The colour wheel theory of love was developed by the Canadian sociologist John Alan Lee to distinguish the different ways to love another person.: 'How many kinds of love are there? As with color, this is entirely a matter of useful distinction. For most of us, it is sufficient to distinguish brown from green and yellow, without getting into the many shades of brown. My research disclosed twelve "colors of love" sufficient to describe the experience of most lovers.The lovestyles described in this book are the result of systematic analysis of the love experiences of more than two hundred men and women from the ages of sixteen to seventy. Each respondent completed a detailed record of his or her experience, beginning with recollections of childhood and the love relationships between the respondent's parents. Although each respondent's "love story" was unique in its details, when the many thousands of items of data from all the stories were coded and analyzed, certain similarities emerged. The basic "patterns" of love, which I have named lovestyles, have been independently confirmed by another sociologist, using different samples.' Lee's types, termed love styles, comprise the basic patterns or similarities which emerged in an analysis of individual love stories.
The six most common love styles are summarised briefly by the American researcher Elaine Hatfield as follows:
Eros: love of beauty. Ludus: playful love. Storge: companionate love. Mania: obsessive love. Agape: altruistic love. Pragma: realistic love.
Lee's types were developed with modern scientific methods; the Greek and Latin words were borrowed as labels. Lee's original theory proposed twelve types (with even more being possible),: "The number of kinds of love you are prepared to distinguish depends on how particular you are. I propose to stop at twelve kinds, though I indicate six more for further exploration. [...] One of my tasks in this research has been to reduce the possible types of love to a manageable number without generalizing too much. As indicated, my theory at present proposes twelve types, but this is not necessarily final." although usually only the six most common are listed.
Scientific measures Love Story Card Sort The Love Story Card Sort was a method for measuring love styles, developed by Lee himself for his initial research published in 1973.
The card sort consists of about 1500 cards, each of which describes some event, idea or emotion possible in a love relationship. The cards are then organized in sets, each with a question card and a list of possible answer cards, including a blank write-in. Thus, using some features of both interview and questionnaire, a respondent is able to tell their own personal love story—happy or unhappy—with a very large total number of possible combinations.
Lee used McBee card sorting techniques to reduce the card sort items to just 206 cards which seemed to be the most important factors for distinguishing the types of love in his sample, 32 of which seemed to be particularly significant. The following examples are mentioned by Lee as being among the most predictive:: "Among the most predictive factors (those which predicted that certain other experiences would occur) were an unhappy childhood, early sexual intercourse with the beloved, immediate physical attraction to the beloved, a clearly defined ideal image of the desired partner, an intense mental preoccupation with the partner, and attempts to force the partner to show more feeling."
Lee then used a Guttman scaling technique to arrange the 112 pilot study respondents into clusters, which seemed to correspond to various love styles according to theoretical concerns. Some of these groups seemed to correspond to the love styles eros, ludus, storge and mania, as they were described in literature, while others seemed to be more transitional. However, these transitional groups (e.g. manic eros, manic ludus, storgic eros, and so on) could not be arranged along a single continuum, leading Lee to develop his triangular model of three primaries.
The factor analysis and Guttman scaling techniques used by Lee allowed him to draw up a profile of each love story as a type, along with its associated characteristics.
Love Attitudes Scale The Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) was created in the 1980s by Clyde Hendrick and Susan Hendrick, as an extension of Lee's research; however, the LAS uses rating scales in lieu of the more complicated design of the Love Story Card Sort. Answers on the LAS are given with Likert-type scales, ranging from 1 for "strongly agree" to 5 for "strongly disagree". The items on the LAS are divided into six subscales, which correspond to the six most common love styles.
Lee initially complained about the use of rating scales, which he believed were insufficient to measure love styles, although he eventually conceded this argument to the Hendricks and accepted the ubiquity of rating scales.: '[Lee] complained about the ahistorical nature of [most research based on his ideas] and the limited information that he felt could be derived from a rating scale: "There are no satisfactory shortcuts[.] Only elaborate instruments such as the Love Story Card Sort can distinguish between [rich] ideologies[.]" [...] Needless to say, Lee lost his argument against the use of rating scales. [...] Sometime after completing the writing of his chapter for The Psychology of Love, but before its publication, Lee apparently accepted the ubiquity of rating scales, as witnessed by a gracious and complimentary letter to us[.]'
Properly speaking, rather than measuring love styles, the LAS measures love attitudes. A love style is a type, while a love attitude is a variable. The goal of the Hendricks was to transform Lee's types into six dimensions, measuring the "amount" of each love style for an individual, and forming the individual's profile when taken together. Love attitude measures can then be used for hypothesis testing with other variables such as attachment styles and personality traits.
The Hendricks originally considered it an open question of what kinds of things the love styles themselves actually are—for example, enduring personality traits, or only more transient attitudes. Lee believed one could carry out different love styles with different people, simultaneously even. The Hendricks speculated that love styles have both trait and state characteristics. In 2006, the Hendricks construed love styles as "attitude/belief systems that include a variable emotional core, and possibly some linkage to personality traits".
Primary love styles
Eros
In Greek mythology, Eros was a god of love, directed towards male and female beauty, and the personification of sexual desire. His arrows are shot through the eyes of the lover. For this love style, "love is blind" may not apply. Lee describes the lover with an eros style as searching for a partner based on how closely their physical appearance matches a personal ideal. As such, eros begins with a powerful initial attraction, referred to by Stendhal as "a sudden sensation of recognition and hope". Through interviews, Lee found stories of love at first sight that survived for years of life together, therefore not just being a fiction of poets and novelists.
Typically, an erotic lover recalls a happy childhood, and is ready for love and its risks. All of Lee's respondents who were successful in their experience of eros had a solid foundation in life. They also did not become lovesick with obsessive desire or become forceful, when having to wait during the period between seeing their beloved for the first time and finding the opportunity for a relationship. Lee comments that "You cannot launch a space rocket from a swamp, nor eros from a naive, self-doubting and overly dependent personality." A successful erotic relationship is also more likely when eros is closer to being the primary conception of love for both lovers.
In contrast to modern usage which tends to equate erotic with sexual, Lee intended to strengthen the original Greek meaning of eros—involving mental or ideal properties, as in Plato's original conception of platonic love. An erotic lover seeks their specific ideal of "the beautiful", but is not only interested in sex. As one of Lee's respondents puts it, "Our sex [...] was never the most important thing and it's certainly not the thing that holds us together. We make love; sex doesn't make us love."
Eros, as well as mania, corresponds to concepts like falling in love, passionate love, and romantic love.
The LAS eros subscale has items such as:
"My lover and I have the right physical 'chemistry' between us." "My lover fits my ideal standards of physical beauty/handsomeness."
The eros love attitude has been positively associated with secure attachment and the personality traits agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion, but negatively associated with neuroticism. In modern research, the LAS eros subscale has also been sometimes used to measure the intensity of romantic love, although it was not intended for this.
Ludus
"Ludus" is the Latin word for "play" or "game". It was adapted by Lee from amor ludens, a term for playful love used by the poet Ovid, who advised lovers to enjoy love as a pleasant and unserious pastime. A ludic lover does not fall in love or become dependent, and refuses to allow their lover to become overly attached. A ludic lover has no ideal type of beloved in mind. They are pluralistic, and may play with several partners simultaneously; the "game" might be played openly by warning a lover they have alternatives, or with the deception of promising a false commitment. Other types of lovers may dismiss ludus as not even love at all, or a subtle form of seduction.
A typical ludic lover recalls an average childhood, but is often frustrated with adult life, and unwilling to "settle down" and commit. Like eros, ludus also requires self-assurance to be successful; unlike eros, however, the ludic lover prefers to swim in "shallower water", convincing himself or herself they do not "need" other people. A ludic lover who is unable to stay detached runs the risk of becoming lovesick with the tertiary love style manic ludus.
Don Juan is a famous literary example of the ludus love style, with James Bond also being similar.
The LAS ludus subscale has items such as:
"I try to keep my lover a little uncertain about my commitment to him/her." "I have sometimes had to keep two of my lovers from finding out about each other."
The ludus love attitude has been positively associated with avoidant attachment, maladaptive psychological defence mechanisms, and the personality trait neuroticism, but negatively associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Storge
"Storge" is the Ancient Greek word for that loving affection which develops between family members or friends. The storge love style is a form of companionate love, beginning as friendship and growing only more gradually into a committed relationship. Such love might occur between childhood neighbors, or longtime school friends. It is possible, however, for a storgic relationship to occur between strangers if they share a similar background, and the quality of experience is right as the relationship develops. Storgic love comes naturally with time and the mutual enjoyment of shared activities, as one grows accustomed to another.