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Love is something that is expressed in virtually every type of culture throughout the world, however the way in which it is expressed varies from culture to culture. Past research suggests that the majority of cultures are able to differentiate between two very common forms of love; romantic love and passionate love. Romantic love can be defined as the unexpected, spontaneous spurt of passion often leading into the individual choosing to enter into a committed relationship (Jankowiak & Fischer, 1992). On the other hand, passionate love can be defined as the “longing for union” with another, without necessarily choosing to enter into a committed relationship with that individual (Landis & O’Shea III, 2000). Researchers, Jankowiak and Fischer (1992), sought to investigate whether or not romantic love can be constituted as a human universal by conducting a study in which they thoroughly examined a sample universe, consisting of 166 various societies. The study’s hypothesis, claiming that romantic love is in fact a human universal, stands to contradict the perception of romantic love existing in purely westernized cultures. Although romantic love was not specifically described by any of the sample societies’ researchers, results indicated that romantic love is indeed a human universal. To assess the sample universe accurately Jankowiak and Fischer (1992) designed a set of criteria, which served as an indication of whether one of the many societies possessed romantic love. For a society to suggest that romantic love is regularly experienced within that culture, that society must meet at least one of the five criteria. The criteria are as follows: accounts depicting personal anguish and longing; the use of love songs or folklore that highlight the motivations behind romantic involvement; elopement due to mutual affection; native accounts affirming the existence of passionate love; and the ethnographer's affirmation that romantic love is present (Jankowiak & Fisher, 1992). With 88.5% of the sample universe showing evidence of romantic love, Jankowiak and Fischer (1992) concluded that romantic love is a human universal. Although Jankowiak and Fisher (1992) found support for romantic love signifying a human universal, each society varied in how romantic love was displayed. A Kung woman, Nisa, displayed a clear distinction between romantic love and passionate love by differentiating a husband from a lover, while John Turi also made a clear distinction between the two types of love through his comment on the courtship of the Lapp herders in the 1930s. Turi noted in his autobiography, “that some people are of such amorous nature at that time they can think of nothing else… and some folk are still in love after, but it is not everyone who is in love after” (Jankowiak & Fisher 1992). Albeit, Nisa and John showed an evident distinction between romantic love and passionate love, they did so with their own cultural variation. With the intention of examining the unique ways in which passionate love is differentiated across cultures researchers, Landis and O’Shea III (2000) conducted a study where participants, in nine various areas, were asked to fill out a questionnaire pertaining to their sexual behaviors and attitudes. All of the participants were located in either Honolulu, HI; Houston, TX; Oxford, MS; Indianapolis, IN; Jamestown, NY; Copenhagen, Denmark; Bradford, England; Bar-Ilan, Israel; or Montreal, Canada. After the researchers collected and analyzed the participants’ data, Landis and O’Shea III (2000) determined that Italian males report a less passionate love feeling in relationships in comparison to American males. Subsequently, results also indicate that traditional societies place less value on romantic love due to the concept of love being cultural specific, such as Japan and Germany (Landis & O’Shea III, 2000). In addition to simply examining variations of passionate love across cultures, Landis and O’Shea III (2000) also sought to examine the gender differences that may vary across cultures in regards to male’s and female’s perspective of love. Their results showed that gender has little effect on one’s view of sex and love, due to seven of the nine sites, Bradford, Indianapolis, Houston, Mississippi, Jamestown, Hawaii, and Denmark, exhibiting basic identity between males and females. More specifically, Denmark is characterized as a relatively feminine culture, which is hypothesized to result in fewer attitude and value differences between males and females, while Israelis expressed relatively moderate masculinity (Landis & O’Shea III, 2000). Now that it has been established that both romantic and passionate forms of love are exhibited across cultures each with their own cultural specific variations, researchers, Markus and Kitayama (1991), designed a study to examine how the self was described in the context of interdependent relationships. Prior to the beginning of the study the researchers suggested that the Japanese culture often tends to describe the self in the context of interdependent relationships, setting the platform for the hypothesis that East Asian individuals are highly prone to preoccupied romantic attachments. Further information regarding this hypothesis goes on to say that the Japanese culture is constantly striving for self-acceptance by setting their main focus on gaining the approval of highly valued individuals. The ISDP, 56 nations across 10 major world regions, illustrated findings that were consistent with Markus and Kitayama’s (1991) hypothesis. The results of this study were also found to be negatively correlated with individualism, which is to no surprise being that the East Asian culture is very collectivistic. In an attempt to examine the similarities and differences between individualistic and collectivistic cultures, researchers, Kline, Horton, and Zhang (2008), conducted a study that intended to explore the variations of communicating love within a close relationship across cultures. Kline et al. (2008) had participants fill out a questionnaire containing of eight open-ended questions about their attitudes and beliefs pertaining to friendship and marriage relationships. Results revealed few differences between participants from individualistic cultures, namely the United States, and collectivistic cultures, ones residing within Eastern Asia. Both types of participants claimed that engaging in activities together and acts of physical intimacy are successful methods of expressing love. However, participants from individualistic cultures placed a larger emphasis on essential and unconditional love in the context of a marriage than participants from collectivistic cultures (Kline et al., 2008). As previously described love comes in many forms, but the two most common are romantic love and passionate love. Even though, Jankowiak and Fischer (1992) found evidence in support of romantic love being constituted as a human universal, previous and present studies indicate that love varies across cultures (Landis & O’Shea III, 2000). However, all cultures, individualistic or collectivistic, value close relationships (Kline et al., 2008).

References

Jankowiak, W. R., & Fischer, E. F. (1998). A cross-cultural perspective on romantic love. In J. M. Jenkins, K. Oatley, N. L. Stein, J. M. Jenkins, K. Oatley, N. L. Stein (Eds.), Human emotions: A reader (pp. 55-62). Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

Kline, S. L., Horton, B., & Zhang, S. (2008). Communicating love: Comparisons between American and East Asian university students. International Journal Of Intercultural Relations, 32(3), 200-214. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2008.01.006

Landis, D., & O'Shea III, W. A. (2000). Cross-cultural aspects of passionate love: An individual differences analysis. Journal Of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31(6), 752-777. doi:10.1177/0022022100031006005

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224-253. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224