Triangle Theory Of Love Essay

One of the most complicated experiences in life, love cannot be precisely defined, but some basic indications help to characterize the feeling. Love is a very deep, passionate affection one person has for another or a relationship of the same nature that implies a unique intensity of emotion. It requires an especially strong connection and compatibility between two people, usually identified by a total understanding and respect for each other and a fundamental similarity in ideology. Love can also be seen in the way it alters people’s normal behavior; when someone is in love, the object of their affection seems like the most important thing in the world, and they do extreme things for that feeling to be requited. Love cannot easily be

Robert Sternberg created his triangular theory of love based on three dimensions: passion, intimacy, and commitment. The degree to which a relationship demonstrates these three dimensions determines the type of love relationship. People begin love relationships with those who care for them as children. These early relationships can have a great effect on their adult relationships.

Love in terms of a relationship can be described as an experience between two people sharing mutual feelings, understandings and the enjoyment of being with one another. What love is varies from person to person; Psychologist Robert Sternberg came up with the triangular theory of love stating there are three main components for any love relationships. Another psychologist Elaine Hatfield suggests that there are two basic types of love for relationships. On the other hand, an anthropologist Helen Fisher explains that love is a primarily a human-mating motivational drive, rather than an emotion (Fisher, H. 2004). With these three theories of love, this essay looks at the different ways of how love can or cannot survive in a love relationship.

The human idea of love is quite possibly the most misunderstood in today’s society. Love can be between a man and woman, mother/father and their kids, or even really good friends. However, these relationships of love go through many interactions and stages to start and progress. Many psychological events must occur and be worked through in order to be successful. All relationships must endure the five perspectives of human behavior. These perspectives are biological, learning, social and cultural, cognitive, and psychodynamic influences.

Love exists in the short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro and in the short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver. in Munro’s short story the plot is that of a mentally ill wife, Fiona, who falls in love with another patient while her husband still tries to hang on to their old love. Her husband eventually wants to have an affair with the wife of the man his wife is having an affair with. Their love changed because of their circumstances due to ill health. Carver’s story discusses the different definitions of love due to the type and quality of relationships; everyone has a different definition. Love also exists all over the world within different environments and cultures. The concept of love depends upon the environment in which it inhabits. Love is dependent on the life of the people in love and it also depends on their current environment. Nature and nurture are also huge factors into the development and process of love. What nature and nurture mean is whether it is due to how the person lives and acts along with their personality compared to whether it’s all in their genetics beforehand. Love is more on the nurture side instead of the nature side of human experience.

1. According to Robert Sternberg, love goes through 3 stages of love he calls “The three dimension of love; passion, intimacy, and commitment. Sternberg believes when you go through the three dimension of love, there are also seven different type of love. The seven different type of love is liking, infatuation, empty love, romantic love, fatuous love, companionate love, and consummate love. The first dimension of love is passion; it is the process where we first start falling in love with a partner. Passion is what I call the “getting to know each other” stage of a relationship. The second part of the three dimension of love is intimacy. Intimacy is when you feel close to a person whether it’s emotionally or physically. It is also a stage where you share your deepest secret about you to the person who you feel that you’re in love with. Intimacy is where you feel the closest in your relationship. The third and final stage of the three dimension of love is commitment. Commitment is the phase where people decide that being with that one person is enough and they would spend the rest of their life being together that leads to marriage and children. I feel that Sternberg’s dimension of love is associated to Erikson’s intimacy vs. isolation. “Adults seek someone with whom to share their lives in an enduring and self-sacrificing commitment. Without such commitment, they risk profound aloneness and isolation.” (Berger, p.525) I believe

They are intimacy, commitment, and passion. Intimacy defines warmth and closeness of a relationship, commitment is the maintenance of a relationship despite difficulties, and passion is the intense feelings of the persons in the romantic relationship. A common romantic relationship in young adulthood is a marriage partner, which can be heterosexual or homosexual couples.

Sternberg's Theory of Love describes three components that make up different combinations or levels of love that can be shared between two people. The three components are intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy refers to understanding and concern for the other person. This component deals with warm affection and getting to know each other on a deeper level. Passion refers to stronger feelings of emotion,

“The third ingredient is decision and commitment. Sternberg observed that when many people speak of love, they refer more to a conscious decision than to a feeling state. Emotions come and go, but commitments based on decisions remain constant unless they are deliberately revoked” (Baumeister & Bushman, 2014).

Love is defined and expressed in many ways. The word love is used in our culture to express many different types of emotional connections. According to Roman Kiznaric, the ancient Greeks used six different words to define love. There was a different word for each of the following types of relationships: sexually passionate, deep friendship, playful with friends or new romantic interests, love for mankind, long relationships, and of the self (Kiznaric).

In Love, Emotion, Myth, and Metaphor by Robert C. Solomon, he outlines different ways in which love can be approached. He uses metaphors or explains models in which love could be felt, shown, used, or understood. He includes the metaphors or models; Love as a Fair Exchange, The Work Model, The (Melo) Dramatic Model, Banality as Metaphor, The Communication Metaphor, Love and Aloneness, The Metaphysical Model, The Medical Metaphor, The Aesthetic Model, The Contract Model, The Biological Metaphor, and The Emotional Metaphor. Each section explains how different people experience or act out love. Each section ends with the author explainig the main issue with this model or metaphor. The essay concludes with two paragraphs that essentially states that choosing a single metaphor can be dangerious and that one type of love is not more important than another, thus there being no one ‘true’ love.

According to Sternberg, the theories were separated, the triangular theory of love and the theory of love as a story. Love can be understood in three components that can form a triangle. Each of the components manifests different aspect of love. In my own words, this theory is using intimacy, passion, and commitment as the three main points because this is three words that each relationship, friendship should exercise. My boyfriend Jakob and I have known each other for a total of two years now. We began dating November of 2016. We had a love for one another starting off as friends, but it never really felt like a friendship; it felt like so much more. In this paper I will share real experiences in my relationship I am in currently and

In Symposium by Plato, a group of men gather around to seek one’s full understanding of the underestimated reasons of Love. Despite having different occupations, they all seem to agree on their views of love except for Socrates. Socrates communicates that Love is a god, and then decides to add that he came to his conclusion with the help of a woman named Diotima. Although their views of love are similar, they are also different and can be seen through another philosopher’s stories; Antigone and Oedipus. Socrates’ definition of love is characterized by Oedipus the King and Diotima’s definition of love is characterized by Antigone. Socrates’ understanding of love is that love is a desire to be conscious of what you need for something you do not have and for what you have because once you have it you will not feel the need to want it anymore; love is also a display of what you already have and are afraid to lose forever. Diotima’s understanding of Love is that Love is not a god, love is a demi-god. Because, he is a demi-god, he is in between wisdom and ignorance.

The principal relationships that are driven by passion are referred to as infatuated, romantic, and fatuous love. “...Infatuation is a short-lived passion for someone whereas love is a deep affection for someone that lasts the test of time.” (Infatuation vs. Love). This kind of relationship is developed without intimacy or commitment. In result of two out of three lacking components from the triangular love theory infatuated love can unexpectedly and without a warning disappear

Question 1: Robert Sternberg defined three different, but related, elements of love: passion, intimacy, and commitment. One of the three aspects is passion. Whether it be through physical or through emotional means, passion is the euphoric sensation driven by lust. Another aspect of love is intimacy. Intimacy is the aptitude for exposing oneself, physically or emotionally, to the other; physically baring oneself can occur via sexual intercourse and emotionally revealing oneself can happen via sharing insecurities or secrets. The third aspect of love is commitment. This is defined as loyalty and the result of persistent decisions to stay together. The aspect of commitment is more prevalent as relationships develop and less likely to be present in newer ones. The presence and absence of the different combinations of these three aspects contributes to the existence of seven different forms of love. One of the forms of love is infatuation. This love is more probable to at the beginning of a relationship because the only aspect involved is passion, which is promoted by lust and initial impressions. Intimacy and commitment have not yet developed because those aspects usually take time to come about. Another one of Sternberg’s seven forms is that of companionate love. This type involves the presence of both intimacy and commitment, but not passion. Companionate love is presumably more common as relationships develop and persist through time. For example, passion sometimes declines