Adolescents and Young Adults’ Conceptions on Being in Love
Abstract
Data on conceptions about BEING IN LOVE as well as answers on marrying somebody who has desirable characteristics withou loving him/her are analyzed. A survey on mate preferences that included an open sentence (Being in love means to me....) and a question about marrying somebody without loving him/her was administered to an intentional sample of 761 adolescents and young adults living in Buenos Aires city and its suburban area. Content analysis of free writ- ten expressions was carried out. We found that both males and females mainly consider that being in love is related to needs of sharing time together, thinking on the beloved most of the time and having deep feelings. High percentages of subjects think in marrying only wihen being in love, but males are more doubtful than females. Some differences between sex and age on conceptions were found. Data grouping supports Sternberg ́s (1989) three dimensions model : passion, intimacy and commitment.
Downloads
References
Bowlby, J. (1976). El vínculo afectivo. Buenos Aires: Paidós. Buss, D. (1994). The evolution of desire. New York: Basic Books.
Buss, D., & Schmitt, D. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204-232.
Clore, G.L., Schwartz, N., y Conway,N. (1994). Affective causes and consequences of social information processing. En: S. Wyer y T.R. Srull (Eds).Handbook of Social Cognition, (323-417). New Jersey: Erlbaum
Freud, S. (1912). Contribuciones a la psicología del amor. Obras Completas, Vol.11. Buenos Aires: Amorrortu. 1990.
Furman, W y Simon, V. (1999). Cognitive Representations of Adolescent Romantic Relationships. Capítulo 4. En: W. Furman, B. Bradford Brown & C. Fiering (Eds). The Development of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gasper, K., y Clore, G.L. (1997).The persistent use of negative affect by anxious individual to estimate risk. Manuscrito personal no publicado. University of Illinois. Urbana. Champaign.
Haviland, J.M., Davidson, R.B., Ruetsch, C., Gebelt,J., y Lancelot, C. (1994). The place of emotion in identity. Journal of Research on Adolescent, 4, (4) 503-518.
Hinde, R.A. (1979). Towards understanding relationships. New York: Academic Press.
Isen, A.M. y Means, B. (1983).The influence of positive affect on decision- making strategy. Social Cognition, 2, 18-31.
Lutz, C. A. ( 1988). Unnatural emotions. Everyday sentiments on a Micronesian atoll and their challenges in Western theories. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Shaver, P.R., Hazan, C. y Bradshaw, D.( 1988). Love as attachment: The integration of three behavioral systems. En: R. Sternberg y M.L. Barnes ( eds).The Psychology of Love. New Heaven: Yale University Press.
Shweder, R.A. (1994). ̈You are not sick. You are just in love. ̈ : Emotions as an interpretative system. En : P. Ekman y R.J. Davidson (eds). The nature of emotion: Fundamental questions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Simmons, C., Kolke, A., y Shimizu, H. (1986). Attittudes toward romantic love among American, German and Japanese students, Journal of Social Psychology, 126, 327-336
Sternberg, R. (1989). El triángulo del amor. Intimidad, amor y compromiso. Buenos Aires: Paidós.
Sternberg, R. (1998). Cupid ́s arrow. The course of love through time. London: Cambridge University Press
Tannahill, R. (1989). Sex in history. London: Sphere
Thibaut, J.W. y Kelly, H.H. ( 1959). The Social Psychology of Groups. New York: Wiley.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to grant Psicodebate copyright and right of publication and accept the work being licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the authors and Psicodebate.
