Individuálne reprezentácie lásky mladých ľudí na Slovensku a v Českej republike

Abstract

Objectives. The investigation of love has produced several psychological concepts and theories. In addition to general signs of love, several cross-cultural differences were also identified. The aim of the study was to verify the previously created 5-factor model of love, which was created on the basis of individual representations of love of young people in Slovakia, and to find out whether this model is also valid in a cross-cultural Czech-Slovak comparison. Sample and procedure. The research was conducted on a sample of 397 respondents from the Slovak Republic (M=23.1, SD=2.54, men=115; women=282) and 441 respondents from the Czech Republic (M=21, 5, SD=2.15; men=107; women=334) who were aged 18–29. The research was focused on this age cohort due to the fact that for this period of the so-called emerging adulthood is important to explore in the area of relationships and love. Methods. Quantitative methodology was used in the research, the research was carried out with the help of an electronically administered ques-tionnaire. In the questionnaire, a previously ver-ified scale of Individual representations of love was used. In the questionnaire were included questions concerning selected characteristics of partner relationships and demographic data analyses. The data were processed by confirmatory factor analysis separately for the Czech and Slovak samples, further by correlation analyses and linear regression analysis, which showed relationships with other variables. Results. The results showed in both countries 5 factors of individual representations of love: 1. physical love, commitment, building and searching, 2. spiritual love, 3. power and positive benefits of love, 4. the opposite side of love and 5. biological and self-centred love. Age and strength of religious faith shawed to be predic-tors of individual factors. Limits. Since the research was not conducted on a representative sample and it mostly consisted of female university students, the possibilities of generalization are limited. This quantitative research also worked with a selected limited number of meanings of love.