These two aspects of the decision/commitment component do not necessarily go together, in that one can decide to love someone without being committed to the love in the long-term, or one can be committed to a relationship without acknowledging that one loves the other person in the relationship. Decision/commitment refers, in the short-term, to the decision that one loves a certain other, and in the long-term, to one's commitment to maintain that love. The passion component includes within its purview those sources of motivational and other forms of arousal that lead to the experience of passion in a loving relationship.ĭecision/commitment. Passion refers to the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, sexual consummation, and related phenomena in loving relationships. It thus includes within its purview those feelings that give rise, essentially, to the experience of warmth in a loving relationship. Intimacy refers to feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in loving relationships. Each component manifests a different aspect of love.

These three components are intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. The triangle is used as a metaphor, rather than as a strict geometric model.

The triangular theory of love holds that love can be understood in terms of three components that together can be viewed as forming the vertices of a triangle. The duplex theory of love integrates what previously were two separate theories: the triangular theory of love and the theory of love as a story. Interested in learning more about my theory of love and how to apply it to YOUR relationship? Check out my new website here.ĭuplex Theory of Love: Triangular Theory of Love and Theory of Love as a Story

The hypothesis of love