Alphs resident sock psychologist is here, introducing his first of a monthly blog dedicated to the biggest question of all...
What is Love?
Given that the season of love is soon to be upon us, the team at Alphs.co have asked me to take some time to look at the question of love.
Firstly, it is safe to say that there are different kinds of love: there is the love you have for your family, friends, or pets; love you have for food (you know you’re one of them); love that you ascribe to possessions; and finally, there is the love that is shared between two people that can be described as romantic, fun, flirty and intimate. It is this kind love that we are interested in, and it is far more complex that one might think.
Secondly, and some might say most obviously, love is thought to be an emotion; it is something that you feel. As human beings, we have a range of emotions, and at our core we experience six basic ones: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, shock and disgust. Within these are more complex emotions. For example, joy, cheer, and excitement would all fall under the wider umbrella of happiness. Whereas grief, misery, and sorrow would fall under the umbrella emotion of sadness. Love however, does not typically fall under one of these umbrellas as love can make us happy, leave us grief stricken, or fearful of never finding it. Therefore, it might be that love is more than just an emotion.
People do not exist in a vacuum. Our emotions are responses to our thoughts, physical sensations within our bodies, and behaviours that we either exhibit or see in others. Also, we are social creatures, so all our thoughts, feelings and behaviours occur contextually across various scenarios, and are multidirectional and interlinked. A simple example is that you are at home (context) and you feel thirsty (physical feeling), so you think to yourself, “I want a cup of tea” (thought), and so you make a cup of tea (behaviour) and you feel happier (emotion) because you are no longer thirsty and feel all warm and cosy (physical feeling).
In a similar way, love is a combination of these factors and is no one simple thing. Our context would be the focus of our attractions, the person for whom we have affection for. This person invokes in us thoughts that we might have about ourselves, the world or that specific person. These thoughts make us feel certain things, generally under the umbrella of happiness, but can include excitement, contentment, giddiness, pleasure, etc. (the list goes on). This then influences our behaviours to make the person that makes us happy keep doing those things that fill us with positive feelings. It is all cyclical and interlinked. But what it boils down to, is that love is not an emotion in and of itself, but rather a combination of thought, behaviours, and physical sensations about one specific person that creates in us a multitude of reactionary, positive emotions that leave us feeling warm and fuzzy all over.
So, that is why as a way of showing (behaviour) that special person that makes you feel all those warm happy feelings (emotions), you might take a look at a selection of Valentine’s Day socks (context) with that person in mind (thought), and find something that tells them exactly how good they make you feel (behaviour).
And if you have been inspired by this blog, you can order until midnight on sunday 12th February for Valentine's Delivery and get 20% off our whole range of Valentine's socks with the discount code SockPyschologist
A bit of background of Mr Sock Psychologist
The psychology of why we make the decisions we make, how we improve our mental well being, what do do when we feel sad, how we integrate with other people , how it impacts on us as individuals, as families, on society and on Alphs as a company - the world of psychology integrates with every part of our lives and is an increasingly popular topic.
So we are very excited to introduce to you our resident sock psychologist. Mr Sock Psychologist will be writing a guest blog for us once a month(ish!) sharing genuine psychological theories and studies into various occasions, positive messages and of course what your choice of sock says about you!
Mr Sock Psychologist is currently studying for his psychology doctorate in the UK and eating as much pizza as humanly possible.