The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Romantic Relationships 311

Specifically, it reflects one’s self-perception of

being loving, lovable, romantic, affectionate,

cuddlesome, compassionate, and passionate.

A study of 48 nations showed that women

scored higher than men on emotional invest-

ment in all but three nations—with the differ-

ence being significant in 34 nations (Schmitt

et al., 2009). Unexpectedly, the gender-equality

of the nation was associated withlargersex

differences. For example, the largest sex dif-

ferences in emotional investment were found

in Switzerland, Australia, and Germany and

smaller sex differences were found in Turkey,

South Korea, and Bolivia. The authors sug-

gested that women and men are more likely

to make within-sex comparisons in nations

where female and male roles are more distinct,

making it appear that women and men are

similar to one another. By contrast women and

men may be more likely to make between-sex

comparisons in nations where there is greater

TABLE 9.4 LOVE STYLES

Eros

My lover and I have the right physical “chemistry” between us.

I feel that my lover and I were meant for each other.

Ludus

I try to keep my lover a little uncertain about my commitment to him or her.

I enjoy playing the “game of love” with a number of different partners.

Storge

It is hard to say exactly where friendship ends and love begins.

The best kind of love grows out of a long friendship.

Pragma

I consider what a person is going to become in life before I commit myself to him or her.

An important factor in choosing a partner is whether or not he or she will be a good parent.

Mania

When my lover doesn’t pay attention to me, I feel sick all over.

When I am in love, I have trouble concentrating on anything else.

Agape

I would endure all things for the sake of my lover.

I cannot be happy unless I place my lover’s happiness before my own.

Source: Hendrick and Hendrick (1986).

Eros

Storge Pragma Ludus

Agape Mania

FIGURE 9.3 Love styles.

Source: J. A. Lee (1973).

on eros, which is associated with higher re-

lationship satisfaction. One limitation of this

research is that most of it has been conducted

with college students. It would be interesting to

see how people’s love styles change with age.

Emotional investmentis a concept that

includes some of these notions about love.

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