“Love across the life span: Age effects on the Love attitudes Scale in Three age groups from 20 to 60+.”
Love attitudes are an important and interesting aspect of psychology research. Lee (1976) discovered six love styles (Chart 1). Eros Ludus, and Storge were identified as primary love categories and Pragma mania and agape were identified as interactions of primary love styles (Lee, cited in Hendrick and Hendrick, 1986). Hendrick and Hendrick (1986) conducted research using a 5 point Likert scale called The Love Attitude Scale (LAS) that aimed to test the validity of Lee’s typology of Love. It was found by Hendrick and Hendrick (1986) that males (n=466, 58%) endorsed Ludus more than females while females (n=341, 42%) endorsed Pragma, Storge and Mania more than Males.
Chart 1. Lee’s typology of love.
|
Love style |
Description |
Derivation |
Characteristics |
|
Eros |
Passionate love, romantic |
|
Physical attractions, erotic emotionality, commitment. |
|
Ludus |
Game playing |
|
Diversity in lover connections, manipulation, deception. |
|
Storge |
Friendship |
|
Combination of friendship and love. |
|
Pragma |
Logical |
Eros and Ludus combination |
Partner Compatibility |
|
Mania |
Possessives, dependency. |
Ludus and Storge combination |
Uncertainty of self and lover. |
|
Agape |
All giving, selfless love |
Eros and Storge |
Devotion to partner.
|
Much of the research on love using Lee’s (1973) typology was conducted on North American college aged students or graduates. Other studies have attempted to find cross cultural similarities and differences to love attitudes. Many of them did not use Lee’s typology and concentrate on differences in romantic love as based on Hobart’s scale of romanticism and Knox-sporakowski’s Attitudes towards love scale (cited in Simons, Wehner and Kay 2001). Simons, Kolke & Shimizu (2001) recruited West German, Japanese and North American students and found that romantic love is more valued by West German and North American students. This was believed to be a reflection of the freedom of choice agenda of western societies that allows for an individual to have great amount of choice in lovers. In opposition to this is the more caste oriented approach to love partner choice in Japanese society, which is influenced by a parental choice rather than individual selection of love partner.
A similar study of romantic attitudes was conducted with French and North American college students (Simmons, Wehner, & Kay, 2001). It was found that North American students were more socially conscious in regards to attitudes towards romantic love. North Americans may believe in long term commitment factors of relationships more than French students. The French students believed more strongly with romantic love items than the North Americans. North Americans were wearier of the consequences of romantic love as a concern about long term problems evolving such as financial problems or children.
Neto (1994) conducted a study of Portuguese students and used Lee’s typology of Love based on Hendrick &Hendricks’s (1986) LAS. The study was an attempt to see if Hendrick and Hendricks work could be replicated and validated with Portuguese college students. The results confirmed the hypotheses that Portuguese and American students were similar in there response to the LAS. Men were more Ludic and Agape than women and neither gender differed in responses to Storge, Pragma and Mania items. Given that there are some cultural variations in some of the love styles it may be important to asses if there are any response biases towards any particular subscale on the LAS.
Davies (2001) has attempted to uncover the possibility of socially desirable responses to the LAS that give a positive representation of the respondent. Eros was associated with lower social desirability in all participants though males found Eros more desirable than Females. Ludus was more socially desired by men and not socially desired by women. The reasons that accounted for the above bias were that men tend to be permissive and instrumental while women are more conservative, however the role of women in society has gone through some adjustment were women have become less pragmatic towards love due to more increased social mobility in employment and financial independence. Thus women may be more inclined to display agape qualities of love more strongly and become less Pragma oriented towards partner choice.
Butler, Walker, Skowronski & Shannon (1995) attempted to determine any possible age related differences in responses to the LAS. The sample used by Butler et al (1995) consisted of 525, 17-50 year old college students from Ohio state college. There was 312 females (63%) and 213 males (37%). The sample was broken down into two main groups. The first group consisted of 428 males and females aged between 17 and 24 years old (M= 19.23), which were termed traditional college aged students. The second group consisted of males and females aged 25-50 years of age (m=33.13), which were described as modern age students. Both groups reported similar scores on the LAS however there were some effects of age and gender in the results. Increases in age showed a decrease in strength of responses to the mania and agape subscales. That effect was more pronounced in female participants and also in participants who reported being in love at the time of the study.
Montgomery & Sorrel (2001) completed an extensive analysis of 4 age groups to determine the extent of love attitudes across family life stages. The study consisted of 250 participants, of which 122 were male and 128 were female. They were 17 – 70 years of age and were broken into 4 groups. The first group consisted of traditional college aged men and women aged 17-24(n=66). The second group consisted of those who had no children and were married aged under 30 years of age (n=61). The third group were aged 24-50 (n =63) whom were married and had school aged children. The final group consisted of married people who were aged 50 – 70 years of age (n = 60) whose offspring had become independent of the parents. The sample consisted of predominate white middle class and educated North American individuals. The results of the study concluded that young and single individuals endorse manic and ludic love attitudes more than married individuals. Concurrently it was also found that unmarried individuals showed the least endorsement of agape items. There were no major effects in married individuals over the lifespan; however those whom had children endorsed Pragma less than those who did not have children. Young singles whom reported being in love endorsed Eros items more that young singles who did not report being in love. Eros and Agape were thus related to satisfaction in love across the life span and Ludus was related to low satisfaction for college aged students.
The present study uses a shortened version of Hendrick and Hendricks (1986) love attitude scale. The results of the present study will be compared with the results of similar life span studies mentioned above, though Butler et al (1995) will be most closely compared. The primary area of interest is age differences in love styles. There are two hypotheses to address the age interactions. Firstly it is hypothesized that older participants will agree less with mania items than young participants, and this difference will be more pronounced in females. It is also hypothesized that older participants will agree less with agape items than young participants. Another major area of inters is gender differences in love styles. It is hypothesized that males will agree more with Ludus items than Females. It is also hypothesized that males agree less with Pragma items than females.
Method
Students from Development psychology 2 (PSY 2304) external units at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia recruited 2 participants each. Each 2 participants were surveyed using a shortened version of the Hendrick and Hendrick (1986) love attitudes scale. It was expected that acquaintances rather than strangers were recruited so that results of other studies would be compared. Other studies used students or college educated individuals in their samples.
Materials
A cover letter was provided to participants. The letter outlined what may be required of students. Ethical considerations in the letter included confidentiality of information taken from participants and that results would be discussed in terms of group averages rather than individuals results. Contact information was also provided if the participant had any concerns. The participants were instructed to read the letter before filling out the LAS survey.
Each participant filled out a shortened version of Hendrick and Hendricks (1986) LAS. The following instructions were provided at the beginning of the questionnaire.
“This section
asks you to think about your attitudes about love. Some of the items refer to a
specific love relationship, while others refer to general attitudes and beliefs
about love. Whenever possible, answer the questions with your current partner
in mind. If you are not currently dating or living with someone as a couple,
answer the questions with your most recent partner in mind. If you have never
been in love, answer in terms of what you think your responses would most
likely be.
For each item
pleas circle the number which best indicates how strongly you agree or disagree
1.
=strongly
2.
=moderately disagree
3.
=neutral
4.
=moderately disagree
5.
=strongly agree”
Each participant was also asked to provide two pieces of demographic information. Participants were asked to provide what age cohort they belonged to (20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, & 80+). Each participant was also required to provide there gender details (male/female). Data from the LAS survey and the demographic details was then recorded on data sheets. Each participant’s scores were tallied up for each subscale on the LAS ( see char 3 , page 10).
Analysis.
The scores for each love style were analyzed using a 3x2 ANOVA that looked at age and gender variables. The ANOVA also looks at interactions between age and gender.
Chart 1. The number and total participants in the various age groups for the present study.
|
|
Age |
||||
|
Gender |
20-39 years |
40-59 years |
60 + years |
Total (combined ages) |
|
|
Males |
44 |
36 |
20 |
100 |
|
|
Females |
35* |
47 |
25 |
107 |
|
|
Total (Both genders) |
79 |
83 |
45 |
207 |
|
The present study complied two more LAS survey results from 2 female
participants in the 20 -39 years of age group making a total of 209
participants.
Results
The scores for Mania, Agape, Eros, Ludus, Storge and Pragma were analyzed using a 3 x 2 ANOVA with age (20- 39, 40 – 59, 60 and over) and gender as between subject factors. There are 3 main effects in the results, one age effect was recorded in the Mania subscale and two gender effects were recorded on the Agape and Ludus subscales.
Mania
The score for the Mania subscale showed a
significant effect of age, F 2, 201) = 3.13, p.05. Older
participants agreed less with mania items than young. (For older adults M =
11.8, and for young adults M = 10.98).
Chart 2. Summary of effects in the Subscales of the Love Attitudes scale.
|
|
Mania |
Agape |
Eros |
Ludus |
Storge |
Pragma |
|
Age |
√ |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
Gender |
X |
√ |
X |
√ |
X |
X |
√ = significant effect
X= no significant effect
Chart 3. 2 Participants scores in the present study on the LAS plus age and gender.
|
Love style |
Participant 1 |
Participant 2 |
Total |
Mean |
|
Eros |
15 |
18 |
33 |
16.5 |
|
Ludus |
12 |
4 |
16 |
8 |
|
Storge |
18 |
15 |
33 |
16.5 |
|
Pragma |
11 |
18 |
29 |
14.5 |
|
Mania |
9 |
13 |
22 |
11 |
|
Agape |
6 |
8 |
14 |
7 |
|
Age |
20-29 |
20-29 |
- |
- |
|
Gender |
Female |
Female |
- |
- |
Agape
The score for the Agape subscale showed a significant effect of gender, F (1,201) = 9.64, p <.005. Males (M- 13.36) agree more with agape items than females (M = 11.73).
Ludus
The scores for the Ludus subscale showed a significant effect of gender, F (1, 201) = 8.63, p<.005. Males (M = 10.29) agree more with Ludus items than females (M = 8.8).
|
Figure 1.The new means for each LAS Subscale equation.
eg.
|
|
Chart 4
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A comparison of the present study to the Butler et al 1986 study was conduced. Ther were 3 similar main effects. There was a similar main effect of age in the mania sub scale. There was a similar effect of gender on the Agape and Ludus subscales. There were two diffences between the two studies. The present study did not find a age effect for agape where as the Butler et al 1986 study did. The preenct study did not find an effect for gender on the mania subscale however the Butler et al study did. (See chart 5)
Chart 5. A comparison between the Present study and the Butler study on Age and Gender variables in the Love attitudes Subscale.
|
|
Age |
Gender |
||
|
|
Scully |
Butler |
Scully |
Butler |
|
Mania |
F(2, 201) = 3.13 p.05 |
F(1,505) = 43.53 p.001 |
-* |
F(1,487)=5.81, p.05 |
|
Agape |
-* |
F(1,507)= .64, p<.005 |
F(1,489) = 5.56 p<.05 |
F(1,489)=5.56 p.05 |
|
Eros |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Ludus |
- |
- |
F(1,201) = 8.63 p<.005 |
F(1,504)= 14.76, p <.001 |
|
Storge |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Pragma |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Mania
In both the Butler et al (1985) and present studies there was an effect for age(see chart 5). Older participants agree less with mania than young. The present study did not have a significant effect for gender whereas the Butler study showed a significant effect for Gender. There was an age related decrease in agreement with mania items that is more pronounced in females than in males in the Butler Study.
Agape
In the present study there was no effect for age however the Butler et al (1985) study reported a significant effect for age. In the Butler study older participants reported less agreement on the agape scale than younger participants. Both studies reported a significant effect for gender on the Agape subscale.
Ludus
Both studies reported a significant effect for Gender on the Ludus subscale however there was no significant effect for Age. The gender effect shows that Males reported more agreement with ludus items than females.
Neither of the studies reported significant differences on the Eros, Storge and Pragma subscales.
Discussion.
The present study has provided similar results to Butler et al (1985), being similarities in Mania age effect were older participants agree more with mania than younger participants, and gender effects for Agape and Ludus were males agree more than females and Ludus. Hypothesis 1 was supported though there was not very much support for the prediction that an age increase disagreement with mania would be more pronounced in females. Hypothesis 2 was not supported in that there was no significant effect for older participants agreeing less with agape items, however there was an effect for gender that was not predicted. Hypothesis 3 was supported, males agreeing more with ludus than females. Hypothesis 4 was not supported, although the mean scores show that males do agree less with Pragma with the exception of males in the 60 + age group whom agrred much more with the Pragma items than females in the 60 + age group.
The gender effects were also found by Neto (1994) in a study of Portugese students, however there was no age effects due to the age of the sample being prodominantly college aged students. It may be that Ludus is supported by males due to reasons related to the traditional role of males in society. This is evidenced in the fact that Davies (2001) has shown that men show a bias towards the ludus items. An exception to this effect for Ludus however is that Married individuals are not as supportive of ludus items as unmarried individuals (Montgomery & Sorrel, 2001). This may be evidence which shows that before marriage men may take more risks with relationships though once married the endorsement of Ludus becomes less paramount to the needs of men. Other studies have shown women tend to be more careful about there choice of partner and thus will be less inclined to be ludic, where as men in western society traditionally take the dominant role of chasing after there partner. The traditional role of partner selection by males may be the result of a higher knock back ratio to success when making close interpersonal connections to members of the opposite sex. Further more women in western society have undergone a role change away from there traditional role. That is that women are now experiencing more freedom in employment , finance and education. That may further complicate the Ludus issue as some authors have suggested that relationships are becoming less monogamous due to conflicting social values related to employment and factors of a highly mobile society.
In the Butler et al (1985) study females agree less with Mania than males though in the present study and the Butler et al study (1986) both males and females have a decreasing level of response to mania with increasing age. This may be due to the fact that the sample in the butler study had a predominantly female sample where as the present study presented a more even sample for a more accurate gender comparison. Overall though the results show that the Love attitudes scale is a reliable construct of love in western society despite the minute fluctuating age and gender trends in the various studies.
References
Butler, R., Walker, W., R., Skowronski, T., J., & Shannon, L., (1995) Age and responses to the love attitudes scale: consitency in structure, differences in scores. International journal of ageing and human development, 40 (4) 281-296.
Davies, M., F., (2001) Socially desirable responding and impression management in the endorsement of love styles. The journal of psychology, 135 (5), 562-570.
Hendrick, C., & Hendrick, S. (1986) A theory and method of love. Journal of personality and social psychology, 50 (2), 392-402.
Montgomery, M., J., & Sorrell , G., T., (1997) differences in love attitudes across family life stages. Family Relations. 46 (1), 55-61.
Neto, F. (1994) Love styles among Portugese students. The Journal of psychology, 123 (5), 613-616.
Simmons, C., H., Kolke, V., A., & Shimizu, H. Attitudes toward romantic love in American, German, and Japanese students. The Journal of Social Psychology, 126 (3), 327-336
Simmons, C., H., Whener, E., A., & Kay, K., A., (2001). Differences in attitudes toward romantic love in French and American college students. The Journal of Social Psychology, 129 (6), 793-799.