The SSC’s Official Science Newspaper
e rrent January 2014
thecurrent@westernssc.ca
Volume 4 Issue 6
PSYCHOLOGY
The stages of love and the science behind them
IN THIS ISSUE...
Valentines Day, love and relationships through the scientific lens Maham Bushra Blog Manager
1. 2. 3. 4-5. 6-7. 8.8.
As February rolls around, we find ourselves surrounded once again by the old-age notion of love. Homo sapiens have been fascinated with this eerie idea since they sat around a campfire or lay to watch the stars millions of years ago. Researcher Helen Fisher of Rutgers University has spent her entire academic life attempting to unravel the mysteries of romance, sex and relationships. According to Fisher, there are three rudimentary stages of love: lust, romantic love and attachment. The first stage involves sex drive and a craving for sexual gratification. Lust can involve a wide range of partners; this stage has no element of focus or singularity. It’s when you’re walking down a street and feel an instant attraction to a complete stranger. Fisher believes lust has a natural purpose: it evolved to get humans to start searching for potential partners. “You need to feel instant sparks to start the breeding process,” she says. The second stage, attraction, emphasizes the obsession and euphoria of early love. This stage involves the integration of three fundamental brain chemicals: adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin. Fisher puts it best when she says, “In romantic love, not only does this person take on special meaning, you focus your attention on them, you aggrandize them. But you have intense energy. You’re up all night. You’re walking till dawn. You feel intense elation when things are going well, mood swings into horrible despair when things are going poorly; real dependence on this person.” Romantic attraction also ignites an extreme craving for the significant other, which is both sexual and emotional in nature. In fact, researchers at University College London have discovered that people in love have lower levels of serotonin. These low levels are similar to those found in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder, explaining the obsessive, fanatical aspect of romance. Fisher’s analysis of brain scans of subjects madly in love showed an increased blood flow in brain areas with high concentrations of dopamine receptors – associated with elation, craving and addiction. Astonishingly, falling in love has the same effect as taking cocaine! “Couples often show the signs of surging dopamine: increased energy, less need for sleep or food, focused attention and exquisite delight in smallest details of this
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novel relationship,” suggests Fisher. The final stage, attachment, is the sense of security and satisfaction felt in a long-term relationship. This stage is characterized by high levels of oxytocin, which is greatly stimulated during sex. This chemical strengthens feelings of calm and comfort, and makes couples feel more intimate. Fisher believes this last stage evolved to help couples stay together after the excitement of romantic love died down so that they can raise healthy offspring together. Research by Ellen Berscheid of the University of Minnesota shows that the more individuals idealize and magnify their significant other, the more successful the attachment stage will be. As Helen Fisher beautifully puts it, “People live for love. They kill for love. They die for love. They have songs, poems, novels, sculptures, paintings, myths, legends. In over 175 societies, people have left their evidence of this powerful brain system. I have come to think it’s one of the most powerful brain systems on earth for both great joy and great sorrow.”
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