Description of the expertise offered
Psychological, socio-cultural and biological sources of love.
Although love is a legitimate subject of research in social sciences, some areas are less represented, e.g. multidisciplinary exploration of partnership love. Looking at the scientific studies of love shows, that love is examined as a process (as a story or a biologically conditioned process), love as a structure composed of certain components, love as a socio-cultural phenomenon and love as means of self-realization and development of social identity. I, together with my colleagues focus on social constructs of the love (stories, images, and ideals) in the younger adulthood. In the second phase, we will investigate the psychological sources of love constructs (need for intimacy, identity development, etc.), socio-cultural sources (especially interpellation of visual forms and discourses) of love constructs and their neurobiological contexts (relations between oxytocin level and selected psychological factors). The results of the research could be beneficial to understand the life of the present generation of young people, their transition to more permanent partnerships and parenthood, and could also be beneficial for designing of sexual education.