Relationships and Love

Relationships and Love The paper examines various sociological viewpoints and evaluates love and relationships objectively. A sociological study of love and relationship principles and perspectives is also discussed. Love is sociologically interesting for a variety of reasons. Love is a term that has been used to mean so many different things, making it challenging to research and define. Love for locations, inter-species, friendship, maternal, romantic, companionate, personal, and sexual love are examples of what the word can mean. Intimate love between a couple, on the other hand, is distinct from different types of love in that it involves an emotion that has grown in meaning and proficiency over the previous year’s giving it a legitimate range of policies, ideologies, and institutions. The article of Gabb and Fink analyze long-term couple relationships that focus on incidental and the brief which create the texture of relationships by which their functional strength is established. Relationships involve a broad spectrum of experiences and feelings with contentment, choices, and lack of alternatives, emotions, and pragmatics. Regarding, the influence of socio-economic factors, biography, and culture of couples in long-term relationships there is an absence of sociologically informed studies relating to their personal lives and experiences.

The article includes an evaluation of different sociological perspectives of love and relationships. The viewpoints are presented in the studies of a family in everyday lives and emotion, the study of enduring love, feeling of adventures and adversities, as well as day-to-day intimacy and ambivalence. Sociologists’ understand love through reflection on its different meanings within the society since love can be studied through investigating its cultural representations (Gabb and Fink, 2015, p. 971). There is a belief in the society that couple relationships are experienced, afforded meaning, and constituted by the everyday lives. Also, there is an understanding that emotions are surrounded by social relations where macro and micro networks of relations overlap and intersect. Everyday lives and emotions build the texture of long-term couple relationships. The approach gives a lens that focuses on everyday experiences of couples thus gaining insight into the meanings, processes, and cross-cutting themes at the same time ensuring feelings and emotions are attached firmly. Sociologists’ methodological and conceptual argument is advanced and illustrated when an empirical research is done on everyday relationship practices.

Additionally, the study of enduring love is performed through multi-sensory qualitative investigation of couples to interrogate how they sustain, understand, and experience their long-term relationships. Couples value the everyday practices that are necessary to make a relationship work. The simple understanding of the coupledom is essential since what and who constitutes relationship work is outlined (Borgatta and Montgomery, 2014, p. 98). The study shows that what constitutes a couple's relationships could involve a cultural understanding of the couple norm. The study advance knowledge on the manner enduring relationships are felt and lived by couples who are at different generations’ points in life sequence. The research examines the experience of adult couples who live without children and the impact of cultural narratives as well as family policies. The study also inspects the gendered relationship work that men and women do to stay together. Also, through research an understanding of how stability and quality are imagined and experienced in long-term relationships.

Survey data and everyday relationship practices have been used to understand relationships satisfaction and the way individuals interpret couple relationships. The study enables sociologists to scope trends in behavior as well as the factors that look to signal relationship satisfaction by responses to personal questions on relationship practice (Gabb and Fink, 2015, p. 974). Thus, the main reason for the design of the statistical survey was to generate crucial data on the relationship experience along diverse and large suitability sample. Among the listed practices that made relationship work were domestic responsibilities and roles which communicated a sense of togetherness and commitment. Relationship generosity and practices demonstrated a sense of meaning since they showed how the other partner was cherished. Other practices of reciprocity bound the couple together by giving and taking actions. The study provides the quality of relationship practices as a factor contributed by sensitivity and attentiveness.

The study found diaries to be means through which individuals can confess their anxieties and fears through writing their organized thoughts of a particular experience in every day with their partner which helps in accounting for their couple relationship. Others may edit the everyday experiences and practice while others would share the intimate aspects of personal lives. Researchers can draw attention to the socio-cultural resources that are arranged to verify the experience which helps to develop their understanding of the relationship that emphasis their analytical attention on the distinctiveness of insight obtained from various methods. Understanding the process of study requires an incorporation of multiple paradigms and traditions to assist in shaping the different styles of inquiry in a body of examination. Data collected should be exact to ensure that the full meaning is obtained. However, some diaries may present questions concerning the definitions and experience of long-term relationships.

Love and relationships can be analyzed using relevant sociological concepts and perspectives such as social, intellectual, sexual, emotional, or physical. Different eras, cultures, and societies have attached varying values to love and relationships with different perspectives on the concept. As the society modernize and advances every year, it gets even more challenging to define love and relationships. In the cultural perspective love and relationships is shown and expressed differently based on the societal norms. Love and relationships may also include practices such as emotional contact, sex, kissing, and companionship that are said to contribute to joy in relationships. Cultures have even adopted new customs such as holding hands while others discourage public display of affection. The traditions and perspectives of love in the United States are different compared to other parts of the world. Individuals believe in having casual sex, going on dates, and building relationships through dating apps and social media. On the other hand, society plays a big role in how individuals view love based on the social differences like ethnicity, education, religion, economic, status, race, and gender (Newman, Kowalski and Grigsby, 2013, p. 127). The modern society has also influenced people’s perception of love and relationships where films and social media gives individuals an expectation of what love should appear. The idealization of concepts such as love at first sight, soul mate, and one’s partner has been developed in young adults who are unrealistic.

Love can be considered as a sociology since it has critical social foundations with individuals gravitating towards those who are similar to them. Societies have become more diverse with people forming bonds with a greater variety of individuals. Also, couples display love through giving each other gifts, saying certain phrases and words, as well engaging in physical acts such as hugging. Therefore, how a couple in a relationship express their love is a product of socialization. The social foundation of love may even be found in modern and early literature, cultural norms, practices and behaviors that individuals created to demonstrate love.

References

Borgatta, E. and Montgomery, R. (2014). Encyclopedia of sociology. New York, NY: Macmillan Reference USA.

Gabb, J. and Fink, J. (2015). Couple Relationships in the 21st Century.

Newman, D., Kowalski, S. and Grigsby, J. (2013). Sociology of families. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge Press.