In the late 1970s, Canadian sociologist John Alan Lee investigated a variety of love styles that men and women employ in romantic relationships (Lee, 1973, 1976). This theory and method created the individual typology of love styles (Karandashev, 2022).

In the 1980s and 1990s, his theory of six different love styles became well known among love scholars. Many researchers adopted this typology and investigated individual and cultural variables associated with these love styles (Karandashev, 2019). Clyde Hendrick and Susan Hendrick developed the Love Attitude Scale based on Lee’s theory and method of love styles. The new theory and survey-based method conveyed the same conceptual ideas and typological labels, such as Eros, Storge, Pragma Agape, Mania, and Ludus styles of love (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1986; Hendrick et al., 1998).

How Does the Love Attitude Scale Differ from Lee’s Original Method?

The Love Attitude Scale, however, took a different approach to investigating love styles by transforming them into love attitudes. The method assessed the typology of love attitudes rather than the typology of love styles.

Lee’s original methodology involved an in-depth look at many different facets of love feelings, expressions, and actions across various stages of a relationship. Based on these structured interviews, Lee compiled detailed descriptions of the participants’ self-reports about their events, feelings, cognitions, and actions.

The method of data collection in the structured interview and their content analysis brought a rich depiction of real love, yet it was time-consuming. The love styles in this format were the complex, multifaceted, comprehensive typological representations of the ways people love.

Individuals in the Lee’s (1973, 1976) method are classified into one of six love styles based on the complex match to a set of descriptors. Different from this, assessment based on the LAS attitude scale classify individuals into one of the love styles using Hendrick’s method. Actually, the scale evaluates love attitudes based on how high or low the scores the variables of their salient love attitudes have (Hendrick & Hendrick,1986; Hendrick, Hendrick, and Dicke, 1998).

The Theory and Method of Love Attitudes

Following Lee’s theory of six love styles, Clyde Hendrick and Susan Hendrick developed the theory and method of love attitudes (Hendrick &Hendrick, 1986; Hendrick et al., 1998).

Clyde Hendrick and Susan Hendrick developed the Love Attitude Scale (LAS) to measure six love attitudes that represent the significant aspects of the love experience. The authors converted the concept of love style as an all-encompassing characteristic of love into the variables of love attitudes. Because of this, the variables that researchers get from the Love Attitude Scale should be called love attitudes instead of love styles. This theory and method of the Love Attitude Scale (LAS) identify an individual’s love attitudes rather than love styles. It assesses the degree to which an individual is predisposed—in his or her love attitudes—to certain love styles.

Love Attitudes versus Love Styles

The Love Attitude Scale also doesn’t identify a single attitude. It rather assesses a mixture of love attitudes. The proportions of love attitude variables define their love’s “profile.” The “profile” can vary depending on who is a partner and what the context of the relationship is. Researchers can depict the individual profile of love attitudes by plotting the six scores corresponding to the love attitude variables:

“The “amount” of each love style that an individual manifests can literally be plotted on a graph. The shape of the profile, its change over time, and its relationship to other variables become potential empirical questions to be answered by research guided by hypotheses. To date, our research has not dealt with profiles per se, but with each of the six dimensions individually.”

(Hendrick, C., Hendrick, S., 2006, p. 151).

As with many other love typologies that other researchers have proposed so far, the authors of the Love Attitude Scale did not suggest the criteria for sorting a person’s love style into one of six love styles. Researchers interested in using the Love Attitude Scale have yet to explore the typology of love attitudes. This might be a more interesting task than just correlating the single love attitude scores with other variables.