Loving relationships harness intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy encompasses the feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness a person experiences in a loving relationship. Passion encompasses the drive that leads to romance, physical attraction, and sexual consummation. Finally, commitment in the short term is the decision that one loves another, and in the long term, the commitment to maintain that love. “If one can attain the consummate love that results from high degrees of the three components in a loving relationship, then under suitable situational circumstances, that relationship seems likely to be one that will last and thrive” (Sternberg, 1986, p. 134). Consummate love makes the marriage fulfilling for the couple and is the basis for stability.
References
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Fagan, P., Rector, R., Johnson, K., Peterson, A. (2002). The positive effects of marriage: A book of charts. Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation.
Gottman, J. M., & Silver, N. (2000). The seven principles for making marriage work. London: Orion.
Lauer, R. H., Lauer, J. C., & Kerr, S. T. (1990). The long-term marriage: perceptions of stability and satisfaction. International Journal Of Aging & Human Development, (3), 189.
O’Leary, K. D., Acevedo, B. P., Aron, A., Huddy, L., & Mashek, D. (2012). Is long-term love more than a rare phenomenon? If so, what are its correlates?. Social Psychological And Personality Science, 3(2), 241-249. doi:10.1177/1948550611417015
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