Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology

Question: Discuss about the Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology. Answer: Introduction: Love is a whole array of feelings, thoughts and circumstances which is sporadic in nature from happiness to interpersonal magnetism. It is a very strong emotion. Romance on the other hand is a delightful feeling of getting attractive towards the other person in association with love. Romantic love whether rational or irrational is completely dependent upon the person. Love though not irrational totally but circumstances make it. However if the same is viewed from the view point of Socrates and paradox of Gellners then one would summarize that it is impossible to say that romantic love is rational(Nero, 2014). Romantic love leads to emergence of many strong feelings ranging from deep happiness to suffering as well due to disappointment. Romantic love is the first step to love and it can be irrational as there lies insecurity with regards the fact whether the said love would be reciprocated or not. Two people may have a good understanding wherein they have a strong emotional as well as physical bonding. But the said situation may turn irrational if the two individuals do not get along in the daily lives i..e they do not have all the three aspects of love to work, Eros, Agape and Philos (Oord, 2010). Therefore all the three types of love has to present for it b=to be rational but in most of the cases the same is missing. Friendship and romantic love are two different concepts and the difference between them is very thin. Both romance and friendship have love imbibed. Love in friendship is a more pure form as compared to romantic love. Simple reason being that romantic love is shadowed with selfishness. This selfish nature makes a person jealous and prejudiced in his decisions but in friendship one would keep on loving his or her friend endlessly without any kind of biasness. Between friendships, there are no emotions for sex(Giles, 2015). However in romantic love there are sexual arousments and elements of getting closer to each other psychically. Further many a times friendship is the start to romantic love. But in love, the individuals cannot share their lover with someone else but in friendship the scenario is not the same. The number of friends can be many but one can have romantic love relationship only with a single person. However one cannot deny the fact that there are similarilities between the two emotions such as that of possessiveness and sharing and caring nature. Thus there are things that differentiate friendship and romantic love such as sexual relationship between two individuals, level of possessiveness and madness for each other and lastly the kind of interactions that happen between two people who are just friends and those who are into a relationship are different(Collins, Laursen, 1999). When a person falls in love with someone then the biggest question that runs into their minds is whether they love the person with all its positives and negatives or is their love limited to a set of properties and attributes of that person. We one loves only a series of properties that a person possesses then it becomes very easy for that person to fall in love with someone else who has similar properties along with some added ones. However if we love a person as a whole then the fact that even if there is another individual with same qualities, it would not make a difference to him or her. In loving a person as a whole one shows affection towards HER or HIM specifically and not with the qualities which are common to many individuals (Valticella, 2011). If we love a whole person then it is for a lifetime and even if we come across people who are better than the one we love it would not make a difference. However if we love a person for a set of properties then it is a mere attraction which is temporary in nature(Halwani, 2010). Therefore whether one loves a person wholly or for a set of properties depends upon the reasons behind which he loves a person. This also entails the longevity and loyalty of the relationship as well. References: Nero, B., (2014), Do we (romantically) love other people for reasons, or is love essentially irrational, Available at https://www.facebook.com/notes/ben-nero/do-we-romantically-love-other-people-for-reasons-or-is-love-essentially-irration/10152179011785090/ (Accessed 09th December 2016) Oord, T.J., (2010), Is Love an Irational Mystery?, Available at https://thomasjayoord.com/index.php/blog/archives/is_love_an_irrational_mystery (Accessed 09th December 2016) Collins, W.A., Laursen, B., (1999), Relationships as Developmental Contexts: The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology, Volume 30, Psychology Press: New York Giles, C., (2015), Signs a Friendship Is Turning into Love, Available at https://www.livestrong.com/article/66979-signs-friendship-turning-love/ (Accessed 09th December 2016) Halwani, R., (2010), Philosophy of Love Sex and Marriage, Routledge: New York Valticella, B., (2011), Do We Love The Person or Only Her Qualities?, Available at https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2011/07/do-we-love-the-person-or-only-her-qualities-pascal-versus-mctaggart.html (Accessed 09th December 2016)