What is love? A broad question with many countless aspects pertaining to it. According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary love is the “warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion” felt by one person towards another. Attachment has always played a big part in love; but have you ever wondered how past attachments growing up can have an effect on your current attachments? I have always been very interested in the effects of attachment on relationships. Not only that, but how parenting styles can also affect them. This paper will try to figure out if there is a correlation between past experiences in attachment and parenting with current relationships. What exactly is a loving relationship? To explain, it is said to have different stages and types, as stated by Psychologist Robert Sternberg’s theory of love. He described it as based on three different scales -intimacy, passion, and commitment. It is said that relationships based on a single element pertaining to the three are less likely to survive compared to a relationship based on two or more ("Triangular theory of love”). My hypothesis is that the environment a child lives in affects his/her future relationships in accordance to the different parenting styles, identified by psychologist Diana Baumrind, which may have
References: Bretherthon, Igne. (n.d.). The origins of attachment theory: john bowlby and mary ainsworth. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/online/inge_origins.pdf Darling, N. (1999, 03). Parenting style and its correlates.eric digest.. Retrieved from http://bern.library.nenu.edu.cn/upload/soft/0-article/ 025/25104.pdf Merriam-webster. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/love Triangular theory of love. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/community/slzctr/stdcsl/stdcsl_triangular.pdf