Chapter 9: Love and Romantic Relationship PDF

Chapter 9: Love and Romantic Relationship (No Assigned Reading) Learning Objectives Describe the Sternberg’s three defining features of love, each different combination these create (7 sub-types). Describe the features that people tend to find attractive. Describe the importance of resour...

Chapter 9: Love and Romantic Relationship (No Assigned Reading) Learning Objectives Describe the Sternberg’s three defining features of love, each different combination these create (7 sub-types). Describe the features that people tend to find attractive. Describe the importance of resources, status, and beauty in male and female mate preferences (and why this might be the case) Defining Love and Romantic Attraction Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love Passion – Passion: Romantic attraction and sexual desire. Strong/intense feelings, physiological arousal, lust Duration of Relationship – Intimacy: Close bonding, emotional Intimacy closeness, sharing – Decision/commitment: decision that one is in love with and committed to another. To love and maintain a relationship over time Duration of Relationship These Dimensions are confirmed in studies using: Commitment – Factor Analysis: A statistical technique for sorting test items or behaviors into conceptually similar groupings Duration of Relationship Consummate love: High in all three elements (idealized, rarely achieved).  Are These Conceptions of Love Purely Western? (Sorokowski et al., 2023) www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN Modernization, collectivism, and gender equality predict love experiences in 45 countries Piotr Sorokowski 1*, Marta Kowal 1, Robert J. Sternberg 2, Toivo Aavik 3, Grace Akello 4, Mohammad Madallh Alhabahba 5, Charlotte Alm 6, Naumana Amjad 7, Afifa Anjum 8, Kelly Asao 9, Chiemezie S. Atama 10, Derya Atamtürk Duyar 11, Richard Ayebare 12, Daniel Conroy‑Beam 13, Mons Bendixen 14, Aicha Bensafia 15, Boris Bizumic 16, Mahmoud Boussena 17, David M. Buss 18, Marina Butovskaya 19, Seda Can 20, Antonin Carrier 21, Hakan Cetinkaya 22, Ilona Croy 23, Rosa María Cueto 24, Marcin Czub 1, Daria Dronova 19, Seda Dural 20, Izzet Duyar 11, Berna Ertugrul 11, Agustín Espinosa 24, Ignacio Estevan 25, Carla Sofia Esteves 26, Tomasz Frackowiak 1, Jorge Contreras Garduño 27, Karina Ugalde González 28, Farida Guemaz 17, Mária Halamová 29, Iskra Herak 21, Marina Horvat 30, Ivana Hromatko 31, Chin‑Ming Hui 32, Jas Laile Jaafar 33, Feng Jiang 34, Konstantinos Kafetsios 35,36, Tina Kavčič 37, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair 14, Nicolas Kervyn 21, Truong Thi Khanh Ha 38, Imran Ahmed Khilji 39, Nils C. Köbis 40, Aleksandra Kostic 41, Hoang Moc Lan 38, András Láng 42, Georgina R. Lennard 16, Ernesto León 24, Torun Lindholm 6, Trinh Thi Linh 38, Giulia Lopez 52, Nguyen Van Luot 38, Alvaro Mailhos 25, Zoi Manesi 44, Rocio Martinez 45, Sarah L. McKerchar 16, Norbert Meskó 42, Marija Pejičić 41, Girishwar Misra 46, Conal Monaghan 16, Emanuel C. Mora 47, Alba Moya‑Garófano 45, 1 University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland. 2Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. 3University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia. 4Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda. 5Middle East University, Amman, Jordan. 6Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. 7NUR International University, Lahore, Pakistan. 8University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. 9Westminster College, Salt Lake City, USA. 10University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. 11Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. 12THETA Uganda, Kampala, Uganda. 13University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. 14Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. 15University of Algiers 2, Algiers, Algeria. 16Australian National University AU, Canberra, Australia. 17University of Sétif2, Setif, Algeria. 18University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA. 19Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Moscow, Russia. 20Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey. 21Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium. 22Yaşar University, Izmir, Turkey. 23TU Dresden, Izmir, Germany. 24Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú. 25Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay. 26Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbona, Portugal. 27Unidad Morelia UNAM, Morelia, Mexico. 28Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, Costa Rica, Costa Rica. 29Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovakia. 30University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia. 31University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. 32Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. 33University of Malaya, Lumpur, Malaysia. 34University of Greenwich, London, UK. 35Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece. 36Palacky University in Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic. 37University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia. 38University of Social Sciences and Humanities (VNU-Hanoi), Hanoi, Vietnam. 39Islamabad Model College for Boys, Islamabad, Pakistan. 40University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 41University of Niš, Niš, Serbia. 42University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary. 43University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy. 44Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 45University of Granada, Grenada, Spain. 46University of Delhi, Delhi, India. 47University of Havana, Havana, Cuba. 48Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 49Free University of Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia. 50University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. 51Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia. 52Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy. 53Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania. 54University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 55University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Coimba, Brazil. 56Romanian Academy - Institute of Philosophy and Psychology “C. Rădulescu-Motru”, Bucharest, Romania. 57Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. 58University of Haripur, Haripur, Pakistan. 59Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 60Institute of Experimental Psychology SAS, Bratislava, Slovakia. 61DHA Suffa University, Karachi, Pakistan. 62ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal. 63Universitas Prof. Dr Moestopo (Beragama), Jakarta, Indonesia. 64Kyung Hee University, Kyung Hee, South Korea. *email: [email protected] Figure 3. Locations of data collection. Countries (in blue) with corresponding study sites (cities in orange). Scientific Reports | (2023) 13:773 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26663-4 1 Vol.:(0123456789) responsible for the observed increasing role of intimacy in societies with higher modernization indexes. Future research should focus on disentangling modernization components, which would shed more light on which  www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Are These Conceptions of Love Purely Western? (Sorokowski et al., 2023) Main findings 3 Factors universal levels varied r (+) with HDI Women > Men (intimacy) Men > Women (passion) Relationship length (–) associated intimacy and passion, but higher (+) commitment. Figure 1. Levels of love (comprised of 45 items from the Triangular Love Scale) across the countries. Sternberg has stated that love consists of intimacy, passion, and commitment. We decided to follow Stern- berg’s theory because at least two of its components (i.e., intimacy and passion) perfectly align with our aims. The first component–intimacy—refers to closeness, connectedness, communication, and caring. The second component–passion—pertains to romance, excitement, and physical arousal. Furthermore, as previous studies have shown that environmental variation in temperature induces greater social proximity28, influences preferred interpersonal distance29, interpersonal touch in close relationships 30, and affects emotional expressiveness31, we decided to control for each country’s average annual temperature. Because relationship length can affect the intensity of the love components3, and the average lengths of relationships varied across the countries we Do Birds of a Feather Flock together, or Opposites Attract? What would each idea predict about the correlations between traits (personality, physical, etc.) of human couples? Birds: Traits of couples will correlate positively Opposites: Traits of couples will be negatively correlated.  Horowitz et al. (2023) Examined partner correlations across 22 common traits (199 peer-reviewed studies), and the UK Biobank (~80,000 participants). Traits of romantic partners tend to correlate positively “Birds of a feather flock together,” or “Opposites Attract?” Assortative Mating—the tendency for people to choose mates who are more similar to themselves than would be expected by chance. (Definition not in text). We tend to choose partners who match us in attractiveness, personality, interests, values, and many other qualities. What kinds of Traits do humans find attractive? Who is Sexually Attractive? Adornment varies across time/culture, but many features (symmetry, health, etc.) are universally regarded as attractive Who is Sexually Attractive? Who is Sexually Attractive? – Young faces are generally more attractive than older faces Who is Sexually Attractive? The more symmetrical a person’s face, the more attractive, sexy, and healthy they are perceived to be (same for bodies). Who is Sexually Attractive? – This composite face is (generally) rated as being more attractive than any individual face Model/Celebrity Composites vs. Undergraduate Composite Who is Sexually Attractive? – Waist-to-hip Ratio (WHR) – Females most attractive ~0.70 – Males most attractive ~0.80 or more – This is a preference for shape, not weight (which varies culturally) Who is Sexually Attractive? Link Who is Sexually Attractive? – Shoulder-to-Hip ratio (SHR) (S / H) – Waist to Shoulder (WSR) (W / S) – (Similar measurements, different denominator) Status vs Beauty Status vs. Beauty 14,399 participants (7,909 female) in 45 countries. Rated ideal mate-preferences for a long-term romantic partner (1-5 scales) Health Kindness Intelligence Physical Attractiveness Good Financial Prospects Age Status vs. Beauty Small sex difference in preference for Health, Kindness, and intelligence. Men preferred more physically attractive partners Women preferred men with good financial prospects, who were slightly older than themselves.  Other Considerations Same-Sex Attraction is rather common: We know less about people who are transgender and non-binary (but scientists are learning!) You can learn more in my Human Sexuality Class (PSYC 370). Data