BibTeX
@MISC{Rubin_measurementof,
author = {Zick Rubin},
title = {MEASUREMENT OF ROMANTIC LOVE1},
year = {}
}
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Abstract
This study reports Ihc initial results of an attempt to introduce and validate a social-psychological construct oi " romantic love. Starting with the assumption that love is an interpersonal attitude, an internally consistent papcr-and-pencil love scale was developed. The conception of romantic love included three com-ponents: affiliative and dependent need, a predisposition to help, and an orienta-tion of exclusiveness and absorption. Love-scale scores were only moderately correlated with scores on a parallel scale of "liking, " which reflected a more traditional conception of interpersonal attraction. The validity of the love scale was assessed in a questionnaire study and a laboratory experiment. On the basis of the emerging conception of love, it was predicted that college dating couples who loved each other a great deal (as categorized by their love-scale scores) would spend more time gazing into one another's eyes than would couples who loved each other to a lesser degree. The prediction was confirmed. Love is generally regarded to be the deep-est and most meaningful of sentiments. It has occupied a preeminent position in the art and literature of every age, and it is presum-ably experienced, at least occasionally, by the vast majority of people. In Western culture, moreover, the association between love and marriage gives it a unique status as a link between the individual and the structure of society. In view of these considerations, it is sur-prising to discover that social psychologists have devoted virtually no attention to love. Although interpersonal attraction has been a major focus of social-psychological theory and research, workers in this area have not at-tempted to conceptualize love as an inde-pendent entity. For Heider (1958), for ex-ample, "loving " is merely intense liking— there is no discussion of possible qualitative 1 This report is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Michigan. The re-search was supported by a prccloctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health and by a grant-in-aid from the Society for the Psycho-
Keyphrases
measurement romantic love1 interpersonal attraction love-scale score consistent papcr-and-pencil love scale interpersonal attitude laboratory experiment preeminent position mental health romantic love social-psychological construct oi romantic love dependent need vast majority questionnaire study social psychologist love scale parallel scale major focus great deal prccloctoral fellowship doctoral dissertation national institute traditional conception ihc initial result inde-pendent entity western culture unique status social-psychological theory
