Social and Interpersonal Psychology: Happiness

Social and Interpersonal Psychology: Happiness

Psychological studies have shown that basic facial emotional expressions tend to be recognized across cultures. Social psychologists tend to agree on the theory of five fundamental human emotions, usually drawn from joy, love, surprise, anger, hate, disgust, fear and sadness, likewise recognized worldwide. The present condensed essay aims at elucidating happiness and love from the physiological, neurobiological and psychological perspectives.

On the one hand, Researchers Hatfield, Bensman, & Rapson (2009) looked closely at love, which they reaffirm is an emotion. Interestingly, opinions in the community abound that ‘loving’ experiences correspond to internal narration. The authors offer a definite description of romantic love, maintaining that the main defining emotional feature consists of felt elation bordering on mania.

On the other hand, psychologist Robert Sternberg has identified love in a three-component model, with the three elements being intimacy, passion and commitment. Thus, according to the triangular theory of love, the different combinations produce seven types of potential relationship arrangements: liking, infatuation, empty, romantic, companionate, fatuous and consummate. Of course, evolutionary psychologists advance their own theories as to how intense focus on a unique partner, as well as lust, may have contributed to survival of the fittest.

Happiness is a calm state of mind. Photo by Elena

Furthermore, the mental state has often been compared to one of intoxication, which could be interpreted as plausible provided the evidence. For example, fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and other neuroimaging studies show greater activation in neural populations of the VTA (Ventral Tegmental Area) of subjects said to be experiencing the feeling. By the same token, these same neurons are also activated in nicotine and other addictions.

Neuroscientists show that looking at photographs of one’s beloved can trigger activity in brain regions associated with reward and euphoria, or the medial insula, anterior cingulate cortex, caudate nucleus and putamen (Bartels & Zeki, 2000). On the neurotransmitter side, dopamine (as expected, due to its role in reward anticipation), serotonin (mood regulation) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) have been designated as the messengers most involved in the experience of tender, as well as carnal, feelings. The three neurochemicals have been tied to romance by Fisher (2004). Likewise, oxytocin and vasopressin expression in the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum have been linked to bonding by such evidence as studies with monogamous prairie voles. Moreover, Havlicek & Roberts (2009) discuss the proposition that the interplay of these neurohypophysial hormones brings down the level of attention towards theopposite sex, once one has fallen in love.

A graphical explanation of Sternberg’s triangular theory of love and how the three components interact to result in the several kinds of attraction, attachment and affection. 

On a final note, the Passionate Love Scale (PLS), where score results assess how one feels about another person, covers a range of dispositions on a continuum between extremely passionate to extremely cool; it is a widely used psychometric instrument in related neuroscientific and psychological research. Given the importance of the matter, countless theories have been proposed, ranging from pheromones (such as those whose action is likely portrayed by the body spray Axe commercials) to idealistic perfect soul mates. However, due to the subjectivity and privacy of the subject, researchers face many obstacles. Still, despite the limitations of research, scientists have established some theoretical constructs about what remains the topic of an overwhelming array of songs.

References:

Bartels, A. & Zeki, S. (2000). The neural basis of romantic love. Neuroreport, 11, 3829-34.

Fisher, H. E. (2004). Why we love: The nature and chemistry of romantic love. New York: Henry Holt.

Hatfield, E., Bensman, L., & Rapson, R. L. (2009). Unmasking passionate love: the face and the brain. In A. Freitas-Magalhaes (Ed.). Emotional Expression: The Brain and The Face. Porto, Portugal: University Fernando Pessoa Press.

Havlicek, J. & Roberts, C. S. (2009). Towards a neuroscience of love: Olfaction, attention and a model of neurohypophysial hormone action. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, 1 (2): 1-2.

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