The Sociology of Love, Courtship, and Dating - 4568 Words

Bryant-45099 Part VII.qxd 10/18/2006 7:22 PM Page 266 26 THE SOCIOLOGY OF LOVE, COURTSHIP, AND DATING ERICA OWENS West Virginia University T he question of â€Å"What is love?† has piqued curiosity and engendered frustration for much of history. The exasperated answer that you â€Å"just know† when you are in love is reflected in the body of sociological literature on the phenomenon. Sociologists do not seem to agree on a uniform definition, although there are several competing but complementary typologies that attempt to pin down those emotional and behavioral states that add up to romantic â€Å"love.† Love scholarship can be roughly divided into two philosophical camps: (1) that which argues love must have certain components to†¦show more content†¦Many scholars differentiate between the â€Å"falling in love† state of early romantic attachment and the more companionate state of being in a love relationship after the original flush has worn off (see Hendrick and Hendrick 1992). The intensity of early love is impossible for most couples to maintain. As the relationship progresses, pa rtners come to have a warmer and closer feeling of intimacy, termed companionate love, rather than the all-encompassing passion experienced when the relationship was new (Berscheid and Walster 1978). Dorothy Tennov’s (1979) work on â€Å"limerence† is perhaps the most systematic exploration of the difference between falling in love and being in a committed love relationship. According to Tennov, limerence is a transient state that involves preoccupation with the â€Å"limerent object† (i.e., the person one is falling for) together with idealization, mood swings, and physiological arousal. Limerence may be positive, that is, mutual, or negative/ unrequited. Much of limerence occurs in the mind of the one experiencing the emotion. Most people will become limerentShow MoreRelatedWomens Suffrage Movement Essay1559 Words   |  7 Pageswas not. The feminist movement not only changed the equality between men and women but also their views on dating. One first must understand the history of dating. Before dating there was an old-fashioned term known as courtship. Courtship began thousands of years ago and itself was different among the Romans, Hebrews and so forth. The bible gave one of the first glances of courtship when Caleb gave his daughter to Othniel. During this time, it was a tradition for the fathers to give awayRead MoreDoes Gender Play A Role?1596 Words   |  7 Pagescohabitation is increasing while marriage is being postponed. Age at first marriage has reached an all-time high at 28 years for men and 26 years for women (Renfrow and Bruce, 2014). Before continuing on, sociology and sociological imagination have to be defined as the terms serve as a basis to the paper. Sociology is the systematic and scientific study of society. Sociological imagination is vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the greater society. As these definitions are understoodRead MoreArranged Marriage And Other T ypes Of Marriage1635 Words   |  7 Pagesperspective. Through the three perspectives, many distinctive differences and similarities between arranged marriage and other types of marriage such as, love marriage can be seen. This research essay will analyze arranged marriage from the perspective of all three social sciences and show how arranged marriage is just as good, if not better than love marriage. Firstly, within an arranged marriage many things can be researched and analyzed from an anthropological perspective. A few of the topics includeRead MoreArranged Marriage Essay 11506 Words   |  7 PagesArranged marriage Arranged marriage 1 Do you want get married with the one you love or do you want to find someone who has many commons in a various elements with you? Do you want to have a wonderful marriage? Or how can people avoid their marriage from divorce? Young people nowadays can have a chance and freedom to get married by two main ways: love marriage and arranged marriage. A lot of people in Western countries think that arranged marriage avoid people having theRead MoreArranged Marriage From The Perspective Of All Three Social Sciences1950 Words   |  8 Pagesperspective. Through the three perspectives, many distinctive differences and similarities between arranged marriage and other types of marriage such as love/choice marriage can be seen. This research essay will analyze arranged marriage from the perspective of all three social sciences and show how arranged marriage is just as good if not better than love/choice marriage from the perspective of all three social sciences. There are many subtopics within arranged marriage that can be researched and analyzedRead MoreArranged Marriage From The Perspective Of All Three Social Sciences2030 Words   |  9 Pagesperspective. Through the three perspectives, many distinctive differences and similarities between arranged marriage and other types of marriage such as love/choice marriage can be seen. This research essay will analyze arranged marriage from the perspective of all three social sciences and show how arranged marriage is just as good if not better than love marriage from the perspective of all three social sciences. There are many subtopics within arranged marriage that can be researched and analyzed fromRead More Gender Roles, Socialization and Relationships Essay examples1794 Words   |  8 PagesWatch the classical film Grease and one will understand how relationships function in western Society. The film tells a story of a boy (Danny) and a girl (Sandy) who falls in love. Through a series of misunderstandings they break up, but still care enough about each other that they still try revive their relationship. Through ballads such as Summer Night’s that are still popular today, the film shows how differently males and females view relationships. Danny, for example, describes his relationshipRead MoreThe Victimization Of Heterosexual Males : A Literature Review On Domestic Violence3581 Words   |  15 PagesPsychological Abuse There are many synonyms and many subsections for the term â€Å"domestic violence† as stated by previous researchers. Synonyms of the term â€Å"domestic violence† include: dating violence, relationship abuse, domestic abuse, conjugal violence, spousal violence, coercive control, intimate partner violence (IPV) and courtship violence (Baholo, Christofides, Wright, Sikweyiya Shai, 2014; Baker, Helm, Bifulco Chung-Do, 2015; Baker Stith, 2008; Clark, Beckett, Wells Dungee-Anderson, 1994; CoolidgeRead MoreMarriage12231 Words   |  49 Pagesto whom the natives subscribed and submitted their fate. Nid Anima (1975) observes that a marital union in pre-Christian Philippines was always addressed to a pagan god. Therefore, at this time, Christian concepts such as the love between the spouses mirroring Christ’s love for His Church were well inexistent. It was a pagan god, not Christ, that ruled over a native’s household. Fr. David Antonio (2002), in studying h ow to develop an inculturation model of the Catholic marriage ritual in the context