Introduction
Love is a very complex concept that many people do not understand. Every time they try to master its development trends, they end up getting lost in the middle. Love stands out to be a multidimensional phenomenon and one of the most powerful and intense of all the human emotions. There are various theories, such as two-love specific models, which are helpful in providing a theoretical framework regarding love and intimate relationships that explain its development, its maintenance, and the point at which it can be dissolved. Different considerations are often analyzed in the love development process. These factors include personal attributes, introspective approach, psychophysiology and the structural components. As such, this paper will discuss the concept of love by looking at the description, definition, exemplification, analysis, process, and some causes and effects of love.
Description
Notably, love is not a state of perfect caring. Love is the attempt to accept a person the way they are irrespective of their backgrounds. However, most people have high expectations during their first stages of falling in love (Jean and Stephanie 16). As a result, they end up getting disappointed if their expectations are not met. Nevertheless, if people must realize that love involves ups and downs, then expectations might come in agreement with reality. Though people may seem perfect in the initial stages, they may be very frustrating in the long-run. As a result, they sometimes end up getting embarrassed and heartbreaking (Jean and Stephanie 17). As such, to cope up with the storms of love, the partners must learn to appreciate each other and realize that perfection is not the key in relationships than how to understand each other.
Definition
Christaudo defines love as a spirit. However, the author argues that the subject matter of love as a spirit should not be confused or misunderstood. According to Christaudo, a spirit of friendship is no less real than the people who are friends. A spirit has a dual role of reflecting and infusing people’s friendships (Christaudo 1). Therefore, the spirit has the capability to nourish or deplete members from a group. According to the Christians, love is the greatest commandment that God has ordained on the people. As such, Bible teachings always emphasize on the virtue of love. Christians believe that it is worthless to do good things without love. They argue that it is better to love than to give. However, on a narrow definition, love simply means attraction to one another by brotherhood or sisterhood or intimacy. The difference in perceptions the meaning of love implies that love is a very dynamic in types or categories. As such, since love is very strong, one may agree with Christaudo’s definition of love despite whatever form it takes.
Role of love
According to Christaudo, one of the roles of love is to provide the incalculable founding of an event, the source of a new attractor field that reconfigures knowledge, and the various discursive regimes, which constitute social knowledge and power (10). Besides, loving one another ensures the continued survival of the individual species as well as ensuring their physical and emotional health. Remarkably, there is a strong connection between an individual’s emotion and the state of the well-being of that individual. Above all, love improves the quality of social life in the sense that it fosters self-esteem. For example, when parents create a strong foundation of love for their children, such infants acquires a strong sense of self-esteem. Therefore, love is seen as a unifying factor among people either socially, physically, or emotionally.
Qualities of Love
The driving force towards establishing a strong basis of love is directly proportional to the qualities of love. Ultimately, the most common features of love include patience, perseverance, humility, grace, loyalty, trustworthiness, reliability, honesty, kindness, open mind, open heart, discipline, forgiveness, responsibility, even temper, discipline, and forgiveness, as well as appreciating the other partner (Jean and Stephanie 20). Therefore, love is a learning opportunity through which individuals acquaint themselves with the listed qualities into their lives. Hence, love is the founding block of stronger and long-lasting relationships.
Process
The process of love is very complex and entails various stages before reaching maturity. According to Carroll, there are five stages of love development including the merging stage, marriage, disillusionment, creating real, long-lasting love, and finally, using the power of the two sides to change the world (Carroll 4). The first stage usually involves developing an interest in another person and establishing mutual relationships, which then grows to the next level, that is, marriage. During this stage, couples experience a stronger bond than before and enjoy mutual benefits from the relationship. In the disillusionment stage, the couples begin to experience some difficulties in sustaining their relationship (Carroll 7). As such, they are forced to employ the qualities of true love and keep the fire burning. The fourth stage is where now after successful settlement of disputes that couples learn they are real to one another and develop a real lasting relationship. The last stage is where they devolve the power and responsibilities between them and sometimes combine their efforts to address challenging issues in their world (Carroll15). Ultimately, from stage one up to the last stage, there is a high level of complexity involved, and there is, the need for the the partners to develop coping mechanisms failure to which they may drastically fall out of love.
Causes of Love
There are two broad causes of love including evolution need and hormone development. According to the evolutionary theory of change and development, life has got four main stages; birth, maturity, marriage, and death (Carroll 25). As such, to avoid extinction of species, individuals attract and get attracted to one another to ensure continuity of the community. Similarly, scientific explanations suggest that the role of hormones is crucial towards understanding the concept of love. They influence the minds and the body to get attracted to somebody, which pushed the emergence of love.
Conclusion
Profoundly, from its definition, exemplification, analysis, process, causes, and effects, love is the greatest comfort that many people seek in their daily lives. As such, though there exist many different forms of love, people often seek to express it in a romantic relationship with a compatible partner. The majority of people view love as a crucial element in their lives since it provides them with a deep sense of fulfillment. Notably, the basic thing in relationships is to learn how to stabilize it in all circumstances. Notably, when relationships fail, they become a great source of psychological anguish that imminently results to stress. Therefore, as much as love is concerned, one must be very cautious about it and there is need to follow all the stages involved in its development to evaluate if it will work or not in the future.
Works Cited
Carroll, Linda. Love cycles: The five essential stages of lasting love. New World Library, 2014.
Christaudo, Wayne. A philosophical history of love. Transaction Publishers, 2012.
Jean, Nacha, and Cooper, Stephanie. What is love? Xlibris Corporation, 2011.
