The Concept of Romantic Love
Romantic love is a pleasurable and expressing feeling of an emotional attraction between two people. Romantic love involves the expressions of feelings of individuals and their emotional desires to bond with another person. Love makes people feel appreciated, admired, and happy in their lifetime. Also, love makes individuals feel valued and secure. According to attachment theory, the development of romantic love requires certain components. It requires sexual attraction and attachment between the two partners. Romantic love requires attraction and attachment through which affection bond is developed between lovers. Partners get a physical sense of connection even if they are a distance apart. For example, attachment in a relationship can be thinking and missing the beloved partner when he/she is at a different geographical place. Also, attraction makes lovers to share their thoughts and feelings. Additionally, lovers are normally attuned to the feelings and characters of each other. Therefore, it can also be noted that attunement, attachment, and attraction are the basic components that define romantic love.
The major factors that affect romantic relationships are the ability to love and being committed. Partners interact on a regular basis and end up changing their feelings towards each other. This affects the way a person loves his/her partner and his/her commitment to the relationship.
People in a romantic relationship can recognize if their relationship is declining or diminishing if they start experiencing a sense of disillusionment. Lovers may become more critical towards one another or become quickly irritated at issues that did not bother them previously in their relationship. Also, the declining relationship could be identified if the partners become impatient with each other, and change their feelings towards each other.
Relating Romantic Love and Maternal Love
Maternal love is typically the relationship between a parent and a child. The development of these forms of love involves physical and emotional elements. These factors influence the bonding process both romantic and maternal love, and this forms the relationship between the two forms of love. As people live together, they continually interact, socialize, and develop their social relationships. These forms of relationships are common in both romantic and maternal love and are essential for the development of any relationship. The parents’ love for their children or the romantic love that exists among lovers is unconditional. Despite challenges, arguments, or life-changing decisions, the amount of love and existing bonds are likely to remain unchanged in both forms of love.
Social scientists have recognized the significant roles that love plays in human lives and have theorized about its nature. For example, in romantic love, a person feels loved and appreciated by his/her partner. Similarly, with maternal love, a child feels the love of his or her parents when she/he receives care and company from them. These components of love such as care and appreciation are the motivational factors essential in both romantic and maternal relationships.
Also, the two forms of relationships involving some levels of human attachment. However, the degree of attachment varies significantly in these two forms of love. The way a child gets attracted and attached to his/her parent may not be similar to the case of intimate relationships. Therefore, it can be concluded that attachment is evident in both types of love and it brings partners together. Human attachment bonds individuals through close contacts as people interact and communicate with each other.