Theories of Love Development, Maintenance, and Dissolution

Love presents itself as a complex, multidimensional phenomenon that has been considered one of the most intense and powerful of all human emotions. This book is a comprehensive compilation, analysis, and evaluation of existing views and theories about love development, maintenance, and dissolution. Part I introduces a proposed psychosemantic paradigm and its two love-specific models as a common theoretical framework for evaluating the major theories regarding love and intimate relationships. Part II presents 21 love formation and development theories organized under seven paradigms for evaluation: personality attribution, introspective approach, psychophysiology, behavioral reinforcement, comparative/cognitive judgment, psychometric development, and structural components. Part III presents theories of love maintenance and conflict (a family system paradigm and its member approaches), love and marriage dissolution, and theological perspectives on human love and intimate relations. Part IV introduces a common methodological framework for generating a summative evaluation, in terms of major strengths and weaknesses, of contemporary love theorizations. It also suggests future directions for developing love studies as a comprehensive, multidisciplinary scientific discipline.