DPP: Chemistry 101

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

Greetings and salutations, 'shipper nation! This is Amy, known on your internets as ninjamonkey73, and I'm driving the DPP bus this week. Sit back and enjoy the ride...

I'd like to start the week off with an academic bang. Today, I'd like to talk about Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love (inspired by my link surfing problem at Wikipedia). Let's discuss what makes our pilots light up the screen and hold our attention more than a year after the finale.



Excerpted from Wikipedia:

The triangular theory of love is a theory of love developed by psychologist Robert Sternberg. The theory characterizes love within the context of interpersonal relationships by three different components:

• Intimacy - Which encompasses feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness.


• Passion - Which encompasses drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, and sexual consummation.


• Commitment - Which encompasses, in the short term, the decision to remain with another, and in the long term, the shared achievements and plans made with that other.

The "amount" of love one experiences depends on the absolute strength of these three components; the "type" of love one experiences depends on their strengths relative to each other. Different stages and types of love can be explained as different combinations of these three elements; for example, the relative emphasis of each component changes over time as an adult romantic relationship develops. A relationship based on a single element is less likely to survive than one based on two or three elements.




For me, I think Lee and Kara fall into the Romantic Love category. They had a bond (intimacy of the nonsexual kind) and certainly some UST/passion, but the commitment part of the triangle just never made it. Or when it did, they swung over to Companionate Love and toned down the UST.

So, nation, I ask you: How do you see Lee and Kara with regards to Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love? Feel free to answer differently for different story arcs. And I'm never opposed to photographic evidence, where useful. You can also go off on "hot people are hot" tangents and skip the psychology entirely, if your idea of Katee's and Jamie's onscreen fireworks isn't at all scientific. ;)

Comments

[rdave1.livejournal.com]

Such a academic thinky question for Monday!:D

I think Lee and Kara fall into the Consumate Love category because they really were ALL 3. We knew that passion was there from the moment they met, intimacy has always been there in a way. Lee and Kara have always been connected whether by their past, their love of flying or just their mutual need for each other. One would think commitment would be hard to explain for them since they were never "together" but I think that's one of the easiest one for them. They were always devoted to each other in the most important ways possible; their hearts and souls belonged to only each other. Yes, at times their body belonged to another but I suppose that's not a big detail when you look at the big picture. They always came back to each other FOR each other, as long as Kara was fine, Lee could deal with his pain and vise verca. Personally, I think that's true commitment and devotion.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

Shhh! Don't tell anyone. I'm trying to look smart today so that later in the week when I devolve into full geek-out and squee I can point back to Monday. 8'D

Oh, wait. They can all read this, can't they? Move along people! Nothing to see here! :)

[rdave1.livejournal.com]

I can't wait for the geek-out. I love the thinky thoughts but sometimes it's hard to come up with a sound sentence when you are doing a million things.

You need a curtain around your cubicle.:D Just a thought!