INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION

WHAT IS LOVE?
STERNBERG’S MODEL OF LOVE
 STERNBERG’S MODEL OF LOVE
• The triangle is used as a metaphor, rather than as a strict geometric model.
• These three components are intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. Each component manifests a
different aspect of love.
• Intimacy. Intimacy refers to feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in loving
relationships. It thus includes within its purview those feelings that give rise, essentially, to the
experience of warmth in a loving relationship.
• Passion. Passion refers to the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, sexual consummation, and
related phenomena in loving relationships. The passion component includes within its purview those
sources of motivational and other forms of arousal that lead to the experience of passion in a loving
relationship.
• Decision/commitment. Decision/commitment refers, in the short-term, to the decision that one loves a
certain other, and in the long-term, to one's commitment to maintain that love. These two aspects of the
decision/commitment component do not necessarily go together, in that one can decide to love someone
without being committed to the love in the long-term, or one can be committed to a relationship without
acknowledging that one loves the other person in the relationship.
 TYPES OF LOVE
As anyone who has ever lived and loved can confirm, not all types of love are
the same. The love you feel for your partner during the early stages of a
romance can feel much different than the love you may feel years later into
the relationship. Psychologist Elaine Hatfield has described two different
types of romantic love: Compassionate(also known as companionate) and
passionate. Compassionate love involves feelings of mutual respect, trust, and
affection while passionate love involves intense feelings and sexual
attraction.
 PASSIONATE LOVE
Passionate love is emotional, exciting, intense.
Hatfield (1988) defined it as a “state of intense longing for union with another”
If reciprocated, one feels fulfilled and joyous, if not one feels empty or despairing.

Passionate Love

Requited Unrequited

Mutual Feelings for one Only one feel Two people are
Attraction another attracted prevented due
to some reasons
 KEY COMPONENTS

• INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE PARTNER

• THE IDEALIZATION OF THE OTHER PERSON OR RELATIONSHIP
• A STRONG DESIRE TO KNOW AND BEEN KNOWN
• STRONG EMOTIONS ABOUT THE OTHER PERSON
• A NEED TO MAINTAIN PHYSICAL CLOSENESS
 COMPANIONATE (COMPASSIONATE LOVE)

• COMPASSIONATE LOVE, ALSO CALLED COMPANIONATE LOVE, IS ABOUT INTIMACY, TRUST,

COMMITMENT, AND AFFECTION. IN A LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP, PASSIONATE LOVE TYPICALLY
SIMMERS DOWN TO COMPASSIONATE LOVE WITHIN ONE TO TWO YEARS.
• PEOPLE WHO ARE IN COMPASSIONATE LOVE STILL FEEL PASSIONATE ABOUT ONE ANOTHER,
BUT THE INTENSITY TYPICALLY FEELS LESS OVERWHELMING AND URGENT. THIS TYPE OF LOVE
INVOLVES CARING DEEPLY FOR THE OTHER PERSON, TRULY KNOWING THE OTHER INDIVIDUAL,
AND IS COMMITTED TO THE OTHER PERSON THROUGH BOTH GOOD TIMES AND BAD. EVEN
WHEN DISAGREEMENTS TAKE PLACE, PEOPLE WHO SHARE COMPASSIONATE LOVE REMAIN IN
LOVE AND DEDICATED TO ONE ANOTHER.
 KEY COMPONENTS OF COMPASSIONATE LOVE

• LONG TERM COMMITMENT

• DEEP INTIMACY
• TRUST
 FACTOR THAT INFLUENCE PASSIONATE AND
COMPASSIONATE LOVE

• TIMING
• ATTACHMENT STYLE
• SIMILARITY
THANK YOU