Home Individual representations of love and their social and cultural resources
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Individual representations of love and their social and cultural resources

  • Ivan Lukšík EMAIL logo and Michaela Košútová Guillaume EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: April 24, 2022

Abstract

Many scholars consider love to be a complex phenomenon with multiple social, cultural and biological dimensions and contexts. The aim of this study was to examine individual representations of love among young people in emerging adulthood and the sources they are derived from. The survey completed by a sample of 397 young people aged 18–29 showed that all the representations of love can be structured into five factors of love: 1. strength and positive benefits of love, 2. physical love, commitment, searching and building, 3. biological and self-centred love, 4. the reverse side of love, and 5. spiritual love. Respondents were grouped into three profiles: 1. Strong, self-beneficial and relational love, 2. More explicit strong, self-beneficial and relational love, 3. Complex love. The general cultural resources for these factors and love profiles are Christian love and interpretations of socialised romantic love and their deconstructions.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under contract no. APVV-18-0303 and VEGA grant agency under contract no. 1/0426/18

References

Aron, A., Fisher, H. E., & Strong, G. (2006). Romantic love. In A. L. Vangelisti & D. Perlman (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of personal relationships (pp. 595–614). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press10.1017/CBO9780511606632.033Search in Google Scholar

Acevedo, B., & Aron, A. (2009). Does a long-term relationship kill romantic love? Review of General Psychology, 13, 59–6.10.1037/a0014226Search in Google Scholar

Arnett, J.J. (2015). Emerging adulthood. The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. New York: Oxford University PressAslanian, T., K. (2018). Embracing uncertainty: A diffractive approach to love in the context of early childhood education and care. International Journal of Early Years Education, 26(2), 173–185.10.1080/09669760.2018.1458604Search in Google Scholar

Bauman, Z. (2003). Liquid love: On the frailty of human bonds. Cambridge: Polity PressSearch in Google Scholar

Beall, A. E., & Sternberg, R. J. (1995). The social construction of love. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 12(3), 417–438.10.1177/0265407595123006Search in Google Scholar

Berscheid, E. (1988). Some comments on love’s anatomy: Or, whatever happened to old-fashioned lust? In R. J. Sternberg & M. L. Barnes (Eds.), The psychology of love (pp. 359–374). Yale University PressSearch in Google Scholar

Berscheid, E., & Hatfield, E. (1978). Interpersonal attraction (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-WesleySearch in Google Scholar

Berscheid, E, & Reis H.T. (1998). Interpersonal attraction and close relationships. In S. Fiske, D. Gilbert, G. Lindzey (Eds.) Handbook of Social PsychologyVol. 2 (pp. 193–281). New York: Random House,Search in Google Scholar

Coontz, S., & Marriage, A. (2005). History: How love conquered marriage. New York: Penguin BooksSearch in Google Scholar

Erikson, E. H. (1963). Youth: Change and challenge. New York: Basic booksSearch in Google Scholar

Fischer, K. W., Shaver, P. R., & Carnochan, P. (1990). How emotions develop and how they organize development. Cognition and Emotion, 4(2), 81–127.10.1080/02699939008407142Search in Google Scholar

Fromm, E. (1956). The art of loving. New York: Harper and RowSearch in Google Scholar

Gibson, W. A. (1959). Three multivariate models: Factor analysis, latent structure analysis, and latent profile analysis. Psychometrika, 24(3), 229–252.10.1007/BF02289845Search in Google Scholar

Giddens, A. (1992). The transformation of intimacy. Cambridge: PolitySearch in Google Scholar

Grün A. (2017). Láska je základ bytí [Love is the basis of being]. Brno: Barrister & PrincipalSearch in Google Scholar

Guillaume, M. (2020). Láska mladých ľudí na Slovensku – moc a nemoc kultúry [Love of young people in Slovakia - power and disease of culture]. In I. Lukšík & N. Kallová (Eds.), Kvalita života a kvalita vzťahov [Quality of life and quality of relationships] (pp. 141–162). Bratislava: KVSK SAV: Human communication studies, 13.Search in Google Scholar

Hagenaars, J. A., & Halman, L. C. (1989). Searching for ideal types: The potentialities of latent class analysis. European Sociological Review, 5(1), 81–96.10.1093/oxfordjournals.esr.a036509Search in Google Scholar

Hatfield, E. (1988). Passionate and companionate love. In R. J. Sternberg & M. L. Barnes (Eds.), The psychology of love (p. 191–217). New Haven: Yale University PressSearch in Google Scholar

Hatfield, E., Bensman, L., & Rapson, R. L. (2011). A brief history of social scientists’ attempts to measure passionate love. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 29(2), 143–164.10.1177/0265407511431055Search in Google Scholar

Hegi, K.E., & Bergner, R.M. (2010). What is love? An empirically-based essentialist account. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27(5), 620–636.10.1177/0265407510369605Search in Google Scholar

Hendrick, C., & Hendrick, S. S. (1989). Research on love: Does it measure up? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(5), 784–794.10.1037//0022-3514.56.5.784Search in Google Scholar

Hsu-Ming, T. (Ed.). (2017). The popular culture of romantic love in Australia. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.Search in Google Scholar

Karandashev, V., & Clapp, S. (2015). Multidimensional Architecture of Love: From Romantic Narratives to Psychometrics. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 44 (6), 675–699.10.1007/s10936-014-9311-9Search in Google Scholar

Koontz, A., Norman, L., & Okorie, S. (2017). Realistic love: Contemporary college women’s negotiations of princess culture and the “reality” of romantic relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(2), 535–555.10.1177/0265407517735694Search in Google Scholar

Lamy, L. (2015). Beyond emotion: Love as encounter of myth and drive. Emotion Review, 8(2), 97–107.10.1177/1754073915594431Search in Google Scholar

Lazarsfeld, P. F., & Henry, N. W. (1968). Latent structure analysis. New York: Houghton Mifflin.Search in Google Scholar

Lee, J. A. (1973). The colors of love: An exploration of ways of loving. Don Mills, Ontario: New Press.Search in Google Scholar

Lukšík, I. & Guillaume, M. (2018). Representations of love in the early stages of love. Human Affairs: Postdisciplinary Humanities & Social Sciences Quarterly 28(3), 271–284.10.1515/humaff-2018-0022Search in Google Scholar

Lukšík, I., & Košútová Guillaume, M. (2021). Pravá láska je... [True love is…]. In M. Baránková (Ed.), Community Psychology in Slovakia 2021 (pp. 72–96). Bratislava : Institute of Applied Psychology, Comenius University in Bratislava.Search in Google Scholar

Lukšík, I., & Šrol, J. (submitted). Individual representations of love – validation of a new scale.Search in Google Scholar

Marková, D. (2015). Moral values in sexual and partner relationships. Ljubljana: KUD Apokalipsa.Search in Google Scholar

Marková, D. (2014). Láska a morálne hodnoty v sexuálnych vzťahoch [Love and moral values in sexual relationships]. In: 22. celostátní kongres k sexuální výchově v České republice (pp. 35-48). Praha: Společnost pro plánovaní rodiny a sexuální výchovu.Search in Google Scholar

Marková, D. (2012). O sexualite, sexuálnej morálke a súčasných partnerských vzťahoch [On sexuality, sexual morality and contemporary partner relationships]. Nitra: Garmond.Search in Google Scholar

Masaryk, R. (2012). Láska ako koncept v psychológii [Love as a concept in psychology]. In: D. Marková & L. Rovňanová (Eds.), Sexuality 5. (pp. 274–296). Banská Bystrica: UMB.Search in Google Scholar

Meeks, B. S., Hendrick, S. S., & Hendrick, C. (1998). Communication, love and relationship satisfaction. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 15, 755–73.10.1177/0265407598156003Search in Google Scholar

Mercado, E., & Hibel, L.C. (2017). I love you from the bottom of my hypothalamus: The role of stress physiology in romantic pair bond formation and maintenance. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11(2), e12298.10.1111/spc3.12298Search in Google Scholar

Moscovici, S. (1973). Foreword. In C. Herzlich (Ed.). Health and illness: A social psychological analysis (pp. ix–xiv). London, UK: Academic Press.Search in Google Scholar

Moscovici, S. (2000). The history and actuality of social representations. In G. Duveen & S. Moscovici (Eds.), Social representations: Explorations in social psychology (pp. 120–155). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Search in Google Scholar

Mouton, A. R., & Montijo, M. N. (2017). Love, passion, and peak experience: A qualitative study on six continents. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(3), 263–280.10.1080/17439760.2016.1225117Search in Google Scholar

Nygren, A. (1953). Agape & Eros. London: SPCK.Search in Google Scholar

Rubin, Z. (1970). Measurement of romantic love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(2), 265–273.10.1037/h0029841Search in Google Scholar

Rougement, D. d. (2001). Západ a láska [Love in the Western World]. Kaligram: Bratislava.Search in Google Scholar

Schmidt, E. (2018). Are lovers ever one? Reconstructing the union theory of love. Philosophia (United States), 46, 1–15.10.1007/s11406-017-9860-xSearch in Google Scholar

Shaver, P. R., Morgan, H. J., & Wu, S. (1996). Is love a “basic” emotion? Personal Relationships, 3(1), 81–96.10.1111/j.1475-6811.1996.tb00105.xSearch in Google Scholar

Sprecher, S., & Fehr, B. (2006). Enhancement of mood and self-esteem as a result of giving and receiving compassionate love. Current Research in Social Psychology, 11, 227–242.Search in Google Scholar

Steinhouse, P. (2013). The Good Samaritan: The unidentified man who fell among robbers on the Jericho road. Compass, 47, 35–41.Search in Google Scholar

Soloski, K.L., Pavkov, T.W., Sweeney, K.A., & Wetchler, J.L. (2013). The social construction of love through intergenerational processes. Contemporary Family Therapy 35(4), 773–792.10.1007/s10591-013-9247-5Search in Google Scholar

Sternberg, R.J. (1995). Love as a story. Personal Relationship, 3, 59–79.10.1111/j.1475-6811.1996.tb00104.xSearch in Google Scholar

Sternberg, R.J. (2008). Láska je príbeh [Love as a story]. Bratislava: Ikar.Search in Google Scholar

Sternberg, R. J. (1986). A triangular theory of love. Psychological Review, 93(2), 119–135.10.1037//0033-295X.93.2.119Search in Google Scholar

Sternberg, R. J. (1988). The triangle of love: Intimacy, passion, commitment. New York: Basic Books.Search in Google Scholar

Surra, C. A., Gray, C. R., Boettcher, T. M. J., Cottle, N. R., & West, A. R. (2006). From courtship to universal properties: Research on dating and mate selection, 1950 to 2003. In A. L. Vangelisti & D. Perlman (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of personal relationships (pp. 113–130). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511606632.008Search in Google Scholar

Swidler, A. (1980). Love and adult in American culture. In N. J Smelser & E. H. Erikson (Eds.), Themes of work and love in adulthood (pp. 120 –147). Cambridge MA: Harward University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Vermunt, J. K., & Magidson, J. (2002). Latent class cluster analysis. In J. A. Hagenaars & A. L. McCutcheon (Eds.), Applied latent class analysis (pp 89–106). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511499531.004Search in Google Scholar

Von Cranach, M. (1995) Social representations and individual actions: Misunderstandings, omissions and different premises. Journal for the Theory of Social Representation, 25 (3), 285–293.10.1111/j.1468-5914.1995.tb00276.xSearch in Google Scholar

Watts, S., & Stenner, P (2005). The subjective experience of partnership love: A Q Methodological study. British Journal of Social Psychology, 44(1), 85–107.10.1348/014466604X23473Search in Google Scholar

Watts, S., & Stenner, P., (2013). Definition of love in a sample of British women: An empirical study using q methodology. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53(3), 557–572.10.1111/bjso.12048Search in Google Scholar

Willi, J. 2006. Psychologie lásky [Psychology of love]. Praha: Portál.Search in Google Scholar

Willerton, J. (2012). Psychologie medzilidských vztahů [Psychology of interpersonal relationships]. Praha: Grada.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2022-04-24
Published in Print: 2022-04-26

© 2022 Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences

Downloaded on 7.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/humaff-2022-0020/pdf
Scroll to top button