Love Styles Research Articles

The Aftermath of Romantic Betrayal: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Approaches to love were explored to determine links to psychological experiences after romantic betrayal. Results indicated that the mania (obsessive) love style predicted post-betrayal trauma reactions, depression, and psychosomatic symptoms, whereas other styles were unrelated to these post-betrayal reactions. Weaker effects also were observed in which the mania style was related to post-betrayal anxiety and embarrassment, as well as low levels of psychological resolution for the betrayal across time among those who were no longer involved with their betrayers.

Relationship Satisfaction Across European Cultures

This study examines the connection of love styles with relationship satisfaction on the basis of cross-cultural research, including Bosnia, Germany, Romania, Russia, and German immigrants from Russia and Turkey. Love styles include romantic love, friendship love, game-playing love, possessive love, altruistic love, and pragmatic love. The validation of the measurement model across cultural groups was successful because partial measurement invariance was secured, which allows for the application of correlation, regression, and path analysis. Results indicate that the effects of love styles on relationship satisfaction were consistent across cultures with the exception of game-playing love that negatively predicted relationship satisfaction for Germans, Romanians, and Turkish migrants but not for Bosnians, Russians, and Russian migrants. In addition, cultural variation occurred with respect to the strength of the associations. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to universality and cultural relativity. In general, the effect of love styles on well-being turned out to be manifold.

Love styles, coping, and relationship satisfaction: A dyadic approach

AbstractRomantic partners have different attitudes on what love is and what it means to be in a romantic relationship. These attitudes are conceptualized as love styles that relate to relationship‐maintenance behaviors and relationship satisfaction. Specifically, love styles could be associated with how partners cope with stress (dyadic coping), which in turn may be associated with relationship satisfaction. Using self‐report data from 92 heterosexual couples, findings showed that: (a) eros and agape love styles have positive direct effects on dyadic coping and relationship satisfaction, whereas ludus has a negative direct effect on dyadic coping and relationship satisfaction and (b) dyadic coping partially mediated the association between love styles and relationship satisfaction. Overall, associations were stronger for women than for men.

多次元恋愛関係嫉妬尺度の作成と信頼性・妥当性の検討

There are no useful scales that assess romantic jealousy multidimensionally in Japanese, and also, many issues that need improvement can be noted in representative jealousy scales such as the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale by Pfeiffer & Wong (1989). This study was conducted to develop the Multidimensional Scale of Jealousy in Romantic Relationships to assess components of romantic jealousy referred to in previous studies and to make some improvements. Three components of romantic jealousy were hypothesized: suspicious cognition, exclusive emotion, and cautious behavior. The results from 234 undergraduates showed three factors indicated by exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and high internal consistency. The results also showed concurrent validity with the “Mania love style” and construct validity with scales measuring fear of abandonment, reassurance-seeking, and intimacy.

English

This study aims to review the relation between college students’ love attitudes and depression levels. Subjects selected were 125 male and 275 female bachelor’s and master’s degree students; a total of 400 students from various universities in Istanbul in academic year 2013-2014. Data for this study were collected employing both the Love Attitudes Scale (short form) developed by Hendrick et al. based on the love styles classification by Lee, and the Beck Depression Inventory developed by Beck et al. Review of the findings obtained from this study reveals as follows; there are meaningful statistically inverse correlations between the students’ depression scores and passionate love attitudes, and meaningful statistically linear correlations between their playful love attitudes and possessive love. No meaningful correlations were found between their other love attitudes and depression level. The findings obtained were discussed with reference to relevant literature and the other studies conducted on this subject, and various suggestions were made under the frame of the findings. Key words: Love, love attitudes, depression, young adult.

Does Movie Viewing Cultivate Young People's Unrealistic Expectations About Love and Marriage?

The current study examines the association between consumption of media messages by way of movie viewing and genre preference and endorsement of ideals and expectations concerning romantic relationships. A survey of young adults found that viewing preference for both romantic comedies and dramas was significantly and positively correlated with idealized notions of faith that love conquers all, greater expectations for intimacy, and endorsement of the eros love style. However, participants who frequently watched romantic movies did not endorse beliefs in sexual perfection, mindreading, or disagreement disallowance. Results suggest that more mythic romantic ideals may tend to supersede other relational demands.

Revisiting correlates of sociosexuality for men and women: The role of love relationships and psychological maladjustment

The purpose of this work was to examine the links between sociosexuality, and love relationships and psychological maladjustment. Although males and females vary in connection with the sociocultural orientations, the involvements of this variation may not be similar for both sexes. The sample included 475 participants, 42% women and 58% men. Ages ranged from 18 through 80 (M=37.28, SD=16.27). Measures assessed sociosexuality, love styles, love satisfaction, compassionate love, commitment, romantic loneliness, and negative affect. Men displayed a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation than women. We found both sex similarities and differences in the associations between sociosexuality and love relationships and psychological maladjustment. For both sexes a similar pattern of correlations was found regarding erotic love, love satisfaction, and commitment. It seems that unrestricted women experience more psychological maladjustment, evidenced by romantic loneliness and negative affect than men. The findings are discussed with reference to past research and some suggestions for further work are also noted.

The Study of Relationship between Attachment Styles and Obsessive Love Style

The aim of this study was investigating the relationship between the attachment styles and obsessive love style of university students. The samples included 306 graduate students University of Nyshaboor-Iran that were selected with proportional random assignment procedure. The data were collected by using Adult Attachment Style (AAQ) and Love Attitude Style (LAS) Questionnaires. By employing SPSS software, the data were analyzed by using Pearson correlation coefficient and Multiple Variable Regression procedures. Therefore we can conclude that the Ambivalent Insecure Attachment Style has a role in producing Obsessive Love Style. The results of different analysis showed significant relationship among Obsessive love Style and Attachment Styles.

Love styles of young adults in a metropolitan city of India

Love styles of young adults in a metropolitan city of India

Who engages in serious and casual sex relationships? An individual differences perspective

We examined (N=281) the role of love styles and personality in people’s choice to engage in serious and/or various kinds of casual relationships (i.e., one-night stands, booty-calls, and friends with benefits) within the last year. Men were more eager than women were to engage in all types of casual relationships, however, love styles and personality traits were more important in accounting for this behavior. For instance, those with secure attitudes about love expressed an aversion to casual relationships; those with casual attitudes about relationships and who were dishonest reported involvement in various casual sex relationships; and conscientiousness was associated with engaging in serious romantic relationships but not one-night stands. The current study documents how an individual difference perspective can provide unique insights into people’s relationship behaviors to compliment work in social and evolutionary psychology.

Pathological jealousy: Romantic relationship characteristics, emotional and personality aspects, and social adjustment

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to identify romantic relationship characteristics, emotional and personality aspects and social adjustment in subjects with pathological jealousy (PJ) and to compare them to control group. MethodsThe participants, 32 individuals with PJ and 31 healthy volunteers completed measures of jealousy intensity, attachment type, love and relationship styles, personality, impulsivity, aggressiveness and social adjustment. Socio-demographic profiles were also obtained. ResultsParticipants with PJ were significantly older than the control group, but no other important socio-demographic differences were observed. Participants with PJ were significantly more jealous and were predominately categorized with anxious-ambivalent attachment type, and Mania love style. They presented with elevated novelty seeking and harm avoidance, low self-directedness and cooperativeness, high levels of impulsivity and trait anxiety, and poor social adjustment. Multivariate analysis showed that jealousy intensity and trait anxiety were the variables that best distinguished participants with PJ from the control group. LimitationsThis study was limited by the cross-sectional design and relatively small sample size. ConclusionsPJ presents a particular pattern of attachment, love style, and personality structure, and deserves further attention as a specific potential disorder of the romantic bonding.

How Will I Love You? Self-Esteem Instability Moderates the Association Between Self-Esteem Level and Romantic Love Styles

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether fragile self-esteem was associated with romantic love styles. This was accomplished by examining the associations that each romantic love style had with self-esteem level and self-esteem instability among 385 undergraduates. The results of the present study show that self-esteem instability moderated the associations that self-esteem level had with Eros (love style dominated by passion) and Storge (love style characterized by companionship and trust) such that individuals with stable high self-esteem reported the highest levels of these romantic love styles. Men with stable low self-esteem reported higher levels of Pragma (love style focused on practicality and suitability) than other men. Women with stable self-esteem reported relatively low levels of Ludus (love style focused on game-playing). The pattern of these results suggests that individuals with stable high self-esteem are more likely to engage in romantic love styles that are conducive to establishing and deepening emotional connections with romantic partners, whereas individuals who are uncertain about their feelings of self-worth are more likely to employ romantic love styles concerned with self-protection.

Phenomena of Love, Nafs and Illicit Sexual Behaviors Amongst Teenagers in South Malaysia

This research is to investigate the phenomena of love and ‘nafs’ amongst Malaysian teenagers involved in sexual deviance. This is a correlational research based on Imam Ghazali and Love theories. A total of 1000 respondents were selected through random sampling. Questionnaires containing items on Love Styles (Sidek,1998) and ‘Nafs’ (Faizah and Norshelida, 2011) were employed as the research instruments. Results based on descriptive analyses indicated that the logical love style dominated the respondents’ love style (M=3.64) followed by friendship love (M=3.54), romantic love (M=3.10) and sacrificial love (M=3.09). Findings also showed that majority of the respondents were at the ‘nafs mulhimah’ stage in terms of sexual activity, dominated by holding hands (62.4%), followed by hugging (37.1%), kissing (34.3%), caressing (23.6%), oral sex / masturbating (18.8%) and illicit sex (8.7%). The results also show that the majority of teenagers who were involved in illicit sex were females (65.6%), while 34.6% were males. Most teenagers involved in illicit sex come from family backgrounds with parents who were self employed (33.33%) with an average monthly income of RM 1000.00. Inferential analyses results revealed that romantic love (ß= 0.29, p=0.00), friendship love (ß=-0.94, p=0.011), ‘nafs amarah’ (ß=0.31, p=0.00), ‘nafs lawammah’ (ß=0.18, p=0.00)and ‘nafs mulhimah’ (ß=-0.77, p=0.00) as the significant predictors of sexual deviance.

Compassionate love in romantic relationships

Compassionate love has been identified as one of the major types of love experienced in relationships (Berscheid, 2010), but one that has been overshadowed by the study of romantic love. In this article, we review research on compassionate love, a relative newcomer to the close relationships field, and present findings that more fully flesh-out the nature of the experience of this kind of love. We begin by discussing conceptions and measurement of compassionate love. We then present a study on the relation between compassionate love and love styles, with a focus on distinguishing between compassionate love and the agape (altruistic) love style. The literature on individual differences in compassionate love is discussed next. The spotlight then shifts to research on the link between compassionate love and prosocial relationship behaviors, relationship quality, and relationship stability. Differences between compassionate love given versus received also are highlighted. We end with a discussion of what compassionate love “looks like” in the context of a romantic relationship and recommend directions for future research.

The Dark Triad and mating strategy

The Dark Triad (narcissism, psychopathy, machiavellianism) was shown to be related to preference for short-term relationships and “game playing” and “cerebral” love styles (e.g., Campbell, Foster, 2002; Li, Kenrick, 2006; Jonason et al., 2009, 2010). The aims of our study was to examine (1) the relation between the Dark Triad, four mating strategies and attitudes towards ideal partner; (2) gender differences in the relation of the Dark Triad and adoption of particular love style; (3) mediating role of personality traits in this relation. The sample consisted of 150 students, males and females. Methods included self-report questionnaires. The results supported association between the Dark triad and two mating strategies – “game playing” (positive) and “romantic” (negative). There is no reliable evidence for sex differences. Mediating role of personality was not supported.

Why are psychological sex differences often larger in gender Egalitarian cultures? An evolutionary psychology approach

Evolutionary insights from sexual selection theory, strategic pluralism theory, sexual strategies theory, life history theory, psychosocial acceleration theory, and mismatch theory have helped to explain cultural variations in the degree to which men and women psychologically differ. Biosocial theory, in contrast, has proven problematic in that national levels of sociopolitical gender equality are often positively related (not negatively related) with the size of psychological sex differences. As men and women are treated more equally across cultures, psychological sex differences are larger in terms of Big Five personality traits and the Dark Triad traits of Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and psychopathy; in terms of romantic attachment and love styles; in terms of sociopolitical attitudes and personal values; in terms of clinical depression rates and crying behavior; in terms of tested cognitive and mental abilities; even in terms of physical attributes such as height and blood pressure.

Escala de crenças sobre amor romântico: indicadores de validade e precisão

Crenças individuais comumente interagem na dinâmica de envolvimento entre os membros de um relacionamento romântico, influenciando, entre outros aspectos, os padrões de percepção, construção de expectativas e estratégias de relacionamento. Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo construir, validar e confirmar a estrutura dimensional de uma medida para avaliação de crenças sobre o amor em uma população brasileira. Participaram da pesquisa 1530 pessoas, sendo 660 do sexo masculino e 870 do sexo feminino subdivididas em duas subamostras. Os resultados apontaram um instrumento psicométrico com parâmetros de precisão e confiabilidade adequados e confirmaram uma estrutura dimensional de seis fatores de estilos de amor na população brasileira: eros, agape, ludus, storge, mania e pragma.

The Perception of a Woman's Love in a Relationship with a Prisoner is Erotic and Altruistic

Studies have reported the effects of imprisonment on the wives and girlfriends of prisoners, but have not investigated how these women perceive love and commitment. This study analyzes four different styles of love: eros (romantic love), storge (amicably love), mania (possessive love), and agape (altruistic love) in a sample of 96 women who are in relationships with prisoners. The same love styles were compared to a control sample of N=96 women. They were selected from a larger sample of 859 women such that the vari ables age and duration of the relationship of the two groups were matched. Results show that women in relationships with prisoners score higher on the eros and agape love styles in comparison to the women from the control group. Those women who stay in love with prisoners seem to endure the negative consequences of their partners imprisonment through feelings of deep love, commitment, and altruistic care.

Coping with Break-Ups: Rebound Relationships and Gender Socialization

When serious romantic relationships are terminated, partners are faced with convoluted and complex challenges of detachment from their previous partner, negative feelings about the overall situation, and the need to move forward in life. When faced with this relational upheaval, some individuals employ and find relief in superficial or noncommittal rebound relationships, which act as a means for coping with the loss of the previous relationship and the severed emotional attachment to an ex-partner, but which are under studied by empirical researchers. In a study of 201 participants, men were predicted and found to be more likely to enter rebound relationships in the aftermath of a relational termination based on lower levels of social support, more emotional attachment to an ex-partner, and displaying the ludus (or game playing) love style. In addition to the measures of these variables, gender socialization and parental investment theory provide further support for the study’s claims. In sum, rebound relationships were employed by men as a distraction from their feelings of emotional attachment for their ex-partner, but also as a source of support and due to inherent ludic characteristics.

Impact of Television Health Programmes on Women: A Study on Gulbarga Television Viewers

An attempt has been made to explore and study the consumption pattern in regards to the health programmes on television for women ages above 20. The study also include women’s rationale for watching health-related shows, their perception of the situations portrayed on these shows and also the impact on them based on the sample of 120 respondents in selected areas of Gulbarga city of Karnataka state. The results are discussed and have been observed the types of television programmes are viewed, popularity of different channels and their contents among women and the opinion of health programmes among viewers. The objective of research was to understand the relationship between viewer motives for watching television and interpersonal relationship perceptions. The interpersonal relationship perceptions that were examined included: attachment styles, love styles, and Machiavellianism. This research used both quantitative surveys and focus group interviews as data. The quantitative data analysis produced support of genre specific media effects. First, motives were examined in relation to the television. Watching for positive outcomes was positively related to television viewing and watching for interpersonal outcomes was negatively related. Second, the relationship between television exposure and relationship perceptions was examined. Respondents discussed how health programmes on television made them to be aware of their health condition and also how to remedy for common disease including personal health care. Finally, respondents agreed that health programmes are very helpful for providing information and remedies about certain common disease.