Romance and Attraction

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Romance and Attraction

• By
• Victoria Highland, Brittany Holmes
• and Julia Puckett

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Discussion Paper

• Youth who have not experienced romantic
  attraction are less likely to have health issues
• Youth who identify as LGB or have had a
  sexual-minority relationship have compromised
  health
• Part due to emotional highs and lows
• Part due to the stigma involved

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Discussion Paper cont.

• Heterosexual youth health is somewhere in between
  the other 2 groups
• Experience emotional highs and lows
• No stigma attached to their behavior

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Quick Survey

• When you hear the word Romance what do you think
  of?
• When you hear the word Attraction what do you
  think of?
• Do you feel that Media (television, movies,
  songs, books, ect) accurately portrays romance?
• Write answers on a sheet of paper and turn in at
  the end of class.

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Attachment Theory of Love

• Secure Attachment
• No fear of abandonment, well liked individuals,
  find it easy to get close to others
• Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment
• Negative view of own self, insecure, easily fall
  in love, intense emotions, fear of rejection
• Avoidant Attachment
• Negative attitude towards others and have
  difficulty with relationships

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Attachment Theory cont.

• Similar to childhood attachment styles
• About ½ of adults fall into the secure category
• About ¼ of adults fall into the secure category
• About 1/5 of adults fall into the
  anxious-ambivalent category

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Sternbergs Triangular Theoryof Love

• All positive emotions can be explained through a
  combination of three main components
• Intimacy Closeness, bonding, warmth
• Passion Physical attraction, sex, romance
• Decision/Commitment The decision that you love
  someone and to commit yourself to them

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The Science of Love

• Romantic Attraction is biologically based, just
  like hunger or sex
• With the use of MRIs, scientists have determined
  that the brains center for romance is completely
  separate from the areas involved in arousal and
  sexual desire

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Helen Fishers study

• Observed over 3,000 brain scans of 18 college
  students that are in love
• The scans were taken while the students viewed a
  photo of the one they loved

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Helen Fisher Study cont.

• Fisher noticed surges of dopamine in the romance
  center of the brain, causing an increase in
  energy, decreased need for sleep and food, and a
  more focused attention span

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Regans phases of love

• 1. Self-Disclosure
• Sharing stories and intimate details of your life
  with your partner
• 2. Interdependence
• Being continually together, content in doing
  nothing
• 3. Conflict
• Tension builds and doubts about the couples
  future are the cause of arguments.

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The Pink Lens Effect

• Couples learn to overlook their partners flaws
  and focus on the desirable qualities
• This effect aids couples in surviving the
  conflict phase

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1996 SUNY Buffalo Study

• Followed 121 couples
• Determined how much each person idealized their
  partner and monitored how well each couple was
  doing

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Buffalo Study cont.

• With the information gathered, it was determined
  that each couple fell into one of three
  categories
• fast and passionate
• slow and steady
• in-between

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Buffalo Study Results

• The study showed that over an extended amount of
  time, the slow and steady couples were the ones
  that stayed together
• Romantic attraction is separate from love

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Stages of Romance

• 1.) Attraction
• 2.)Release of Chemicals in the Brain
• 3.) Love

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Attraction

• WHY?
• Pheromones
• Brain detects them through the vomeronasal organ
• This organ decides whether a persons pheromones
  will be desirable
• Social and Environmental Influences
• Social Economic Status
• Proximity
• Genetic Information
• Previous Romantic Experiences

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Release of Chemicals in the Brain

• Phenylethylamine- speeds up the passage of
  information between the nerve cells
• Dopamine- involved in the sense of pleasure
• Norepinephrine- stimulates adrenaline production
• These chemicals are responsible for the rush that
  is felt when you are attracted to someone, as
  well as the increased heart rate

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Love

• Once the attraction and lust phase has subsided,
  if the couple decides to remain together, the
  love phase will follow
• Releases oxytocin, a sexual hormone that induces
  a calming feeling and allows for sensitivity to
  the feelings of others

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The Brain in Love

• In the attraction phase, the ventral tegmented
  area (reward center) monitors how the bodys
  needs are being satisfied
• dopamine relays this information to the nucleus
  accumbens
• this increase in dopamine reinforces the
  behaviors that satisfy our needs
• If we feel attraction, the brain feels a dopamine
  surge which causes pleasure, reinforcing the
  feeling of attraction, and possibly causing us to
  pursue the object of our attraction

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Chemical Roles in the Brain

• Dopamine- pleasure/reward system
• Phenylethylamine- raises blood pressure and
  glucose levels responsible for butterflies,
  increased heart rate, nervousness
• Amphetamine- responsible for loss of appetite,
  sleeplessness
• Serotonin- impulse control, allows for a sense
  that one is in control of his/her own actions

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Chemicals Responsible for Attachment

• Oxytocin- cuddling chemical
• Vasopressin- monogamy chemical
• Endorphins- longevity of love

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Homosexuality

• Prevalence Rates in US
• 3 5 men
• 1women
• 1/3 of male bisexuals become strictly homosexual
• For women, bisexuality is more common
• Study by Laumann et al.
• Only .3 of women are only attracted to women

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A few facts.

• Same proportion of homosexuals and heterosexuals
  are mentally ill
• Very few cases of parental sexual abuse by
  homosexual parents
• Children raised in homosexual households are just
  as likely as children raised in heterosexual
  households to be heterosexual

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Motivation to be a homosexual Is it a personal
choice?

• According to the APA and other sources,
  homosexuality is not a personal choice
• Often emerges in early adolescent years
• Not seen as something that can voluntarily be
  changed
• Can only choose to act on feelings
• Can not be changed by therapy
• Until 1973 homosexuality was viewed as a mental
  illness
• http//www.apa.org/topics/orientation.html

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Motivations and Explanations

• Psychoanalytic
• Freud
• Depends on the way the Oedipus complex was
  resolved in childhood
• Males rejecting mother, turn to father for love
• Females love mother and identify with father
• Everyone has the potential to be either
  homosexual or heterosexual

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Motivations and Explinations cont.

• Social Learning Theory
• Homosexuality and Heterosexuality are learned
  behaviors
• Biological Explanations
• Genetic factors
• 100 concordance rate for identical twins
• 10 for fraternal twins

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Motivations and Explinations cont.

• Anatomical Factors
• Examination of the brain
• Part of hypothalamus that influences sexual
  behaviors is twice as large in heterosexuals
• Birth Order
• Homosexual males have more older brothers
• Each older brother increases the probability of a
  younger brother being homosexual by 33
• No birth order effects have been found in females

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Types of Relationships

• Relationship categories similar for heterosexuals
• Close-coupled (10 men, 28 women)
• Only one partner and report being happy with
  their sexual orientation
• Open-coupled (18men, 17 women)
• One primary partner, but other outside sexual
  partners, generally happy with their sexual
  orientation

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Types of Relationships cont.

• Functional (15men, 10 women)
• Enjoy independence, have multiple partners, and
  are comfortable with their sexual orientation
• Dysfunctional (12men, 5 women)
• Sexually active, but are not comfortable with
  their sexual orientation
• Asexual (16 men, 11 women)
• Single and not interested in finding a romantic
  or sexual partner

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Motivation for Attraction Sex Partners vs
Romantic Partners

• 2001 study by Regan et al.
• Subjects
• 40 men, 40 women (all self-reported homosexuals)
• Between ages of 18 and 48, M 28.7 years
• Method
• Survey reporting desirability of 25
  characteristics on a Likert-type scale in regards
  to partners for a sexual relationship and for a
  romantic relationship
• Characteristics included areas such as
  attractive physical appearance, popular,
  emotionally stable, sexy, intellectual, educated,
  healthy, etc.

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Results

• Relationship type affected the importance of
  characteristic preferences
• For both sexes the most desirable characteristics
  in a sex partner were
• Physical attractiveness, sexy appearance, and
  healthy
• Same as results seen in previous studies of
  heterosexuals

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Results cont.

• Characteristics sought in a long term romantic
  partner
• Kindness and understanding, honesty and
  trustworthiness, expressiveness, friendliness,
  intelligence
• These characteristics help build a stable and
  healthy relationship, regardless of sexual
  orientation

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Results cont.

• 2 Sex Differences
• Women focused more on a long term partners views
  on home and family
• Female stereotypical sex role
• Men were more concerned with a sex partners
  honesty and trustworthiness, and kindness and
  understanding
• Possibly due to the rate of HIV/AIDS among male
  homosexuals

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Importance of Physical Attractiveness in
Homosexual Males

• 1985 study by Sergios Cody
• Subjects
• 225 Male homosexuals ages 21 35
• Method
• Questionnaire measuring social assertiveness and
  measuring importance of physical attraction
• Spend 2 hours on a date
• Follow up 8 weeks later

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Results

• Prefer a partner higher in attractiveness than
  themselves
• Social assertiveness had no effect on liking of
  the date
• Physical attractiveness was more important for
  choosing a short term partner than for long term

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The Romance Novel Industry

• Harleqin books revenue increase from 110,000 in
  1970 to 21 million in 1980

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The Formula for Romance

• According to Leslie Rabine romances now respond
  to specific needs of working women
• Heroines struggle to assert herself as a sexual
  being as well as a power force in the workplace
• The hero in the book is both the boss and the
  lover
• The formula assumes that all females want to shed
  the Joan Cleaver asexuality and become a highly
  sexualized CEO

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Reality Perception Differences between men and
women

• College students perception of love and romance
  on television were analyzed
• Participants included 412 undergraduate students
• Questionnaires about love on television were
  filled out

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Results

• Courtship, kissing and dating shown on television
  are perceived similarly by both men and women
• Sex, love and romance depicted on television are
  perceived differently
• Men think sex is realistically portrayed on
  television
• Women think that love on television is an
  accurate portrayal of love in real life

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My Survey

• I sent a survey to my friends on Myspace
• Five people responded
• 2 of the 3 females agreed that media accurately
  portrays romance

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Class Survey

• 24 Students were surveyed
• 4 males and 20 females

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Romance

• 9 students thought of THINGS
• 2 males 7 females
• Flowers, candles, Fabio, ect.
• 7 students thought of LOVE
• 1 male 6 females
• 4 students thought of INTAMACY
• All Females
• Significant other/ boyfirend
• 3 students thought of SEX
• 1 male 2 females

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Attraction

• 6 students thought PHYISCAL THINGS
• All Females (non sexual
• 5 students thought SEX
• 2 males 3 females
• 5 students thought LOOKS
• 2 males 3 females
• 4 students thought MAGNITISM
• All Females
• 4 students thought LUST
• All Females

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Media Accuracy

• Only 23 students answered this question
• 4 males and 19 females
• 7 students said Media is accurate
• 2 males and 5 females
• 16 students said Media is inaccurate
• 2 males and 14 females

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My Conclusion

• Two possible reasons for class results not
  matching the studys results
• 1) People were not completely honest about
  perceptions
• Survey did not test for various levels of
  perception
• 2) This is a college environment and students may
  have a higher distrust for media than lower
  educated peers

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Romance on Television

• Sex and the City
• Women jumping from one relationship to another
  and fear any real commitment that comes along
• Friends
• Marriage is not forever
• One Tree Hill/ Dawsons Creek
• Casual sex is good. Relationships are too hard

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Romance Movies

• Ten Things I Hate About You
• You should lie to potential partners and if they
  love you they will forgive you when they find out
  
• 50 First Dates
• No matter what love triumphs over all
• Titanic
• It is ok to cheat on your significant other if
  that person is a jerk

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Cross-Cultural View of Attraction

• Abkhazian men are highly aroused by armpits
• Soma the navel is arousing
• 1960s I Dream of Jeannie Barbara Eden could not
  show her navel
• New Guinea and Celebes Islands Knees are arousing

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Attraction Over Time

• In the 1600s Plump women were considered
  attractive
• Today super skinny women (at least in western
  cultures) are considered attractive
• It is possible that the reason plump women were
  exorcized in the Elizabethan Era was that food
  was scarce and only the rich women could afford
  to get fat

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Obscure Body Modifications

• Foot Binding VS High Heels
• Tang Dynasty
• Wrap foot so that toes are doubled over
• Tribal Body Piercing VS Body Piercing
• Part of tribal rituals
• Part of Western Subcultures
• Body Scarification VS Tattoos
• Ritualistic in nature
• Part of Western Subcultures

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Lotus Foot VS High Heels
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Tribal Piercing VS Body Piercing
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Body Scarification VS Tattoos