Love and Sexuality Flashcards
Bottom up approach of love? What is love
Fehr (1988)
Highest rating
Trust
Caring
Honesty
Friendship
Respect
Concern for another’s well-being
Loyalty
Lowest Rating
Thinking about other all the time
Energy
Heart rate increase
Euphoria
Gazing at the other
Seeing only the other’s good qualities
Butterflies in the stomach
Top-down approaches to the study of love (I.e., expert’s views)
Triangular
Love styles
Burscheid’s 4 types of love
2 types of love
Triangular Thoery of Love
Intimacy (“the warmth”)
- Warmth, understanding, trust, support, sharing
Passion (“the heat”)
- Physical arousal, desire, excitement
Commitment (“the cold”)
- Permanence, stability, devotion
Top-down approach
Sorokowski et al. 2021
n=~7000 from 25 countries
Results
- Triangular theory of love scale had same factor structure across all cultures (i.e., 3)
- Levels of love varied depending on relationship duration. Increased relationship length was associated with…
1) increased intimacy and commitment
2) decreased passion
Love styles
Eros - loving an ideal person
Mania - obsessive love
Ludus - love as a game
Pragma - realistic and practical love
Storage - love as friendship
Agape - selfless love
Burscheid’s 4 types of love
Romantic
Companionate
Compassionate
Attachment
- Romantic love
Passionate love
Combination of sexual desire or attraction with intense emotions or feelings of love toward the romantic partner
E.g.,
- I would feel deep despair if X left me
- I want X physically, emotionally, and mentally
- I have an endless appetite for affection from X
- Companionate love
“friendship love”
E.g.,
- enjoying spending time together.
- I feel our love based on a deep and abiding friendship.
- I express my love for my partner though the enjoyment of common activities and mutual interest.
- Compassionate love
also referred to as “altruistic love”
Self-sacrifice
E.g.,
- If X needs help, I would do almost anything I could to help her/him/
- I would rather engage in actions that help X than engage in actions that would help me.
- Attachment love
Desire to be attached to a person for protection or the good of oneself
Associated with proximity to the partner and felt security
E.g.,
- When I am stressed out, I often call/ seek out my parener.
- When I am in pain, I want to have my partner there
- Receiving a hug from my partner can make me instantly feel better
Where does passionate love come from?
- Two-factor theory of emotion (Scha
