Sternberg's Triangular Theory Of Love

It is incredible how one word, love, can have so many different values and interpretations. Love is truly a mysterious and confusing matter. Ordinarily, many people came up with different theories about love and what is it. People either choose to believe in a specific theory or make up their own interpretation of love. Different theories and interpretations can focus on some aspects and leave others. I have chosen a theory that I think best addresses love, Sternberg’s triangular theory of love. Sternberg’s triangular theory of love views love as having three main components to love: passion, intimacy, and commitment. Passion involves feelings of romance, physical attraction, and sexual arousal. Intimacy is based on feelings of attachment, closeness, and connectedness. Commitment involves agreeing to remain with one another and plan ahead with one another. Sternberg identified eight types of love that can be described as different combinations of the three main components. To understand this better, picture a triangle where intimacy is at the top point …show more content…
He proposed that love is developed and maintained through four stages: building rapport, self-revelation, mutual dependency, and personality need fulfillment. The first stage of building rapport is when you first meet someone, most likely someone lives near by shares the same interest, and engage in the same activities, and develop a feeling of ease and comfort with that person. The second stage is when rapport leads to self-revelation, where couples have more disclosure of personal life and feelings. The third stage is when couples open up to each other even more and depend on each other, also do more mutual behaviors such as sleeping together. The fourth and last stage of personality need fulfilment, where couples start planning and making decisions together, along with supporting and satisfying each other’s deep