Dimensions of Love: A Sociobiological Interpretation

Abstract

Previous work (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1989) assessed several current theories of love, finding that the various measures could be reduced to five independent love dimensions. The present study used the previous data set to form five generic love attitude scales, named Passion, Closeness, Attachment, Manic Love, and Practicality. A general evolutionary framework was used to explore the five love attitudes with respect to gender differences, relationship satisfaction, and current and past relationship history. Females endorsed closeness and practicality more than males did, as expected, but females also endorsed passion more, which was not hypothesized. Passion and closeness were predictors of relationship satisfaction, in line with our hypothesis. Current love and sexual relationship status were also related to the love attitudes in ways consistent with evolutionary thinking. Different types of love attitudes appear to serve the function of pair bonding, especially at different stages of relationship formation and development. The results were sufficiently suggestive that evolutionary interpretations of love deserve careful consideration in future research. This and similar work can contribute toward the development of an evolutionary psychology.

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