LOVE consists of 22 classes filmed on site at Governor State University. Doctors Pat Love and Jon Carlson explore vital question about the nature of love through the use of lecture, targeted exercises, group discussion, expert interviews, and recorded interviews with couples, single men and women, and leading professionals in the field. Key questions include:

• How are we influenced by the biology of love?
• How can you tell the difference between love, infatuation, and lust?
• How does culture affect our attitudes toward and perceptions of love?
• What do women find attractive in men and vice versa?
• What is the function of dating?
• What are the pros and cons of cohabitation?
• What should you know before making a long-term commitment?
• How do you know when to leave a relationship?
• What are the advantages of marriage?
• What is the true source of happiness?

The course is supplemented with required and suggested text readings. An accompanying Study Guide helps students navigate the 22 classes plus a bonus with ease and challenges them to think critically about the information presented in each lesson. The course also includes a bonus video featuring the special issues that pertain to Military Marriages. LOVE: What Everyone Needs to Know is sure to make your students see relationships in a whole new light.

COURSE MATERIALS

Media Course Study Guide:
Love: What Everyone Needs to Know, P. Love & J. Carlson with K. McFadden

Required Texts:
The Truth About Love, P. Love, Ed.D., Simon & Schuster (Fireside), 2001.

Recommended Texts:
Hot Monogomy: Essential Steps to More Passionate, Intimate Lovemaking, P. Love, Ed.D. & Jo Robinson, Penguin Publishing (Plume), 1994.

How to Improve Your Relationship Without Talking About It, P. Love, Ed.D. & S. Stosny, Ph.D., Free Press, 2007.

Not Just Friends: Rebuilding Trust and Recovering Your Sanity After Infidelity, S. Glass, Free Press, 2004.

The Power of Commitment, S. Stanley, Ph.D., Jossey-Bass, 2005.

Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay: A Step-by-Step Guide to Help You Decide Whether to Stay In or Get Out of Your Relationship, M. Kirshenbaum, Plume, 1997.

Why We Love: The Nature of Chemistry and Romantic Love, H. Fisher, Ph.D., Henry Hold & Company, Paperback, 2005.

You Don’t Have to Take It Anymore, S. Stosny, Ph.D., Free Press, 2006.

PROGRAM LESSON DESCRIPTIONS

Class 1: Introduction: Love – What Everyone Needs to Know
Provides a course overview. The lesson offers highlights from the course to give students a preview of what to expect.

Class 2: The Purpose of Love
Explains why we fall in love.Students learn how love is important to our health, welfare and survival.  Video clips and lecture reveal how infatuation and attraction have more to do with chemistry and biology than love.  Perspectives on the subject include both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.

Class 3: Cross-Cultural Look at Love & Relationships
Looks at how love differs around the world. The lesson explores how expectations with regard to love are handed down from previous generations.  Lecture defines how these expectations differ from culture to culture, and students are challenged to consider who is really responsible for creating happiness in a relationship. 

Class 4: The Stages of Love
Examines the four predictable stages of love. Students learn about the three different brain systems and how they biologically affect the feelings and resultant behaviors associated with each of the four stages of love: Infatuation, Post-Rapture, Discovery, and Connection.    

Class 5: Is It Love or Infatuation?
Explores the relationship between the physiology and psychology of love. Lecture covers the differences between infatuation and real love, and explains why the chemistry behind infatuation doesn’t always translate to compatibility.  Video lecture outlines the biology behind "The Love Cocktail " (heightened libido) that makes infatuation so irresistible.

Class 6: Is It Love or Is It Lust?
Explores the difference between sexual desire and love. The class debates how the two are linked and whether or not they can be mutually exclusive. Lecture reveals the role of oxytocin in partner bonding, and relates how the ratio of positive to negative responses decides the success of a relationship.

Class 7: Cross-Cultural Look at Mate Selection
Considers the factors that contribute to effective mate selection. Lecture outlines factors critical to a successful match, such as finances, family values, children, and spirituality.  The class poses the question, "When do you really fall in love – before you get married or afterward? "

Class 8: Dating – Is it Out-Dated?
Explores the best strategies for meeting new love prospects. Relationship experts discuss the various ways in which singles meet and reveal how such factors as proximity, timing, and intent affect the outcome.  Internet dating services and the role of alcohol in the meet-and-greet process are discussed.

Class 9: What Attracts Men?  What Turns Them Off?
Men share their thoughts on what attracts them. Relationship experts explain why men fall in love faster than women but are slower to commit.  Students learn why men often find women more attractive than women find themselves and why the innate "hyperarousal response " predisposes men to be hypersensitive to criticism and shame.

Class 10: What Attracts Women?  What Turns Them Off?
Women share opinions on the qualities that attract them most. The lesson helps provide answers to Freud’s question, "What do women want? "  Lecture reveals what male attributes are deemed "good " by women, why women fall prey to the lure of "bad boys ", and how the evolution of the female brain directly affects this dichotomy of impulses. 

Class 11: Hooking Up – Upside, Downside
Discusses the pros and cons of casual sex. Investigative reporters and relationship experts present the advantages and disadvantages of "hooking up ".  Discussion reveals how gender affects our perceptions of casual sex, and emphasizes the importance of safe-sex awareness.

Class 12: What to Look for in a Mate
Takes a look at statistical predictors of effective partner selection. Students learn how such variables as compatibility, accountability, ethnicity, and communication styles play a hand in mate selection.  Neuroscientific research reveals how common notions of attraction based on familiarity can often go awry.

Class 13: How to Tell When You Are Really in Love
Further examines the skills that help sustain true love.  Discussion emphasizes the importance of tuning into and committing to true love.  Topics include the high correlation between romantic expectations and divorce, and the role of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs in successful relationships.

Class 14: Seven Tests Before You Commit
Outlines what you need to know before you commit to a relationship. Lecture defines seven areas critical to building relations, and discussion explains the impact of each on love relationships.  Students learn how true commitment can help us weather the inevitable problems that naturally occur in any relationships.

Class 15: Cohabitation – The Plain Facts
Exposes myths and highlights research on the subject of "living together ". The lesson identifies the pros and cons of non-marital cohabitation and explains the dangers of "sliding " into as opposed to "deciding " on this form of commitment. Deciding factors discussed by the class include the statistical realities of cohabitation, the conflicting male-female expectations about cohabitation, and the surprising correlations between cohabitation, divorce, and general dissatisfaction.

Class 16:  When to Stay, When to Go
Draws a distinction between problem relationships that can be salvaged and those that cannot. Class discussion focuses on the "red flags " that signal trouble in a relationship or marriage. Students receive helpful hints for making even the most difficult relationships happy and fulfilling, including how to get beyond volatile hot buttons, how to find joint passion with your partner, and how to recognize a losing battle when you see one.

Class 17:  Making a Commitment
Explores how the motivations behind commitment affect its consequences. The class learns the difference between "constraint " commitment and "dedicated " commitment, and lecture reveals how the two commitment styles correlate with stability and happiness.  Discussion touches on such factors as the social and financial "survival " benefits of both commitment styles, the value of friendship in a love relationship, and how commitment to one person invariably alters outside relationships with others.

Class 18: What It Takes to Go the Distance – What Makes Long-Term Relationships Work
Explores the attitude and behavior shifts required to sustain a relationship. Lecture outlines the distinction between two situations: when expressing your expectations is good for the relationship and when it will only make things worse.  Strategies for handling both situations are discussed.  The lesson also explores the value of humor, the up side of clashing viewpoints, and how gender differences affect how apologies are relayed and perceived.

Class 19: Challenges of Men in Relationships
Explains how gender expectations cause stress for men in committed relationships.  The Studio Class compares their thoughts on this subject with statistical research findings.  The lesson points out how monogamy is a choice tied directly to intentions and morals, why a woman’s superior earning power is a threat for most men, and what three factors embody the answer to the question "What do women want? "

Class 20: Challenges of Women in Relationships
Further explores relationship stressors from a woman’s point of view.  The class learns further how brain biology affects relationship perceptions.  Discussion topics reveal how verbal skills may not always translate into communication skills, why blame is perceived differently by the opposing sexes, and how women are stressed by increased expectations in the workplace that have yet to affect a decrease of expectations on the home front.  The lesson also outlines the three things men need to feel truly committed to a relationship.

Class 21: Why Marriage Is Worth It
Identifies the challenges and benefits of matrimony.  The lesson focuses on how marriage affects the many aspects of life and includes research on how marriage is tied to health and self-esteem, how it can create "social capital " that advances us in society, how it affects family routines, rituals, and support for children, and how it can help us mature and grow both as individuals and as citizens at large.

Class 22: The True Source of Happiness
Answers the question, Who is responsible for my happiness? " The lesson offers suggestions for a balanced, pro-active pursuit of personal happiness.  Students learn how to transform negative criticism into positive communication for improved relations, how genetics plays a role in our capacity for happiness, and how the pursuit of hedonistic "highs " predisposes us to addiction and stress.
Bonus Video: Military Marriages
Do military marriages have special challenges and needs?  This special bonus video allows students to learn about the unique situations that arise in military marriages.  As you view the video, consider the challenges that confront military couples in building a solid and loving marriage.