Gender and

Society
GLADILYN GARCIA
Love, Intimacy
and
Relationships
Love, Intimacy and
Relationships

WHAT IS
LOVE?
Love
Love and the expression
of love tend to be many
different things to
different people.
Love
It is a culture universal. This means it is a phenomenon
experienced similarly by people across time, place,and culture.

It is a social phenomenon. It results from our interaction and

relationships with the people around us. The interaction entails
a degree of social influence exercised by two people during a
social encounter—using communication, giving and receiving
information as well as language, verbal or non-verbal (e.g.
paralanguage such as pitch, volume, intonation) symbols that
people of a culture use to convey meaning and realities.
Love
It is an emotion. An emotion is a physiological
response that we interpret psychologically and then
react to. Emotions may be basic or complex.
Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Model of Love
The model attempts to codify and measure love
based on three dimensions:
• Intimacy – feelings of closeness, connectedness,
and warmth in a relationship
• Passion – drives that lead to physical attraction,
sexual consummation, and related phenomena
• Commitment – agency component of choosing
to engage in and maintain the relationship
The presence or absence and the combinations
of any of these three dimensions indicate the
type of love people experience for one another.
The presence or absence and the combinations
of any of these three dimensions indicate the
type of love people experience for one another.
Love Language by Gary Chapman
George Levinger’s Relationship Stage
Theory
•Each relationship goes through stages. This is
important to understand as people sometimes
go into a relationship thinking how they felt and
interacted with their partner, in the beginning,
will remain the same throughout the rest of the
relationship. George Levinger proposed a five-
stage theory to describe intimate relationships
George Levinger’s Relationship Stage
Theory
• 1. Acquaintance – Attraction begins at this stage based on
factors such as proximity, exposure, similarity, physical
attractiveness as well as first impressions.

• 2. Buildup – At this stage, interactions increase and two people

will want to share more activities and interests with each
other. They will also begin introducing each other to
acquaintances, widening their social networks as they explore
more about each other and their relationship. Relationship
filtering based on attitudes, behaviors and complementarity of
needs usually occurs heavily during this stage.
George Levinger’s Relationship Stage
Theory
• 3. Consolidation / Continuation – During this stage, the people involved decide to commit
to try to make the relationship last (e.g. becoming exclusive, living together, marrying each
other).

• 4. Decline / Deterioration – While not all relationships go through this stage, there are
those that encounter misunderstandings or irreconcilable differences. These may range
from changes in the priorities, attitudes and values of each or both partners. This may also
be triggered by a stressor in the relationship that both partners cannot resolve.
Regardless, at this point, the partners have the option and agree to compromise, ignore the
concerns or consider the last stage.

• 5. Ending / Termination – If a couple cannot address the problems that caused the
relationship deterioration, the stages go on to terminate (via marriage dissolution,
collective agreement to separate, or in some cases, one partner simply leaving the other
behind).