Love Triangle

theory of evolution ang kay charles darwin. big bang theory ang tungkol sa origin at evolution ng universe. relativity ang kay einstein.

was there ever a theory on love?
well, meron.

A triangular theory of love

Sternberg, R. J. (1986) A triangular theory of love. Psychological Review, 93, 119-135

In this article, Sternberg proposes that love can be conceptualised as consisting of three primary components: passion, intimacy and commitment. These can be conceptualised as a `love triangle` with the three components forming the vertices.

Passion - `the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, sexual consummation, and related phenomena`

Intimacy - `feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in loving relationships`

Commitment - `the decision that one loves someone else and ... the commitment to maintain that love`

These components may be combined to characterise eight kinds of love.

Kind of love
Passion Intimacy Commitment

• Nonlove - walang passion, walang intimacy, walang commitment
• Liking - walang passion, may intimacy, walang commitment
• Infatuation - may passion, walang intimacy, walang commitment
• Empty love - walang passion, walang intimacy, may commitment
• Romantic love - may passion, may intimacy, walang commitment
• Companionate love - walang passion, may intimacy, may commitment
• Fatuous love - may passion, walang intimacy, may commitment
• Consumate love - may passion, may intimacy, may commitment

Sternberg notes that the relative emphasis of each component changes over time as an adult romantic relationship develops.

Passion
Passionate arousal tends to occur at the beginning of relationships, peaks relatively quickly and then reduces to a stable level as a result of habituation. Following relationship termination, an individuals capacity for passion appears to go negative for a period of time, as the individual overcomes feelings of loss.

Intimacy
Intimacy tends to peak slower than passion and then gradually reduces to a relatively low level of manifest intimacy as interpersonal bonding increases. Changes in circumstances, however, tend to activate latent intimacy, which can cause the manifest level of intimacy to return or exceed its earlier peak.

Commitment

In successful relationships, the level of commitment rises relatively slowly at first, speeds up, and then gradually levels off. Where relationships fail, the level of commitment usually decreases gradually and descends back towards the baseline.

Sternberg goes on to compare his theory with existing research and to consider a how partners love triangles could be compared, that an individual may have both ideal and real triangles, self and other triangles and interactions between all these.

This model of love is primarily of interest here as it was used by Levy and Davis (

1988) when investigating adult romantic attachments.