Robert Sternberg an American psychologist gave us the Triarchic Theory of Love. Wherein he shows us the different components of love, namely: intimacy, passion and decision/ commitment. This theory shows that love can be understood in terms of the three components, and they can be viewed as forming the triangle. Intimacy acts as the top vertex of the triangle, passion acts as the left point of the triangle and decision/commitment acts as the right point of the triangle. According to Sternberg, intimacy is refers to the feeling of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in loving relationships. It can also be the feeling experienced happiness with the loved one, high regard for the loved one, being able to count on the loved one in times of need, mutual understanding with the loved one, sharing of one's self and one's possessions with the loved one, receipt of emotional support from the loved one, giving of emotional support to the loved one, intimate communication with the loved one, and valuing the loved one in one's life. The next component, passion refers to the drive that leads to romance, physical attraction and lust in relationships. This component allows people in a relationship to experience passion and arousal. As for relationships that are fueled by passion, meaning the “arousal” drew the in to the relationship, it is the intimacy component that sustains the closeness in the relationship. And the last component, decision/ commitment can be defined in terms of the length of the relationship, in short term it can be defined as the decision we make to love someone, whereas in long term it can be defined as the commitment to maintain that love. If likened to temperature, intimacy can viewed as the “warm” one, passion as the “hot” one and decision/commitment as the “cold” one. In sum, all these three components are important in a loving and strong relationship, without the other, the relationship may not last as long.
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Love. A