Psychological Reasons for Falling in Love: A Literature Review

This literature review looks into the psychological leanings of people and the emotional effects of love and why love happens in the first place. The different emotional turmoil that a person experiences when he or she feels love and the mental conflicts that a person goes through are considered here. Daily behaviour of a person and the natural biases of a person is also included as a defining parameter for the study, as personal preferences control the initial attraction towards another person. No form of discrimination is rejected as the core concept of love lies in the understanding that love transcends every form of barriers and often reaches out to a person who may not be accepted by societal norms.

LITERATURE REVIEW OF WHY DO PEOPLE FALL IN LOVE
I have to submit the proposal form first so I would like the proposal form first (latest on 13th
December in the afternoon 2 pm, Singapore Time). The literature review assignment can be
submitted by 20th December). Thanks.
PROPOSAL FORM
The proposal form is essential to this assignment as it has to be approved first and then my
assignment. So I have to get the proposal form right. The proposal form is part of the assignment
and acts as a guide. I apologise for this as I also did not give accurate information as I also was not
aware until I gave this proposal form to my lecturer. I will give all the information needed for this
proposal form as follows:
My lecturer had a look at it and told me that I have to re do NO.1, NO. 2 & NO. 6.
NO.1 What is the aim of your study? What are the objectives for your study?
The aim of the study is to understand the psychological reasons as to why do people fall in love. The
study delves deep into the human psyche to examine the different reasons that make a person fall
for another. Personal choices and preferences are supremely revered in the study and have given
the highest priority. The study primarily focuses upon the conjugal relationships of the society,
barring any form of discrimination based on anything. In that aspect, it is not only heterosexual
relationships that are taken into account. Rather, every form of conjugal relationships, between and
among every gender is accepted.
Furthermore, the study looks into the different articles and journals written by other researchers to
understand the beliefs and other psychological aspects of falling in love.
NO.2 Explain the rationale for the study (refer to relevant research literature in your response)
The study has been done using many different resources including journals, peer executed surveys
and researches, to give a more cohesive understanding of the research area. Also, to elaborate on
the purpose of the research, different methods have also been explained so that the path that has
been taken by the paper can be understood properly. The paper tries to look into various materials
to understand the psychological phenomenon, and present the same in a manner that can be easily
understood by the reader. The research has been concluded to be successful in the outcome. The
study concludes in a discussion about the research findings and then creates the premise for any
scope of further studies.
NO.5 Please provide any references for any sources cited in NO.2.
Various sources of information have been used in this study to facilitate in the completion of the
same. These are mentioned below:
PsychINFO
Google Scholar
Different previous studies and articles, journals etc.
Further papers and articles or journals have been listed below:

Ahuvia, A. C., Batra, R., & Bagozzi, R. P. (2014). Love, desire, and identity. Handbook of brand
relationships, 342.
Batson, C. D. (2014). The altruism question: Toward a social-psychological answer. Psychology Press.
Bauman, Z. (2013). Liquid love: On the frailty of human bonds. John Wiley & Sons.
Benjamin, J. (2013). The bonds of love: Psychoanalysis, feminism, & the problem of domination.
Pantheon.
Boudesseul, J., Lantian, A., Cova, F., & Bègue, L. (2016). Free love? On the relation between belief in
free will, determinism, and passionate love. Consciousness and cognition, 46, 47-59.
Burr, V. (2015). Social constructionism. Routledge.
Carver, R. (2017). What we talk about when we talk about love. Tantor Media.
Cook, M., & Wilson, G. (Eds.). (2013). Love and attraction: An international conference. Elsevier.
Coolican, H. (2017). Research methods and statistics in psychology. Psychology Press.
Cruces, J. M. S. (2015). Interpersonal Variability of the Experience of Falling in Love. Revista
Internacional de Psicología y Terapia Psicológica, 15(1), 87-100
de Jong, D. C., & Reis, H. T. (2016). Love and Intimacy.
Doan, L., Miller, L. R., & Loehr, A. (2015). The Power of Love: The Role of Emotional Attributions and
Standards in Heterosexuals' Attitudes toward Lesbian and Gay Couples. Social Forces, 94(1), 401-425.
Dreikurs, R. (2013). The challenge of marriage. Taylor & Francis.
Driver, J. (2014). Love and Duty. Philosophic Exchange, 44(1), 1.
Fehr, B. (2013). The social psychology of love. The Oxford handbook of close relationships, 201-233.
Fisher, H. (2016). Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray
(Completely Revised and Updated with a New Introduction). WW Norton & Company.
Fisher, H., Aron, A., & Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: an fMRI study of a neural mechanism for
mate choice. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 493(1), 58-62.
Fletcher, G. J., Simpson, J. A., Campbell, L., & Overall, N. C. (2015). Pair-bonding, romantic love, and
evolution: The curious case of homo sapiens. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(1), 20-36.
Freud, S. (2014). Civilized'sexual morality and modern nervous illness. Read Books Ltd.
Giddens, A. (2013). The transformation of intimacy: Sexuality, love and eroticism in modern
societies. John Wiley & Sons.
Goodwin, C. J. (2016). Research in psychology methods and design. John Wiley & Sons.
Haritaworn, J. (2017). What’s love got to do with it? Queer lovers, hateful Others and decolonial
love. In Rassismuskritik und Widerstandsformen (pp. 81-89). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.

Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of
personality and social psychology, 52(3), 511.
Hoffman, M., Yoeli, E., & Nowak, M. A. (2015). Cooperate without looking: Why we care what people
think and not just what they do. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(6), 1727-
1732.
Hojjat, M., & Cramer, D. (Eds.). (2013). Positive psychology of love. Oxford University Press.
Hooper, L. M., L’Abate, L., Sweeney, L. G., Gianesini, G., & Jankowski, P. J. (2014). Stockholm
Syndrome. In Models of Psychopathology (pp. 99-115). Springer New York.
Huston, T. L. (Ed.). (2013). Foundations of interpersonal attraction. Elsevier
Jankowiak, W. R. (2016). What is This Thing Called Love?. Emotion Review, 8(2), 109-110.
Logan, M. H. (2015). Seduced: Recruited by a Violent Inmate. Violence and Gender, 2(3), 141-144.
Manoharan, C., & de Munck, V. (2017). The conceptual relationship between love, romantic love,
and sex: A free list and prototype study of semantic association. Journal of Mixed Methods
Research, 11(2), 248-265.
McLean, M., LeFanu, S., & Bruce, S. (2016). For Love of People, Culture and Society. In How Higher
Education Feels(pp. 127-153). SensePublishers.
Naar, H. (2017). Subject‐Relative Reasons for Love. Ratio, 30(2), 197-214.
Pines, A. (2013). Couple burnout: Causes and cures. Routledge.
Regan, P. C. (2016). The mating game: A primer on love, sex, and marriage. Sage Publications.
Schroeder, T. (2016). On Romantic Love: Simple Truths about a Complex Emotion.
Sennett, R. (2017). The fall of public man. WW Norton & Company.
Smith, W. (2014). If safety were all we thought of, who would ever fall in love? Social marketing: A
look back.
Stock, K. (2017). Human Freedom in Love: How Our Wholeness Calls Us to Love. Obsculta, 10(1),
161-173.
Swidler, A. (2013). Talk of love: How culture matters. University of Chicago Press.
Wurst, S. N., Gerlach, T. M., Dufner, M., Rauthmann, J. F., Grosz, M. P., Küfner, A. C., ... & Back, M. D.
(2017). Narcissism and romantic relationships: The differential impact of narcissistic admiration and
rivalry. Journal of personality and social psychology, 112(2), 280.
NO.6 Please provide a detailed description of the study sample, covering selection, sample profile,
recruitment and if appropriate inclusion and exclusion criteria.
The sample size of the study is five hundred participants. The selection process is based on the criteria
that the participants all have to be adults, aged above eighteen and should be made sure that they can
express their perceptions and ideas about a certain topic in a proper and cohesive manner.

To elaborate on the topic, this literature review takes into consideration different psychological
concepts that may be helpful to give explanations of the topic under research. The different
emotional turmoil that a person experiences when he or she feels love and the mental conflicts that
the person goes through are also considered here. How may one single emotion of a person
overshadow and even alter the other psychological functions of the person are also taken into
account to effectively understand the concept of love and why is it so strong an emotion. Daily
behaviour of a person and the natural biases of a person is also included as a defining parameter for
the study, as personal preferences control the initial attraction towards another person. No form of
discrimination is rejected as in the core of the concept of love lies the understanding that love
transcends every form of barriers and often reaches out to a person who may not be accepted by
the societal norms. However, these narrow mind-sets and classifications are all rejected in the hopes
that this study will yield results that pertain to the basic ways in which love happens, without any
apprehensions about anything. Humans often crave what is forbidden: to defy logic simply to be
closer to the person they love and this is something that cannot be subdued by imposing irrational
and illogical rules, guidelines or boundaries.
For this study only the psychological aspects of the humans are considered and any form of
anatomical, physiological or chemical elaborations are excluded, as those are not in cohesion with
the purpose of the current study. Love related crimes, societal binding dictums or any study relating
to the effect of relationships are rejected as they fall outside the scope of the study, most of them
being statistical in nature and hence overlapping towards a different viewpoint. This research simply
looks into the psychological leanings of the humans and the emotional effects of love and why love
bubbles in the first place. This study only takes into account cases of conjugal love. Love for friends,
family and pets are ignored in this research. Many people also feel strongly about products and
other innate objects, which too are excluded from this. Any mislead notion or perception of love that
may adversely affect other humans are also out of the scope of this study.
STUDIES INCLUDED IN THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Only cases of conjugal love where couples are heterosexual are taken into account in this literature
review.
This literature review looks into the psychological leanings of people and the emotional effects of
love and why love happens in the first place. The different emotional turmoil that a person
experiences when he or she feels love and the mental conflicts that a person goes through are
considered here (Pines, 2013).
Daily behaviour of a person and the natural biases of a person is also included as a defining
parameter for the study, as personal preferences control the initial attraction towards another
person.
No form of discrimination is rejected as the core concept of love lies in the understanding that love
transcends every form of barriers and often reaches out to a person who may not be accepted by
societal norms (Boudessuel et al., 2016).
STUDIES EXCLUDED IN THE LITERATURE REVIEW

For this literature review, only the psychological aspects of human beings are considered and any
form of anatomical, physiological or chemical elaborations are excluded, as those are not in
cohesion with the purpose of the current study. Homosexual love or homosexual couples are also
excluded from this study.
Love related crimes, societal binding dictums or any study relating to the effect of relationships are
rejected as they fall outside the scope of the study, most of them being statistical in nature and
hence overlapping towards a different viewpoint (Smith, 2014).
Love for friends, family and pets are also excluded from this research. Many people feel strongly
about products and other innate objects, which too are excluded from this. Any mislead notion or
perception of love that may adversely affect other human beings are also out of the scope of this
study.