Essay

Essay Assignment 1; Styles of Loving (Submission of final drafts only; must be a pdf or Word document)

The essay assignments should be approximately 2-3 pages minimum (longer is fine) in length, double spaced, 1-inch margins in a font size no larger than 12.  An introductory paragraph and concluding paragraph are required, using complete sentences and no abbreviations throughout the essay.  Answer the questions in the order they are asked.  You may use headers in-between the sections to indicate the question number you are answering.  File format must be Word (.doc, .docx) or .pdf.

 

Essay Assignment 1:  Love

Love has been found to be an important concept and component in long term intimate relationships.  Americans report love as a foundational component of marriage and family relationships.  Despite this, it remains largely misunderstood.  Social scientists have studied the concept of love and have found that we can understand what love is, what it means and how to use it effectively within relationships.  Interestingly, and perhaps adding complexity to the concept itself, there are various methods currently being used to help people understand it.  In this assignment, you will explore three different means by which we can learn about love and how it can impact (in positive and negative ways) our relationships.

For this assignment, you are to complete the love assessments developed by Lee, Sternberg, and Chapman (three different assessments!) to help us explain love. In doing so, you will identify your predominant style(s) of giving and receiving love and you will evaluate a current or previous relationship to evaluate the three dimensions of love identified by Sternberg and colleagues.

Specific Instructions:

1. Complete the following assessments:

1. Lee (Hendrick and Hendrick, Styles of Loving), provided on Canvas

2. Sternberg (Triangular Model of Love), provided on Canvas

3. Chapman (5 Love Languages), link provided on Canvas to external web page.  Choose the assessment most appropriate for you and tell me in the essay which one you took.

2. Discuss your findings and evaluate them for all the assessments.

1. What is/are your predominant style(s) of loving?  State and define the styles clearly (do not assume knowledge on my part at all—show me what you have learned). 

2. Does this surprise you or is it pretty much what you’d expect?  Why, why not?

3. Evaluate how you can use this information in your day-to-day intimate relationships.  Really think through this and be as specific as you can.  Researchers and therapists alike have found these assessments to be particularly useful.  As such, you cannot say they have no purpose within relationships.  Really think through the three assessments—the similarities and differences between them.  You can talk about such things as which one you might find most useful and why/how?  Would one be more useful earlier in relationships and why?  Later in relationships and why?  Be specific and draw from the material itself to support all claims made.