HW 55

Original Question: What are primary causes for bonding in relationships?

Revised Question: How do we fall in romantic love? What hormones/areas of our brain are activated to indicate this?

Touch- Emotional closeness can be indicated by physical closeness.
The more comfortable you are with people the more you're comfortable with being close and touching them. If you're not as close there is an invisible comfort zone to how close you can get voluntarily. It's intuitive and yet not necessarily obvious: It's the continual search for a basic, secure connection with someone else.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200812/hold-me-tight

For Romantic Love, several areas of the brain are activated:

-For a start, a relatively small area of the human brain is active in love, compared with that involved in, say, ordinary friendship. “It is fascinating to reflect”, the pair conclude, “that the face that launched a thousand ships should have done so through such a limited expanse of cortex.”

-The second surprise was that the brain areas active in love are different from the areas activated in other emotional states, such as fear and anger. Parts of the brain that are love-bitten include the one responsible for gut feelings, and the ones which generate the euphoria induced by drugs such as cocaine. So the brains of people deeply in love do not look like those of people experiencing strong emotions, but instead like those of people snorting coke. Love, in other words, uses the neural mechanisms that are activated during the process of addiction. “We are literally addicted to love,”

(From brain scans of people who said they were madly in love)

Fisher, Helen. "Oxytocin, Chemical Addiction, and the Science of Love." Economist 12 Feb. 2004. Web. 13 May 2010.

Oxytocin: Love Hormone

Oxytocin is released during hugging and intimate touch; it also plays a strong role in sexual relationships, which is why sometimes people we feel closer with we're more comfortable hugging. Any positive experience can increase oxytocin levels – and so can simply recalling positive events. Simply put, oxytocin is associated with positive relationships. Oxytocin reduces fear, increases eye contact, and increases trust and generosity. This love hormone causes people to act differently – though they don’t necessarily feel different.

University of California, San Diego (2008, February 14). Love Hormone' Promotes Bonding: Could It Treat Anxiety? ScienceDaily.

Things that affect why we fall in love

"Smell. We fall in love partly because of smell. The scent of a bouquet of red roses, for instance, is a cultural preference that boosts the chemistry in romantic relationships. Dr Kristal says, “Smell forms part of the framework that conforms to cultural attractiveness standards. For example, smelling like a strawberry instead of mildew [makes you attractive].” Smelling delicious could be part of why we fall in love.

Love pheromones. Invisible signals are part of what makes people fall in love. “Pheromones are unlearned, and perhaps unsmellable, signals that enter the brain through the olfactory system. They can function in sex, alarm, territoriality, aggression, and fear,” says Dr Kristal. He believes that we choose specific mates not solely due to pheromones, but for other reasons. Other sensory cues are better explanations for why we fall in love, such as touch, smell, and hearing.

The brain. We fall in love partly because of hormones. Oxytocin and vasopressin are present when people fall in love and stay together for a long time. Dopamine is also part of the chemistry in romantic relationships. So, when you’re wondering “Why doesn’t he love me?” you may have to look to brain chemistry as the answer. It’s not necessarily you, it’s just that your brain chemicals didn’t mesh. Lack of hormones could explain why we fall inlove."

Pawlik-Kienlen, Laurie. SuitePyschology. What makes people fall in love. 6 Januarary, 2008.