The stages of love through the eyes of a psychologist are a set of interrelated points that each couple goes through in the process of its formation and strengthening.
- Love
- Habituation
- Quarrels (the stage of disgust)
- Patience
- Service
- Friendship
- Love
And now more details:
1. As a rule, the relationship begins with falling in love
When a man and a woman are fascinated by each other, they are immersed in passion, feeling, and romance. The hormonal background determines the stage of presenting gifts, candies, and flowers. As a rule, it lasts from 3 months to 2 years.
2. Then the stage of habituation follows
At this stage, the romantic relationship reaches its peak and becomes an ordinary one. That is saturation. And satiety. These relationships resemble the weather before the storm: everything is suspiciously quiet and calm, but the air already smells of a storm.
3. Quarrels
The stage of disgust. The conflict is inevitable and openly manifested.
These three points describe one of the most common scenarios for the development of a relationship. At the stage of quarrels, people separate, hoping that they will be luckier with another partner. But, as a rule, the situation is repeated.
4. Patience
At this time, people understand that it is necessary to endure the conflict. The quarrel stage is over, the relations are updated. A new stage begins. Again, there is falling in love, addiction, quarrels, patience and … a new turn.
This is another possible scenario for the development of a relationship. It can be longer. Partners already know that quarrels just last for a certain period, after which there will be a new round of relations. Such couples either quit when their patience exhausts, or they have a desire to find a real stable platform for a harmonious relationship. Then they can go up to the next level.
5. Service
This is a fundamentally different approach to the development of the relationship. In fact, only from this stage on we begin to approach the concept of “love”. If during the previous stages the motives were rather self-centered, there appears an idea to serve the partner and to do everything to please him/her.
6. Friendship
The next stage of the relations is friendship. It is based on the previous one, on service, when the couple accumulates their mutual “trust bank” and gratitude.
7. LOVE!
At the end of this long and difficult journey, the couple receives a well-deserved reward – true love, which no longer ceases and does not fade, but only increases with time.
It is believed that it can take about 12 years or more to go through all the seven stages. Have you noticed the same stages in your family life?