating and extend this evidence to meat consumption in a relational context.

The role of objectification in young men's perpetration of intimate partner violence.

Theorists have argued that objectification is implicated in men's violence against women. Growing correlational and experimental evidence supports this claim. However, little research has studied the link between objectification and violence perpetrated by intimate partners. Three studies examined this link in relation to several forms of violent behavior. Study 1 (N = 215) found that men who implicitly associated women with objects were more likely to perpetrate sexual and physical violence against their female romantic partner, independent of their levels of hostile sexism. Study 2 (N = 325) replicated this finding but examined automatic associations with men's intimate partners rather than women as a class. Greater implicit objectification was again associated with self-reported physical violence and with a behavioral proxy measure of aggression among participants who responded most strongly to an experimental provocation. Study 3 (N = 192) manipulated objectification by inducing a physical appearance-focus mindset and found that the manipulation increased men's tendency to respond violently toward their partner. By implication, objectification appears to play a significant role in facilitating men's violence in romantic relationships.

Out of sight but in mind: Experimentally activating partner representations in daily life buffers against common stressors.

Lab experiments have shown that reminders of romantic partners buffer against stressors. Yet, tightly controlled experiments do not mimic what transpires in people's actual lives. Thus, an important question is as follows: To what extent do reminders of romantic partners confer affective benefits when they occur "in the wild" as people experience their daily activities? To capture people's emotional experience in real time, two studies, each spanning 3 months, used event-contingent ecological momentary assessments with a within-subject experimental manipulation. Prior to encountering a stressful event (taking an exam), participants received either a supportive text message from their partner or no message (Studies 1 and 2), or a supportive text message from the research team (Study 2). Receiving supportive partner messages, compared to no messages or messages from the research team, led to less negative affect and greater positive affect, and to less negative affect and greater positive affect about the exam itself. Receiving supportive partner messages had no statistically significant effects on subjective stress. Interestingly, the quality of the partner messages, as coded by independent raters, did not significantly predict the magnitude of the affective benefits. These findings suggest that receiving any supportive partner message, and not necessarily more subtle differences in the quality of the message, may be the key ingredient for these benefits to occur. The present work advances understanding of how the symbolic presence of partners confers affective regulatory benefits in everyday life. Implications for emotion regulation and the utility of integrating perspectives from adult attachment are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the experiences of stigma among South African gay men who practice consensual nonmonogamy

Consensual nonmonogamy (CNM) refers to an intimate relationship arrangement in which all the parties involved consent to having multiple romantic or sexual partners simultaneously, with the full knowledge and agreement of everyone involved. Although CNM is becoming increasingly more visible in mainstream media and social discourse, it remains a largely non-normative relationship configuration that can elicit stigma directed at those who practice it. The culture of mononormativity, whereby monogamous relationships are held as the ideal or default way for people to structure their intimate connections, may imply that even in the gay community, where a history of openness towards, and experimentation with, alternative relationship configurations exists, affirmative attitudes towards CNM cannot be guaranteed. This qualitative study explored the experiences of stigma among South African gay men who practice CNM, with a particular focus on stigma reported by CNM practitioners from within the gay community. Seven self-identified gay men who practice CNM were recruited to participate. Each participant took part in an unstructured individual interview which was then transcribed and subject to a thematic analysis. Analysis of the data revealed three main themes: creating CNM as homonormative; interpersonal (in)significance of CNM, and stigmatising narratives of CNM. Together, the findings highlight that while gay men who practice CNM may experience stigma from within the gay community, they adopt different approaches at managing this stigma, such as, by constructing CNM as a cultural norm for gay men and by interpreting their participation in CNM as a personally meaningful and fulfilling alternative to monogamy.

The prospective impact of extradyadic stress on depressive symptoms and the mediating role of intradyadic stress in parents-an actor-partner interdependence mediation model.

Stress outside of the couple relationship (extradyadic stress) can spill over into the couple relationship, increasing stress between the partners (intradyadic stress). Extra- and intradyadic stress are furthermore associated with depressive symptoms. Due to the interdependence of romantic partners, this study aimed to investigate the influence of the person's own and their partner's extra- and intradyadic stress on the person's depressive symptoms in parents of toddlers. The second aim was to evaluate whether intradyadic stress mediates the within-person and between-partner association between extradyadic stress and depressive symptoms. Longitudinal data of a community sample of 878 opposite-sex couples, participating in the prospective cohort study DREAM, were collected two and three years after birth. Extra- and intradyadic stress were assessed by the Multidimensional Stress Questionnaire for Couples and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. An actor-partner interdependence mediation model was applied to the data, while controlling for the confounder academic degree. The person's own extradyadic stress predicted their depressive symptoms one year later, partially mediated by their intradyadic stress. The partner's extradyadic stress and the person's own depressive symptoms one year later were only indirectly associated through the person's own intradyadic stress. In a sensitivity analysis, between-partner effects were no longer significant after including autoregressive pathways. Our findings highlight the importance of the extradyadic-intradyadic stress spillover for the mental health of women and men with young children. Early targeted interventions could help to prevent later depressive symptoms by reducing stress inside the couple relationship that results from both partners' stress from outside the couple relationship.

Implications of Self-Other Overlap for Cyber Dating Abuse in Young Adult Romantic Partners.

Social network sites (SNSs) have brought about profound changes in the way people relate to others, including their romantic partners. Despite the advantages SNSs may have for building and managing romantic relationships, their use can be linked to risky behaviors within romantic relationships, such as the emergence of jealousy, control, and intrusiveness, i.e., cyber dating abuse (CDA) behaviors. The present study, in a sample of 315 Italian young adults involved in a romantic relationship (74.6 percent women and 25.4 percent men) aged 20 to 33 years (M = 24.17; SD = 2.60), explored CDA behaviors and their association with self-other overlap. Findings showed a positive association between self-other overlap and the frequency of CDA behaviors. That is, those who struggled to recognize their partners as different from themselves tended to control and enact intrusive behaviors toward them. This association, however, was moderated by the partners' relationship duration, so that it was only significant for partners in a long-term relationship. The study expands our understanding of CDA behaviors in romantic relationships, contributing to identifying the conditions under which they are more likely to be perpetrated. In addition, it helps inform interventions for preventing risky behaviors within young adults' romantic relationships.

Ending a special relationship: Toward an ethics of divorce

Abstract Romantic partnerships are typically among the most important goods in our lives. But love sometime ends, and so too do relationships. Divorcing partners are particularly vulnerable to being wronged and harmed. The aim of this paper is to develop an ethics of divorce, by establishing that divorce is a condition for the possibility of the distinct value of romantic partnerships. Different sets of rights are specified here: the divorcee's right to explanation, the right to participation and the right to transitional goods; and the divorcer's right to relational freedom. Violations of these rights indicate the distinct wrongs and harms of divorce. The paper then explains the corresponding duties in divorce that might avoid these wrongs and mitigate these harms, and highlights the distinct status of these duties: while they continue to be special, they are residual duties grounded in the fact that the partners once committed to their partnership.