The Psychology of your 20s 332. The triangular theory of love
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Sep 14, 2025 Discover the secrets behind lasting love as the triangular theory takes center stage! Dive into the three core ingredients: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Unpack the rare phenomenon of 'consummate love' and learn why it's tough to sustain. The conversation also critiques the triangular model for its cultural oversights and introduces a fresher perspective with the newer quadruple theory. Plus, explore how psychological concepts like narcissism intersect with romantic relationships. A thought-provoking journey into the complexities of love!
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Three Ingredients Make Love Types
- Sternberg's Triangular Theory reduces love to three core ingredients: intimacy, passion, and commitment.
- Different combinations of these ingredients produce distinct types of love with predictable features.
What Each Triangle Point Means
- Intimacy means closeness and shared values, passion means desire and romance, and commitment means staying and shared goals.
- These three distinct components each map to a vertex of Sternberg's triangle and explain relationship differences.
Single-Ingredient Love Outcomes
- Pure passion yields infatuation or sexual-only connections, pure commitment yields empty love, and pure intimacy yields friendship.
- Viewing these as single-ingredient cases helps label fleeting or one-sided relationships.