Award Date

1-1-2000

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

Robert Koettel

Number of Pages

129

Abstract

The phenomenal meaning of romantic love is sought, using the descriptions of co-researchers. A brief discussion of the theoretical underpinnings of phenomenology is provided, and the methods of phenomenological psychology are outlined. The specific methods for arriving at the phenomenal meaning of romantic love are chosen. Six coresearchers were interviewed to elucidate lived-experiences they had with romantic Love The interviews were transcribed into six protocols. The six protocols are phenomenologically reduced into meaning units and their essences. The essences are presented within the context of the protocols. Twenty essential structures are presented in five meaningful groups, including Descriptions, Events, Temporal Grounding, Emotions and Elements. The essential structures, Marriage, Sex and Physical Attraction, are common to the co-researchers' lived-romantic-love-experiences and are documented in the literature, while Anticipation and Cry are not found in the literature, yet they are equally essential to understanding the meaning of the co-researchers' romantic love experiences.

Keywords

Love; Meaning; Phenomenal; Romantic

Controlled Subject

Social psychology; Philosophy

File Format

pdf

File Size

3624.96 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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