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CNL-530 Romantic Relationship Case Study

Part 1: Types of Love

Part 1: Briefly describe eight types of love described by Sternberg (1988) found in Figure 6.5 in your textbook. How do the components of intimacy, passion, and commitment affect each type of love?

The 8-types of love include:

1. Non-love: Neither passion, intimacy, or commitment to the love are present (Sternberg, 1986). Some good examples of non-love relationships are casual interactions, co-workers, classmates, or acquaintances.
2. Liking: Also termed as friendship, liking involves intimacy but lacks commitment and passion (Sternberg, 1986). Typically, most friendships and friendly acquaintances fall into this type of love.
3. Infatuation: This is love at “first sight” whereby a person has a passionate desire without any commitment or intimacy. Infatuation is what most people term as “crush” or “puppy love”. According to (Shimp & Thomas Madden, 1988), romantic relationship begins with infatuation and turns into romantic love with time.
4. Empty Love: In empty love, there is commitment to maintain the relationship without passion or intimacy.
5. Romantic Love: Romance involves passion and intimacy in the absence of commitments.
6. Compassionate Love : In compassionate love, intimacy and commitment are present but passion is absent (Sternberg, 1986). Some good examples of this type of love include long-time friends and best friends.
7. Fatuous Love: Fatuous love is characterized by passion and commitment; but no intimacy (Sternberg, 1986). For example, quickie marriages and whirlwind romances.
8. Consummate Love: This is the complete measure of love that includes all three elements: intimacy, passion, and commitment.

Part 2: Create a Case Study

Part 2: Create a case study of 250-500 words involving a fictitious couple experiencing one of these 8 types of love. Describe the relationship and some characteristics they may exhibit. Do not use any personal information or information related to current cases you are working on. In addition to the textbook, please include one scholarly source to support your work. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

Liam and Michele

In 2004, Liam and Michele met in Michigan State University. Liam was a 4^th year student doing BSc. Mechanical Engineering and Michele was a 1^st year student studying Bachelor of Science in Nursing. It all started with Liam’s crush on Michele. Sooner, Liam started showing passion and commitment to loving Michele. Liam did not hide his passion and committed desire for loving Michele and he kept on making his intentions clear to Michele that he would want to marry her in the near future. By the time of Liam’s graduation, Michele had accepted to love Liam. She even went an extra mile to helping Liam plan for his graduation ceremony and party; this shown her serious commitment to the love with Liam.

In the next 3 years, Liam and Michele maintained their passion and commitment to love but without intimacy. They committed their time and resources for each other. Liam and Michele maintained close friendship. After Michele’s graduation in 2008, Liam did not wait for long and he immediately proposed to marry her in 2009. Liam proposed with an engagement ring, and Michele wholeheartedly accepted the engagement ring. They moved in together in fatuous love until late 2009 when the two became married. Married in 2009, the two have shown intimacy, passion, and commitment to maintain their marriage until today. Since 2009, Liam and Michele began romancing, whereby passion and intimacy has been felt.

Consummate love has triumphed Mr. and Mrs. Liam’s relationship since 2009. Liam and Michele have been engaging in sex for 8 years now without getting bored. Both Liam and Michele have been so much devoted and committed to each other’s love and affairs. Whenever Liam or Michele indulges in other relationships that separate them from each other, happiness ceases to exist to the other party.  Although achieving consummate love was easy for Liam and Michele, maintaining it has been difficult especially when either party is found engaging in actions that suggest infidelity. Whenever this misunderstanding arises between Liam and Michele, communication helps in solving the problem.

Recently in 2017, Liam began indulging in other romantic relationships that separate him from her fiancée Michele. Since then, Liam does not reveal actions but rather uses empty words when questioned by Michele her wife. Michele says to Liam, “your passion to our love has faded since 2017”. Liam responds by asserting that Michele her wife is only misunderstanding her, using empty words rather than revealing with actions that what Michele thinks about her is untrue. This means that Liam has intimacy and commitment to the love, but no longer has passion to the love. Despite the fact that Liam has lost passion to this love, the couple is still bonded and connected together in other family ways and responsibilities.

Liam and Michele’s relationship is both consummate and companionate love. Their love relationship is ideal since they sometimes experience trouble. They rekindle their love by creating time for each other despite their busy work schedules. Despite the troubles in their relationship, the couple does not publicly show it; and this makes them an admirable couple to those who emulate them.

References

Shimp, T. A., & Thomas Madden, J. (1988). Consumer-object relations: A conceptual framework based analogously on Sternberg’s triangular theory of love. ACR North American Advances, 50-82.

Sternberg, R. J. (1986). A triangular theory of love. Psychological Review, 93(2), 119.