Love: Is It Really Necessary for Happiness

Bradt, G. (2015, December 30). The secret of happiness revealed by Harvard study. Forbes.

Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgebradt/2015/05/27/the-secret-of-happiness-

revealed-by-harvard-study/#56690f466786

In the article The Secret of Happiness Revealed by Harvard Study by George Bradt states that

the key points in someones happiness in life, including a big factor being love. Also, the author

incorporates a survey that was done in 2015, showing the importance of relationships in

someones life. Within the survey being discussed, it analyzed the importance of relationships

and whether the people involved in this study who were happy contributed their happiness to that

specific connection. The results in the study show that 75% state that the reason why theyre

happy is because of their relationships, while 49% of content people who took this survey as well

said that they were happy but not necessarily due to their intimate relationships. This particular

article is valid in my research because it does help start creating a hypothesis as to whether love

is necessary to have a happy life. So far, from the research, the majority agree the significance of

their relationships in their life but there are some that find happiness without this feeling.

Schwartz, P. (2003, May 01). Love is not all you need. Psychology Today. Retrieved from

https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200305/love-is-not-all-you-need

In this particular article, it gives the reader an inside view of peoples relationships and identifies

how important love is in a relationship. However, it argues that just because you have love in

your life/relationship, does not qualify that you are automatically content with your life. Theres

multiple factors that go into a relationship that love cant carry it all into its shoulders as good

listening from both parties, moderate time together as well away from each other,

communication, being financially stable, and even the satisfaction of the sexual relationship
between the two individuals. In short, it simply states that love is not the only thing you need in a

relationship and that theres many factors involved when it comes to a healthy and committed

relationship. Now, the reason for this resource being important is because of it doesnt

necessarily answer the question being displayed, but it does show that the possibility of love

itself doesnt always make everybody pleased.

Dolan, P. (2015, February 13). Will love make you happy? Psychology Today. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-design/201502/will-love-make-you-
happy

In this particular piece of writing by Paul Dolan, he discusses the routes of love and how love

isnt always a good thing. This is obvious though because most people in a relationship clearly

understand this aspect when it comes to intricacy of love. However, he notes that one of the most

difficult things in love is the uncertainty of it all. Even when relationships are in a good state,

there are so many uncertainties that can occur. Like in the examples mentioned in this article, it

could be the uncertainty of that person loving you. Or if you do something spontaneous, we leave

ourselves unclear of whether they like what we did for them or not, because at the end of the day

we need to realize that whether we know somebody well or not, that this individual youre with

has changed almost as quickly as the time passing by you guys. So, the reasoning for this article

being imperative to my continued research, is that it helps give understanding that is as clear as

day, and if it could possibly help somebody in their own relationship detect these kinds of

changes and adapt with them, then it shows the importance of this article and the whole question

being answered.
Raghunathan, R. (2014, January 08). The Need to Love. Psychology Today. Retrieved from

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sapient-nature/201401/the-need-love

Another column from Psychology Today, written by Mr. Raghunathan, discusses how love is

one of the most essential things to being happy. The authors argument for this is that for most

human beings, we all have this desire love and be loved, and if we achieve this we have reached

a sense of Nirvana within ourselves. Especially when it comes to loving other people because we

tend to have this ideology that loving others will bring self-gratitude. This is important for my

research because at the end of the day, I need to look at both sides and get an understanding from

people who do believe love is necessary for happiness.

Stone, G. (2015, January 24). Love is essential to life. Gemma Stone. Retrieved from

https://gemmastone.org/love-is-essential-to-life/

So, this particular article is written by someone who isnt profound in the world of psychology

named Gemma Stone and she discusses the necessity of love in our lives. She converses with her

audience and notes that love itself physically affects our DNA whether we realize it or not. It

comes into our system and people who tend to have this emotional connection with others

happen to be much healthier and stable it seems from research. Those who dont leave to

depression, illness, and discourages brought on by the lack of emotion. Subsequently, though

Gemma Stone is not a degreed master in love, I still chose this as one of my resources because

love is very opinionated, diverse topic and to get closer to answers, I need to look at all sides.
Lowe, L. (2011, May 11). How important is love to happiness? Marriage Gems. Retrieved from

https://www.bing.com/cr?IG=ACC7B6FFA37D417794CADE5BA437D43B&CID=16D

645F5305F6F501F5C4EDE31596E15&rd=1&h=JDhWtpizyQbWJdaA_9QKjh-

DAxcLJw1DioVkhA17PBk&v=1&r=https%3a%2f%2fmarriagegems.com%2f2011%2f05%2f11

%2fhow-important-is-love-to-happiness%2f&p=DevEx,5067.1

This blog entry written by Lori Lowe is another source that is from a personal blog of hers, and

this one is more marriage based. However, the core of all these blogs & marriages is love and

research that has been thoroughly dissected and reassembled for this story. In this blog, she notes

the importance of marriage (and love) by stating statistics such as: four out of five people

contribute their happiness to love, 25 percent of single people are very happy while 40 percent

of married say theyre very happy, and so on and so forth. Though, she admits that happiness

is highly due to yourself and if you are happy, then it simply bleeds into your relationship as

well. Which could be potentially important to my article because this source seems highly

unbiased when it comes to the question being answered above.

Varon, J. (2014, April 17th) A relationship will not make you happy (So stop looking for

happiness there). Thought Catalogue. Retrieved from

https://thoughtcatalog.com/jamie-varon/2014/04/a-relationship-will-not-make-you-

happy-so-stop-looking-for-happiness-there/

Now this article by Ms. Varon cuts the idea of love being a necessity to happiness right at the

source before you even get the opportunity to fully accumulate your opinion. She immerses you

with realizing that its selfish, in a sense, to make someone you love try and promote your

happiness when that is ultimately your own choice. She then continues her statement that
ultimate states that a relationship should not end because you are not happy anymore, but to

realize that you both have expanded/grown as much as you possibly could with each other and

need to go on and find better opportunities. This particular article struck something within

myself because all the other articles started to blur into the same patterns, but the ending of this

one discussing better opportunities really showed a different mindset that I havent really looked

at before.

Project Thankful. (2017, February 06). The science behind love, hormones and happiness.

Thankful Blog. Retrieved from

http://www.thankful.org/blog/2017/02/03/the-science-behind-love-hormones-and-

happiness/

The post created by a group named Project Thankful discusses love and how it scientifically

modifies whether we want to comprehend this idea or not. Some examples include: the release of

oxytocin which is a hormone produced while in love that causes a natural high, increases

strength in immune system, and less chronic pain. It goes as far as to saying love meets one that

is considered a necessity: human connection. We constantly communicate with other human

beings, but sometimes our desires with these communications are not meant and love suffices for

all those subpar encounters. The reason for this final article being significant in this research is to

show that despite love and science being complete opposites, they both actually correspond and

leads to effects that manifest for many to be happiness.