Love styles

From an article by Hendrick and Hendrick(1986):

Lee (1973/1976) created a theory of love that focuses on different approaches to love - there are 3 primary types or styles:

1. Eros: Romance and passionate love. Physical love, early attraction, and intensity of emotion are usually evident. Strong commitment to the lover as well. Engaging in Eros love requires considerable ego-strength and research found that self-esteem correlates positively with Eros love.
2. Ludus: Game-playing love. Love is a game of interaction that can be played with several partners at the same time. In Ludic love a certain amount of deception is allowed. Intensity of emotion in the other is viewed cautiously. Depth of feeling is usually absent in the Ludic lover. Manipulation. In research, a high number of ludic subjects answered that they had either never been in love, or had been in love five times or more.
3. Storge: Friendship love. Storgic love merges love and friendship. There is little fire, but it can last and is fairly stable.

Lee further indicated 3 secondary love styles:

1. Mania: Possessive, dependent love. It is more of a "symptom love", with an underlying uncertainty about the self and the lover. Most prominently found in adolescents, it also occurs often enough in older lovers. It correlates negatively with self-esteem.
2. Pragma: Pragmatic love using logic. Rational calculation that is aimed at finding a partner with the right attributes. "Shopping list" love.
3. Agape: Selfless giving and nondemanding love.

A few gender differences showed up in research results: Males were on average more ludic than females, whereas females were on average more storgic, pragmatic, and manic than males.