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What are the different types of relationship?   

To have a little intimacy, passion commitment or even a combination of all or only one. Robert Sternberg's Triangular theory of Love states that there are the different type of Love. As such:

  • Infatuation or Limerence
  • Liking or Friendship
  • Empty love
  • Romantic Love
  • Companionate love
  • Fatuous love
  • Consummate love 

1. Liking Sternberg says that this is a friendship where individuals feel a bond and a sense of closeness to each other. No passion or commitment is present.

2. Infatuated love is what we call "love at first sight." No intimacy and commitment present. Love may not last and will end abruptly

3. Empty love can result in empty love, where you will have commitments but no intimacy and passion. This can be seen in cultures that arrange marriages and relationships. This will lead up to empty love.

4. Romantic love lovers are bonded emotionally (as in liking) and physically through passionate arousal.

5. Companionate love can be seen in marriages in which the passion has

gone out of the relationship, but a deep affection and commitment remain. This is where a has developed with the person. is an of sex or any physical desire. Since this has an additional element of commitment this is of friendship love can be family members, between deep friends or those a lot of time together in any asexual but friendly relationship.

6. Fatuous love can be exemplified by a whirlwind courtship and marriage in which a commitment is motivated largely by passion, without the stabilizing influence of intimacy.

7. Consummate love is the complete form of love, representing the ideal relationship toward which many people strive but which apparently few achieve. Sternberg cautions that maintaining a consummate love may be even harder than achieving it. He stresses the importance of translating the components of love into action. "Without expression," he warns,"even the greatest of loves can die" (1987, p.341). Consummate love may not be permanent. For example, if passion is lost over time, it may change into companionate love.

The balance among Sternberg’s three aspects of love is likely to shift through the course of a relationship. A strong dose of all three components-found in consummate love-typifies, for many of us, an ideal relationship. time alone does not cause intimacy, passion, and commitment to occur and grow. Knowing about these components of love may help couples avoid pitfalls in their relationship, work on the areas that need improvement or help them recognize when it might be time for a relationship to come to an end.

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