{"title":"Variation exists in the expression of romantic love: A cluster analytic study of young adults experiencing romantic love","authors":"Adam Bode , Phillip S. Kavanagh","doi":"10.1016/j.paid.2025.113108","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Variation exists in the expression of romantic love, but to date, no studies have specifically investigated this phenomenon. This study employed a TwoStep cluster analysis to group 809 partnered young adults experiencing romantic love from the Romantic Love Survey 2022 according to intensity of romantic love, obsessive thinking, commitment, and frequency of sex per week. The results revealed four clusters: (i) mild romantic lovers (20.02 %) characterized by the lowest intensity, lowest obsessive thinking, lowest commitment, and lowest frequency of sex; (ii) moderate romantic lovers (40.91 %), characterized by relatively low intensity, relatively low obsessive thinking, relatively high commitment, and relatively moderate frequency of sex; (iii) libidinous romantic lovers (9.64 %), characterized by relatively high intensity, relatively high obsessive thinking, relatively high commitment, and exceptionally high frequency of sex; and (iv) intense romantic lovers (29.42 %), characterized by the highest intensity, highest obsessive thinking, highest commitment, and relatively high frequency of sex. Each cluster differs on a range of personal and relationship characteristics. The findings can generate theory and hypotheses about romantic love and provide impetus for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48467,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Individual Differences","volume":"239 ","pages":"Article 113108"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Personality and Individual Differences","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886925000704","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Variation exists in the expression of romantic love, but to date, no studies have specifically investigated this phenomenon. This study employed a TwoStep cluster analysis to group 809 partnered young adults experiencing romantic love from the Romantic Love Survey 2022 according to intensity of romantic love, obsessive thinking, commitment, and frequency of sex per week. The results revealed four clusters: (i) mild romantic lovers (20.02 %) characterized by the lowest intensity, lowest obsessive thinking, lowest commitment, and lowest frequency of sex; (ii) moderate romantic lovers (40.91 %), characterized by relatively low intensity, relatively low obsessive thinking, relatively high commitment, and relatively moderate frequency of sex; (iii) libidinous romantic lovers (9.64 %), characterized by relatively high intensity, relatively high obsessive thinking, relatively high commitment, and exceptionally high frequency of sex; and (iv) intense romantic lovers (29.42 %), characterized by the highest intensity, highest obsessive thinking, highest commitment, and relatively high frequency of sex. Each cluster differs on a range of personal and relationship characteristics. The findings can generate theory and hypotheses about romantic love and provide impetus for future research.
期刊介绍:
Personality and Individual Differences is devoted to the publication of articles (experimental, theoretical, review) which aim to integrate as far as possible the major factors of personality with empirical paradigms from experimental, physiological, animal, clinical, educational, criminological or industrial psychology or to seek an explanation for the causes and major determinants of individual differences in concepts derived from these disciplines. The editors are concerned with both genetic and environmental causes, and they are particularly interested in possible interaction effects.