Human Relationships

Human Relationships Love

Starter (name the artist/s) • “All you need is love” • “A million love songs” • “Love will tear us apart” • “Do you love me” • “This love” • “Can you feel the love tonight” • “Can’t help falling in love” • “Endless Love”

Lesson Objectives To investigate and understand: • Hendrick and Hendrick’s theory of love • Hatfield’s Passionate & Consumate Love • Sternberg’s Triangular theory of love • Evaluations

Liking vs. Loving Problems associated with measuring love? Rubin (1970) attachment, caring & intimacy One of the first in this field, developed the ‘scales of liking and loving’ as a way of measuring the qualitatively different complex feelings of love. For example, which one is which? I feel that _____________ is a very stable person. I would do almost anything for _____________.

Types of love (Lee, 1973) • Lundus game playing love • Mania possessive love • Pragma logical love • Agape selfless (altruistic) love • Storage companionate love • Eros erotic love

Sex differencesbewteen the different types of love.(Hendrick and Hendrick, 1986)

Evaluative point… • Females then seem to prioritise on friendships and practical aspects of love. Males seem to prefer playful and emotional love. • This would fit neatly with the ‘evolutionary perspective’ - males and females have different expectations of each other

Further evaluation • Cross cultural research by Hendrick & Hendrick shows that different cultures have different preferences for different types of love. • Who do you think was more likely to favour altruistic and selfless love? Students from Britain or students from Hong Kong? WHY? • These differences for styles of love would appear to be shaped by socialisation.

Individualistic and collectivist cultures • Western societies appear to be more individualistic. They make their own decisions and take responsibility for their own lives. • Eastern societies – collectivist – they regard themselves as part of their family/social gorup and so all their decisions are based on other people. i.e. “What does your heart say” vs. “What will other people say”.

Companionate and Passionate love • Hatfield (1988) made a distinction between these two types of love.

Evaluative point However not many people fall neatly into each stereotype

Triangular Theory of Love Sternberg 1986 • Passion – the driving force, involves romantic elements and sexual attraction • Intimacy – the emotions and feelings of closeness and bondedness • Commitment – thoughts, beliefs and intentions to maintain the relationship

Triangular Theory of Love Positive evaluations: • A variety of combinations are possible even when components are absent. • This model illustrates how different types of love vary over time. • Its components are not based on a all-or-none definition, but rather but can be assessed on a continuum. • Research shows that of all three types, commitment is the best predictor of relationship endurance and satisfaction. (Whitely, 1993).

Negative evaluations:Triangular Theory of Love • Love is subjective, meaning different things to different people, even within a relationship – which makes it difficult to test empirically • Difficult to apply the theory to all cultures e.g. with arranged marriages.

Negative evaluations:Triangular Theory of Love • Individual differences - ,makes it difficult to test love empirically. • Academics have questioned whether intimacy is a separate component of the model. Implications - there would no longer be a triangle. Just passion and commitment.

Triangular Theory of Love For more points, • Compare the theory with other models. For example…….

Past exam questions Q. In the context of the triangular theory of love, distinguish between romantic and companionate love. (3 marks) Q. With reference to the triangular theory of love, distinguish between two types of love. (3 marks) Q. Describe and discuss the triangular theory of love. (12 marks)

In the context of the triangular theory of love, distinguish between romantic and companionate love. (3 marks) [AO1 = 2, AO2 = 1] AO1 • Romantic - involves passion (and intimacy) • Companionate - involves commitment (and intimacy) AO2 • Valid distinction e.g. romantic love involves stronger element of sexual attraction; • romantic love more usually seen earlier in a relationships whereas companionate love more typical in a mature relationship.

With reference to the triangular theory of love, distinguish between two types of love. (3 marks) [AO1 = 2, AO2 = 1] AO1 • Sternberg (1986) Consummate, romantic, fatuous, companionate or empty etc… AO2 • Give examples to support, i.e. for the children (empty), older couple (consumate), newly weds (consumate)

Describe and discuss the triangular theory of love. (12 marks) [AO1 = 6, AO2 = 6] AO1 • Describe triangular theory (Sternberg, 1986) • Multidimensional model where type of love depends on interaction between 3 components - passion, intimacy and commitment and change over time • Explain few types: consummate, infatuation, liking, empty, romantic, companionate, fatuous.

Describe and discuss the triangular theory of love. (12 marks) AO2 • Advantages: Flexible with multiple combinations • Should be assessed on a continuum • Love is subjective – difficult to test - Love means different things to different people, even within a relationship; • Cultural specificity and relevance to other cultures, eg with arranged marriages. • Other studies to compare and contrast

Human Relationships