Relationship Self Help What is Love? Relationship Expert Author and Radio Television Guest Dr. Molly Barrow author of Matchlines

Much like many other aspects of your personality, intellect and character, your ability to love is well established and functioning by the time that that you reach your adolescent years. In many respects, your "Loveline" is the result of a long string of key variables—from the way that your parents raised you, to how, as an adult, you view yourself and the world around you. Just as every individual on the planet is different from the next, so is each person’s Loveline. Nevertheless, people clearly reveal fundamental patterns in their behavior and past relationships that you can easily measure.
As children, we begin perfectly in the emotional arena, innocent and eager, although we completely lack learned socialization skills. Our experiences and our environment mold us. The experiences of our parents and their environment also subtly quietly influence us. Parents pass down their fears and prejudices to us just as their genes are, however, unlike eye color, most opinions can change. All behavior we express is subsequently either reinforced positively (praise, a smile, a dollar) or negatively (criticism, punishment, or abuse), or else it fades away.
In the lab, pigeons repeat their behavior when they receive a food pellet or reward. Learned behavior when accompanied by such rewards is called “conditioning.” In humans, because of childhood nurturing, or the lack of it, learned needs develop along with a learned capability to meet those needs. The learned needs, or lack of them, help to create a person’s Loveline.
In essence, the bulk of what we individually define as “love” is a truly learned behavior. Your parents, grandparents, other relatives, friends, neighbors, teachers, coaches, clergy, books, television, movies, plays, games, songs and a host of other influences all contribute to your personal definition of love. For more information on self-help relationships please visit www.askdrmolly and read Matchlines by Dr. Molly Barrow. Other books about relationships are by Gary Chapman (The Five Love Languages) and books by Harriet Lerner, Ph.D.
BIO:

Dr. Molly Barrow holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is the author of the new book, “Matchlines: A Revolutionary New Way of Looking at Relationships and Making the Right Choices in Love,” ISBN 159507158X. She is an authority on relationship and psychological topics, a member of the American Psychological Association and a licensed mental health counselor. Dr. Molly has appeared as an expert in the film, My Suicide, documentaries Ready to Explode and KTLA Impact, NBC news, PBS In Focus, WBZT talk radio and in O Magazine, Psychology Today, Newsday, The Nest, MSN.com, Yahoo, Match.com, N Magazine, Women’s Health and Women’s World. Please visit: http://www.askdrmolly.com
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