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Individual and Partner Love Styles: Implications for the Quality of Romantic Involvements

Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, morrow{at}edinboro.edu

Eddie M. Clark

Saint Louis University

Karla F. Brock

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The goal of this study was to explore the association between the love styles endorsed by respondents and their romantic partners on the one hand, and the quality of their romantic involvements on the other. A sample of 186 couples at a large southern university completed a questionnaire that included a shortened version of Hendrick & Hendrick's (1986) Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) designed to assess six love styles originally proposed by Lee (1973). Both the individual's and partner's scores on the six love scales (Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Mania, Agape) were then examined as predictors of the structural qualities of the couple's relationship specified by Rusbult's (1980a, 1983) investment model. The results of correlational and multiple regression analyses indicated that the respondent's own love style scores were the best predictors of relationship quality. In particular, the endorsement of Eros and Agape were associated with higher levels of rewards, satisfaction, investments and commitment, lower levels of costs and poor alternative quality. Ludus showed the opposite associations with these same variables. The partner's love styles were also related to a number of relationship characteristics, although less strongly so. In addition, couples showed evidence of matching of love styles (with the exception of Ludus and Mania), and discrepancies in couples' love attitudes were related to negative outcomes for women but not for men. Finally, the associations between several demographic variables (relationship status, age, relationship duration) and respondents' love styles suggest that individuals' love attitudes may be subject to change as a result of time and/or experience. These findings suggest that individuals' beliefs about love have important implications with regard to the relationship outcomes experienced by both themselves and their romantic partners.

Key Words: commitment • love • satisfaction

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