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Attachment Styles

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Attachment Style and Relationships
PSY 220

Part I:
Robert Sternberg created his triangular theory of love based on three dimensions: passion, intimacy, and commitment. The degree to which a relationship demonstrates these three dimensions determines the type of love relationship. People begin love relationships with those who care for them as children. These early relationships can have a great effect on their adult relationships.
Passion reflects attraction, romance, and sexual desire. A relationship that contains passion would not be a relationship that you would share with you parents or children. This is more to describe a romantic relationship that you share with another person. According to Sternberg (1998) “The key ingredients of romantic love are passion and intimacy.” Passion is what makes us want to live our lives together with somebody that we fall in love; passion is what makes us see qualities in our boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife that we like and decide that we want to live the rest of our life with them, but sometimes this same passion becomes decreased to the amount that a small decision that is not in your favor, can create a good argument and we begin to create a wall around our heart, things or decisions that we can easily compromise on in the past, we now decide to take our stand and by so doing we can create problems in our relationship.
Intimacy is that feeling of being close to another person and affectionate to them as well. It can happen with or without being sexually involved, although it is never effectively defined only by sexual expression. Intimacy is part of a relationship in which two people, even in when they are apart, are still receptive to one another. In intimacy there is a shared, constant relationship over time. Sex is a form of intimacy; a physical form but it should not be confused for emotional intimacy nor

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