Editing Love (section)

=== Psychological basis ===
{{Further|Human bonding}}
[[File:Sri Lankan woman and child.jpg|thumb|Grandmother and grandchild in [[Sri Lanka]]]]

[[Psychologist]] [[Robert Sternberg]] formulated a [[triangular theory of love]] in which love has three components: intimacy, commitment, and passion. Intimacy is when two people share confidences and various details of their personal lives, and is usually shown in friendships and romantic love affairs. Commitment is the expectation that the relationship is permanent. Passionate love is shown in infatuation as well as romantic love. All forms of love are viewed as varying combinations of these three components. Non-love does not include any of these components. Liking only includes intimacy. Infatuated love only includes passion. Empty love only includes commitment. Romantic love includes both intimacy and passion. Companionate love includes intimacy and commitment. Fatuous love includes passion and commitment. Consummate love includes all three components.<ref name=":10" />

American psychologist [[Zick Rubin]] sought to define ''love'' by [[psychometrics]] in the 1970s. His work identifies a different set of three factors that constitute love: attachment, caring, and intimacy.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal|last=Rubin|first=Zick|title=Measurement of Romantic Love|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|volume=16|pages=265–273|year=1970|doi=10.1037/h0029841|pmid=5479131|issue=2|citeseerx=10.1.1.452.3207}}
|2={{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Zick|title=Liking and Loving: an invitation to social psychology|url=https://archive.org/details/likinglovinginvi00rubi|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Holt, Rinehart & Winston|year=1973|isbn=978-0030830037}} }}</ref>

Following developments in electrical theories such as [[Coulomb's law]], which showed that positive and negative charges attract, analogs in human life were envisioned, such as "opposites attract". Research on human mating has generally found this not to be true when it comes to character and personality—people tend to like people similar to themselves. However, in a few unusual and specific domains, such as [[immune system]]s, it seems that humans prefer others who are unlike themselves (e.g., with an orthogonal immune system), perhaps because this will lead to a baby that has the best of both worlds.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Berscheid | first1 = Ellen | author-link1 = Ellen S. Berscheid |last2=Walster|first2= Elaine H. | title = Interpersonal Attraction | publisher = Addison-Wesley Publishing Co | year = 1969 | lccn = 69-17443 | isbn = 978-0-201-00560-8 }}</ref>

In recent years, various [[human bonding]] theories have been developed, described in terms of attachments, ties, bonds, and affinities.
Some [[Western culture|Western]] authorities {{clarify|text=disaggregate|reason=disaggregate what?|date=August 2023}} into two main components, the altruistic and the narcissistic. This view is represented in the works of [[M. Scott Peck|Scott Peck]], whose work in the field of [[applied psychology]] explored the definitions of love and evil. Peck maintains that love is a combination of the "concern for the spiritual growth of another" and simple narcissism.<ref name="peck">{{cite book | title=The Road Less Traveled | isbn=978-0-671-25067-6 | last=Peck | first=Scott | publisher=Simon & Schuster | year=1978 | page=[https://archive.org/details/roadlesstraveled00peck_0/page/169 169] | url=https://archive.org/details/roadlesstraveled00peck_0/page/169 }}</ref> In combination, love is an ''activity'', not simply a feeling.

Psychologist [[Erich Fromm]] maintained in his book ''[[The Art of Loving]]'' that love is not merely a feeling but is also actions, and that in fact the "feeling" of love is superficial in comparison to one's commitment to love via a series of loving actions over time.{{r|Fromm}} Fromm held that love is ultimately not a feeling at all, but rather is a commitment to, and adherence to, loving actions towards another, oneself, or many others, over a sustained duration.{{r|Fromm}} Fromm also described love as a conscious choice that in its early stages might originate as an involuntary feeling, but which then later no longer depends on those feelings, but rather depends only on conscious commitment.{{r|Fromm}}

==== Love as a necessity ====
The extent to which love can be labelled as a necessity varies in [[psychology]]. For infants, [[attachment theory]] states that there is a need to form a close relationship with at least one primary caregiver to ensure their survival, and to develop healthy social and emotional functioning (particularly between the ages of six months and two years). As children grow, they use these attachment figures as a secure base from which to explore the world and return to for comfort.<ref name="Cassidy">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1999 |title=The Nature of a Child's Ties |encyclopedia=Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications |publisher=Guilford Press |location=New York | veditors = Cassidy J, Shaver PR |pages=[https://archive.org/details/handbookofattach0000unse/page/3 3–20] |isbn=1-57230-087-6 | vauthors = Cassidy J |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofattach0000unse/page/3 }}</ref><ref name="Abrams Turner Baumann Karel 2013 pp. 149–155">{{cite book | last1=Abrams | first1=David B. | last2=Turner | first2=J. 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Rick | last102=Pulgaron | first102=Elizabeth R. | last103=Wile | first103=Diana | last104=Baumann | first104=Linda C. | last105=Karel | first105=Alyssa | last106=Schroeder | first106=Beth | last107=Davis | first107=Mary C. | last108=Zautra | first108=Alex | last109=Stark | first109=Shannon L. | last110=Whang | first110=William | last111=Soto | first111=Ana Victoria | last112=Gidron | first112=Yori | last113=Wheeler | first113=Anthony J. | last114=DeBerard | first114=Scott | last115=Allen | first115=Josh | last116=Mitani | first116=Akihisa | last117=Mitani | first117=Akihisa | last118=Pulgaron | first118=Elizabeth R. | last119=Mitani | first119=Akihisa | last120=Carter | first120=Jennifer | last121=Whang | first121=William | last122=Schroeder | first122=Beth | last123=Hicks | first123=Angela M. | last124=Korbel | first124=Carolyn | last125=Baldwin | first125=Austin S. | last126=Spink | first126=Kevin S. | last127=Nickel | first127=Darren | last128=Richter | first128=Michael | last129=Wright | first129=Rex A. | last130=Thayer | first130=Julian F. | last131=Richter | first131=Michael | last132=Wright | first132=Rex A. | last133=Wiebe | first133=Deborah J. | title=Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine | chapter=Attachment Theory | publisher=Springer New York | publication-place=New York, NY | year=2013 | doi=10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_939 | pages=149–155| isbn=978-1-4419-1004-2 |quote=Bowlby (1969, 1988) described an attachment as an emotional bond that is characterized by the tendency to seek out and maintain proximity to a specific attachment figure, particularly during times of distress.}}</ref>

Psychiatrist Stephanie Cacioppo states, "the need for love might be less immediate than the need to avoid danger, but it is by no means a luxury",<ref>{{Cite web |title=Are We Hard-Wired for Love? {{!}} Psychology Today |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/am-i-right/202210/are-we-hard-wired-for-love |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=www.psychologytoday.com |language=en-US}}</ref> vaguely placing love neither as a complete need or want, but in between. Professor Ingrid V. Albrecht suggests that "love participates in a unique form of practical necessity, different from both moral and psychological necessity, yet bearing resemblances to each." It is further described as "an engagement with a person as essentially particular, rather than as an instance of a rational agent in general." Ingrid's view suggests that morality or rationality are not the limiting factors of love, but that love is its own distinct need independent of those factors.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Albrecht |first=Ingrid |title=Love, self-constitution, and practical necessity |date=2013-02-03 |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |url=https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/42234}}</ref>

Psychologist [[Abraham Maslow]] places love near the middle of the [[Maslow's hierarchy of needs|hierarchy of needs]]. In his model, love is a [[drive theory|driving factor]] of [[human behavior]] that a person necessitates to fulfill their psychological needs. For many people, it is usually prioritized after one's physiological and safety needs are met.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Maslow |first=Abraham H.|year=1943 |title=A theory of human motivation|journal=Psychological Review| volume=50| issue=4| pages=370–396|via=psychclassics.yorku.ca|url=http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm|doi=10.1037/h0054346|hdl=10983/23610|citeseerx=10.1.1.334.7586 |access-date=March 13, 2007|archive-date=September 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914183817/http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Maslow |first=Abraham H. |url=https://archive.org/details/motivationperson00masl_0 |title=Motivation and personality |publisher=Harper |year=1954 |isbn=978-0-06-041987-5 |location=New York, NY |url-access=registration}}</ref>