The triangular theory of love is a theory of love Love is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my wife"). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the developed by psychologist There are many different types of psychologists, as is reflected by the 56 different divisions of the American Psychological Association . Psychologists are generally described as being either "applied" or "research-oriented". The common terms used to describe this central division in psychology are "scientists" or & Robert Sternberg Robert Jeffrey Sternberg , is an American psychologist and psychometrician and the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. He was formerly IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University and the President of the American Psychological Association. He is a member of the editorial boards of numerous journals, including American. The theory characterizes love within the context of interpersonal relationships An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love and liking, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships take place in a great variety of contexts, such as family, friends, by three different components:
- Intimacy Emotional intimacy is a dimension of interpersonal intimacy that varies in degree and over time, much like physical intimacy. Affect, emotion and feeling may refer to different phenomena. Emotional intimacy may refer to any or all of those in both a lay or a professional context – Which encompasses feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness.
- Passion Passion is an emotion applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something. The term is also often applied to a lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity or love – Which encompasses drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, and sexual consummation.
- Commitment – Which encompasses, in the short term, the decision to remain with another, and in the long term, the shared achievements and plans made with that other.
The “amount” of love one experiences depends on the absolute strength of these three components; the “type” of love one experiences depends on their strengths relative to each other. Different stages and types of love can be explained as different combinations of these three elements; for example, the relative emphasis of each component changes over time as an adult romantic relationship develops. A relationship based on a single element is less likely to survive than one based on two or three elements.
Forms of love
The three components, pictorially labeled on the vertices of a triangle, interact with each other and with the actions they produce and with the actions that produce them so as to form seven different kinds of love experiences (nonlove is not represented). The size of the triangle functions to represent the "amount" of love - the bigger the triangle the greater the love. The shape of the triangle functions to represent the "type" of love, which may vary over the course of the relationship:
- Nonlove is the absence of all three of Sternberg's components of love.
- Liking/friendship in this case is not used in a trivial sense. Sternberg says that this intimate liking characterizes true friendships Friendship is the cooperative and supportive relationship between people. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, affection, and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each other's company and exhibit loyalty towards each other,, in which a person feels a bondedness, a warmth, and a closeness with another but not intense passion or long-term commitment.
- Infatuated love is pure passion. Romantic relationships often start out as infatuated love and become romantic love as intimacy develops over time. However, without developing intimacy or commitment, infatuated love may disappear suddenly.
- Empty love is characterized by commitment without intimacy or passion. Sometimes, a stronger love deteriorates into empty love. In cultures in which arranged marriages Arranged marriage is a marriage arranged by someone other than the couple getting wedded, curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world, including Europe. Today, arranged marriage is still practiced in South Asia, and the Middle East to some extent. Other groups are common, relationships often begin as empty love and develop into one of the other forms with the passing of time.
- Romantic love bonds individuals emotionally through intimacy and physically through passionate arousal.
- Companionate love is an intimate, non-passionate type of love that is stronger than friendship because of the element of long-term commitment. Sexual desire is not an element of companionate love. This type of love is often found in marriages in which the passion has gone out of the relationship but a deep affection and commitment remain. The love ideally shared between family members is a form of companionate love, as is the love between close friends who have a platonic Platonic love, in its modern popular sense, is a non-sexual affectionate relationship. A simple example of Platonic relationships is a deep, non-sexual friendship, not subject to gender pairings and including close relatives but strong friendship.
- Fatuous love can be exemplified by a whirlwind courtship and marriage in which a commitment is motivated largely by passion without the stabilizing influence of intimacy. A relationship, however, whereby an individual party agrees to sexual favors purely out of commitment issues, or is pressured/forced into sexual acts does not comprise Fatuous love, and instead tends more to Empty love.
- Consummate love is the complete form of love, representing an ideal relationship toward which people strive. Of the seven varieties of love, consummate love is theorized to be that love associated with the “perfect couple”. According to Sternberg, such couples will continue to have great sex fifteen years or more into the relationship, they can not imagine themselves happy over the long-term with anyone else, they overcome their few difficulties gracefully, and each delight in the relationship with one other.[1] However, Sternberg cautions that maintaining a consummate love may be even harder than achieving it. He stresses the importance of translating the components of love into action. "Without expression," he warns, "even the greatest of loves can die" (1987, p. 341). Thus, consummate love may not be permanent. If passion is lost over time, it may change into companionate love.
See also
- Love styles Love styles are models of how people love, originally developed by John Lee . He identified six basic love theories—also known as "colors" of love—that people use in their interpersonal relationships:
- Psychological theories of love The chemical basis for love has been explored by such biological sciences as evolutionary psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology and neuroscience. Specific chemical substances such as oxytocin are studied in the context of their roles in producing human experiences and behaviors that are associated with love
- Scientific models of love Love is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my wife"). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the
References
- Sternberg, Robert J. Robert Jeffrey Sternberg , is an American psychologist and psychometrician and the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. He was formerly IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University and the President of the American Psychological Association. He is a member of the editorial boards of numerous journals, including American (1986). "A triangular theory of love". Psychological Review 93 (2): 119–135. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other entity. The DOI for a document remains fixed over the lifetime of the document, unlike URLs which can change when a publisher of online content changes its web server's file structure, and the DOI System provides a mechanism for locating an:10.1037/0033-295X.93.2.119. http://content2.apa.org/journals/rev/93/2/119. Retrieved 2007-06-27.
- Sternberg, Robert J. (1988). The Triangle of Love: Intimacy, Passion, Commitment. New York: Basic Books. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique[clarification needed] numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin,[clarification needed] for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 0-465-08746-9.
- Brehm, Sharon S. (2007). Intimate Relationships. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique[clarification needed] numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin,[clarification needed] for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 0-07-293801-3.
- ^ "Cupid's Arrow - the Course of Love through Time" by Robert Sternberg. Publisher: Cambridge University Press (1998) ISBN 0-521-47893-6
Categories: Love Categories: Categories lacking a description | Human sexuality | Interpersonal relationships | Personal life | Spirituality | Core issues in ethics | Emotions | Ethical principles | Psychological theories Categories: Psychology | Scientific theories | Philosophical theories
NPR
Plus, Calter argues, the triangle has big fans. Plato declared the isosceles triangle to be the basic building block of the universe in his Theory of ...
and more »
200px x 200px | 8.90kB
[source page]
Next An interesting theory proposed by psychologist Robert Sternberg just might explain why some relationships work while some don t It s called the triangular theory of love and it states that
The Peripatetic Philosopher
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:09:00 GM
We are . love. itself manifested. * * * My aim here is not to dream up a new . theory. , develop a new religion or philosophy, but to cause readers to think, to be less awed by what prominent voices have to say, as in truth their views emanate from their own . ... Picasso kept devising new periods of his paintings to escape a . triangular. straightjacket. These artists knew without knowing, which is the residence of art. Let us say that neuropsychology, genetics, neurobiology and ...
Q. What is the triangular love theory?
Asked by Johannah524 - Wed Jun 7 12:54:27 2006 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments
A. The triangular theory of love characterizes love in an interpersonal relationship on three different scales: intimacy, passion and commitment. It was developed by Robert Sternberg. Different stages and types of love can be explained as different combinations of the three elements, intimacy, passion and commitment. Sternberg states that a relationship based on a single element is less likely to survive than one based on two or more.
Answered by Female - Wed Jun 7 12:56:44 2006


