Abstract
Romantic love has been explored by writers for centuries revealing multiple emotions and feelings related to this phenomenon. Scientific efforts to understand love began in the mid-twentieth century and greatly advanced the topic in the past few decades. Several instruments measuring love were developed. They are still, however, limited in their scope. The purpose of our study was to explore love’s emotional complexity through discourse analysis of romantic narratives and apply the constructs identified in those narratives to the reality of love relationships. In the first study, the discourse analysis of quotes selected from a representative sample of romantic narratives lead to a comprehensive set of items measuring the variety of love constructs. Second and third studies, utilizing 498 participants of various ages, empirically explored the diversity of love constructs and their architecture. The study brought many constructs to the arena of love research. A hierarchical cluster analysis allowed depicting these dimensions in varying models. Mental representations of love structures varied depending on the participants’ mental complexity and other factors.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allport, G. (1938). Personality: a problem for science or a problem for art? Revista de Psihologie, 1, 488–502.
Aron, A., & Westbay, L. (1996). Dimensions of the prototype of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(3), 535–551.
Berscheid, E. (2010). Love in the fourth dimension. The Annual Review of Psychology, 61(1), 1–25. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. (1960). A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24, 349–354.
Fehr, B. (1994). Prototype-based assessment of laypeople’s views of love. Personal Relationships, 1(1994), 309–331.
Fehr, B., & Sprecher, S. (2009). Prototype analysis of the concept of compassionate love. Personal Relationships, 16, 343–364.
Fleming, I. (2002). Casino royale. Penguin (Non-Classics) (Original work published 1953).
Hatfield, E., Bensman, L., & Rapson, R. L. (2011). A brief history of social scientists’ attempts to measure passionate love. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 29(2), 143–164.
Hatfield, E., & Sprecher, S. (1986). Measuring passionate love in intimate relationships. Journal of Adolescence, 9, 383–410.
Hatfield, E., & Walster, G. W. (1981). A new look at love. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Hemingway, E. (1995). A farewell to arms. Scribner (Original work published 1929).
Hendrick, C., & Hendrick, S. S. (1986). A theory and method of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 392–402.
Hurston, N. Z. (2006). Their eyes were watching god. Harper Perennial Modern Classics (Original work published 1937).
Lee, J. A. (1973). The colours of love. Don Mills, ON: New Press.
McNaught, J. (1992). Paradise. Pocket Books.
Rubin, Z. (1970). Measurement of romantic love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(2), 265–273.
Sternberg, R. J. (1988). The triangle of love: Intimacy, passion, commitment. New York: Basic Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Appendix
Authorities Referenced in Story Selection
Ten Greatest Love Stories Of All Time (2008, October 14). In Your Tango. Retrieved from http://www.yourtango.com/20071315/10-greatest-love-stories-of-all-time-2
Forty Four Classic Novels To Read Before You Die. (2008, May 5). In Scribd.. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/2963336/44-Classic-Novels-To-Read-Before-You-Die.
Classic Love. (2008, October 3). In Bookstove. Retrieved from http://bookstove.com/book-talk/classic-love/.
Classic Romance Novels. (n.d.). In Hunch. Retrieved from http://hunch.com/classic-romance-novels/.
Classic Romantic Novels. (n.d.). In Dating Online. Retrieved from http://www.datingonline.org/dating/novels/.
Guardian News and Media Limited. (2009, January 17). 1,000 novels everyone must read: Love. In The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/17/1000-novels-love-part-one.
Listopia. (n.d.). Best Love Stories. In goodreads. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/550.Best_Love_Stories_.
Lombardi, E. (n.d.). Top 7 Romance Classics. In About.com. Retrieved from http://classiclit.about.com/od/loveliterature/tp/aatp_romance.htm
Johnson, H. (n.d.). Five Classic Love Stories Everyone Should Read. In Culture Feast. Retrieved from http://www.culturefeast.com/five-classic-love-stories-everyone-should-read/.
Mason, J. (n.d.). Top 100 Romance Novels. In The Romance Reader. Retrieved from http://www.theromancereader.com/top100.html.
Nair, T. (2011, September 21). Best Romance Novels of All Time. In Buzzle. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-romance-novels-of-all-time.html.
S, S. (n.d.). Best Books About Love - Contemporary & Classic Love Stories & Romance Novels. In HubPages. Retrieved from http://susana-s.hubpages.com/hub/books-about-love.
Sattler, S. (2007, August 10). Greatest Love Story Ever. In Book Chase. Retrieved from http://bookchase.blogspot.com/2007/08/greatest-love-story-ever.html.
Top Love Novels (n.d.). In Paralumun. Retrieved from http://www.paralumun.com/lovebooks.htm.
Wikipedia. (2013, March 12). Great books. In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books.
Romantic Narratives used in Discourse Analysis
Bronte, C. (2011). Jane Eyre. Hollywood, FL: Simon and Brown (Original work published 1818).
Goldman, W. (2007). The Princess Bride. San Diego, CA: Harcourt (Original work published 1973).
Hawthorne, N. (2011). The Scarlett Letter. Tribeca Books (Original work published 1850).
Hugo, V. (2007). Book Jungle. Hunchback of Notre Dame (Original work published 1831).
Marquez, G. G. (2007). Love in the Time of Cholera. Vintage Books (Original work published (1985).
Du Maurier, D. (1997). Rebecca. Avon Books (Original work published 1938).
McEwan, I. (2001). Atonement. Anchor.
Miller, H. (1994). Tropic of Cancer. Grove Books (Original work published 1934).
Ondaatje, M. (1992). The English Patient. Vintage Books.
Rand, A. (1996). Anthem. Signet (Original work published 1938).
Roberts, N. (1994). Born in Fire.Jove.
Picoult, J. (2011). Sing You Home. Atria Books.
Segal, Erich. (2005). Love Story. Harper Paperbacks (Original work published 1970).
Shakespeare, W. (2004). The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Simon and Schuster (Original work published 1591).
Winterson, J. (1992). Written on the body. Vintage.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Karandashev, V., Clapp, S. Multidimensional Architecture of Love: From Romantic Narratives to Psychometrics. J Psycholinguist Res 44, 675–699 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-014-9311-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-014-9311-9