Romantic Emotion

Erick Erickson

● Teenage "falling in love" is a form of self-development rather than true Intimacy.

● Adolescents, becoming more self-aware as their cognitive powers develop, can try
out their "grown-up" identities with romantic partners and through feedback from the
partners' responses and behaviours, gradually clarify self-image.
● The endless talking (and now texting or chatting) that often accompanies teen romances
is a way of experimenting with different forms of 'self' and testing their effect on
the other person.

Zimmer-Gembeck et al. (2001:2004)

Adolescent's romantic relationship

- provide positive learning experiences about the self
- influence self-esteem and beliefs about attractiveness and self-worth
- raising status in peer group

Scanlan, et al., 2012

Positive romantic relationship can serve as a good training ground or adult

intimacy, providing an opportunity for learning to:

- manage strong emotions

- negotiate conflict to communicate needs
- respond to a partner's need

However, positive emotions can also cloud judgment:

- experience of "falling" in falling in love can create a detachment from ordinary

reality and ordinary concerns
- elated feeling of being in love may prevent one from seeing the fault of the
partner or it might contribute to their underestimating the possibility of pregnancy
and sexual disease
- idea of "forever" or "living happily ever after may block appropriate rational
planning for the future.

Larson, 2014

Romantic relationships are both a frequent source of positive feelings and motivation
and a frequent source of anguish and distress.

It can also be a source of:

 1. anxiety
2. anger
3. jealousy
4. despair

Unrequited love and breaking up

1. Unrequited love - emerged as a bilaterally distressing experience marked by mutual

incomprehension and emotional interdependence.

2. Break-ups - very common feature of adolescent romantic relationships.

- According to a psychologist Carl Pickhardt (2010) in the article adolescent break-

ups, the emotional effects of a break-up can hit a teen hard, depending on
length of the relationship, the intensity of the teen's feelings for his ex, and
who instigated the split.

Hugot Lines

- another means of expression for emotion related to unreciprocated love and heartbreaks
- tells that teenagers to have empathy - and they try to connect with their emotions,
whether good or bad
- a coping mechanism, it provides an outlet for the welling up of emotions

How Adolescents Express Their Emotion

Facial Expressions - one of the most important ways that we express emotion. Researcher
and emotion expert Paul Eckman has found that, for the most part, the facial expressions used
to convey basic emotions tend to be the same across cultures.

We express our emotions in a number of different ways, including both verbal

communication and nonverbal communication. However, there are important cultural differences
in how we express emotions. Social norms exist for various aspect of emotions:

● General emocional norms - govern what is a desirable or undesirable emotion, and

which we want more or less in life and culture.
● Feeling rules - govern how one should feel when encountering certain events.
● Display rules - govern how one should act when experiencing certain emotion.