Love and subjective well-being: an explorative research

Journal title PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE
Author/s Fulvia Ortalda, Clapetto Sara Canale
Publishing Year 2010 Issue 2010/2
Language Italian Pages 14 P. 59-72 File size 584 KB
DOI 10.3280/PDS2010-002005
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The present explorative research intends to investigate the relationship between love and perception of subjective well-being. In particular, it examines the relationship between subjective well-being and types of love, making reference to J.A. Lee’s classification, according to which there are six ideal styles of love: ludic, erotic, solidarity, manic, pragmatic, pure. Our sample is made up of 156 individuals with a high school diploma, aged between 20 and 30 years, and is balanced between genders. The participants were administered a three-part questionnaire: the first part examines subjective well-being, the second characteristics of love and the third styles of love. Results show that the last determine a different degree of perceived subjective well-being. The types of love that recall persistent ideas, such as sex in erotic love and one’s partner in manic love, emerge as more intense and accompanied by feelings of jealously. Erotic love is accompanied by the perception of greater subjective well-being, whereas manic love goes in the opposite direction. Results lay stress on importance of solidarity love. Pragmatic love is the longest lasting. Pure love and ludic love, which complete Lee’s classification, are more typical of the love reported by the men interviewed, while manic love is more characteristic of the women interviewed. On average, women report a more intense love than men. In the last part of the paper there is a first explorative analysis meant to improve the psychometric characteristics of the scales of different type of love. Studying the relationship between styles of love and perceived well-being can have useful applications in couple therapy.

Keywords: Types of love, subjective well-being, couple therapy

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Fulvia Ortalda, Clapetto Sara Canale, Amore e benessere soggettivo: una ricerca esplorativa in "PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE" 2/2010, pp 59-72, DOI: 10.3280/PDS2010-002005