Ashleigh Cameron

Professor Gonzalez

ENC 1102

13 March 2024

Literature Review

The five love languages are words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of

service, and receiving gifts. These are supposably the five ways that people receive and express

love in a relationship. This theory was created in 1992 by marriage counselor Gary Chapman,

when he realized what many people said they needed most from their partners fit into these five

broad categories. Although this theory and his book was published more than 30 years old, it is

still something people talk about today. For my essay, I want to research everything about them;

what they mean as both a whole and individually and what makes them so important. I want to

look at how exactly these five love languages are portrayed on different articles and websites.

Are they looked at in a positive way that actually mean something or in a negative way that don’t

mean anything? Is it actually based on romance or is it just based on science? Everyone knows

the theory about the five love languages and how they can supposably strengthen your

relationship, but is that genuinely true? Or is it just portrayed like that through the internet and

social media? The whole purpose of my essay is to discover what kind of impact the five love

languages can make on someone’s relationship and to explore every part of them. I want to give

people an entirely different mindset and thought process on the theory and rethink what they

thought this theory really was. After hours of researching, I have found six impactful articles that

will help me conduct my essay into what I want it to be.

 First off, in my essay, I want to analyze each love language instead of them as a whole. In

an article I found, the authors decided to do an analysis consisting of 161 married straight

couples. The results revealed that four out of the five love language components had an

important role towards marital satisfaction, which were physical touch, words of affirmation,

quality time, and receiving gifts. The one that was left behind was acts of service. (Ince). This

could mean that this is the least important love language to the majority of people, compared to

the other four. Another article that I researched found that there may be a sixth love language

that Chapman, who invented the five love languages, did not discover: check-ins (Pett). This

possible sixth love language is just about checking in on your partner, whether it’s good morning

or goodnight texts, or even just asking what they are up to. It is important to analyze the five love

languages individually, because it’s what makes up the theory as a whole.

Secondly, I want to discuss what kind of impact the five love languages make on

relationships. In an article, the author did an analysis of 648 open-ended responses from 324

college-aged participants regarding the assumptions people have about the love language concept

and testing the accuracy of the existing love languages typology (Pett). The results showed a

tremendous amount of support for Chapman’s theory of the five love languages. Another article

that I researched decided to analyze two groups, a “no booster” group and a “booster” group. The

“no booster” group participated in didactic and final sessions. However, the “booster” group

received a book, tips, and reminders to practice the five love languages (Allison). The results

showed significant improvement and confidence in using the five love languages. It is important

to analyze what kind of impact the five love languages make on relationships to know if they are

helping in a positive or negative way.

 Lastly, I want to discuss if this theory is truly can work for everyone, or just some people.

In an article I found, they did a study predicted that partners who perceived that their partner

used their preferred love language well would report greater feelings of love and relationship

satisfaction. They assumed it would be the same for both men and women, as well as straight and

gay relationships (Hughes). After the survey’s results, they found support for their hypothesis

that a partner’s perception that their partner was using their preferred love language well would

increase love for every relationship. In a second article I found, they used multiple clustering

procedures that were used to identify profiles of combinations of the five love languages.

Emphasis was given not only to men’s and women’s primary love languages but also to

differences between men and women within each couple (Bland). It was found that the four

profiles matched well and varied in a statistically good manner. In a third article I found, they

examined the behavioral and perceptual response of 77 married heterosexual couples based on

their newly acquired knowledge relating to the love expression category identification as defined

by Chapman's Love Language Profile (Veale). Statistical analyses of the self-reported responses

of the research participants were completed to determine if there were gender differences

between the participants survey responses.

As shown in my Literature Review, the six sources I am using to conduct my essay are

crucial into making my essay the best it can be. The articles I have found have all the important

information I need to truly discover what kind of impact the five love languages can make on

someone’s relationship. I hope that after anyone reads my essay with all the excellent

information that my sources contain that they have an entirely different mindset and thought

process on the theory and rethink what they thought this theory really was.
 Works Cited

Allison Nichols et al. “The Five Love Languages Program 40 Journal of Human Sciences and

Extension Volume 6, Number 3, 2018 The Five Love Languages Program: An

Exploratory Investigation Points to Improvements in Relationship Functioning.” Journal

of human sciences and extension 6.3 (2018): 40–58. Print.

Bland, Andrew M, and Kand S McQueen. “The Distribution of Chapman’s Love Languages in

Couples: An Exploratory Cluster Analysis.” Couple and family psychology 7.2 (2018):

103–126. Web.

Hughes, Jennifer L., and Abigail A. Camden. “Using Chapman’s Five Love Languages Theory to

Predict Love and Relationship Satisfaction.” Psi Chi journal of psychological

research 25.3 (2020): 234–244. Web.

Ince, Şanel, and Erkan Işık. “The Mediating Role of Five Love Languages between

Differentiation of Self and Marital Satisfaction.” The American Journal of Family

Therapy, vol. 50, no. 4, 2022, pp. 407–23,

https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2021.1930607.

Pett, Rudy C., et al. “Revisiting the Languages of Love: An Empirical Test of the Validity

Assumptions Underlying Chapman’s (2015) Five Love Languages

Typology.” Communication Reports (Pullman, Wash.), vol. 36, no. 1, 2023, pp. 54–67,

https://doi.org/10.1080/08934215.2022.211354.

Veale, Scotti L. “How Do I Love Thee? An Investigation of Chapman’s ‘Five Love Languages.’”

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2006. Print.