[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-635003-105":59,"doc-detail-635003-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","love-as-caring-maturity-a-criticism-of-the-love-triangle-theory-and-presenting-a-new-approach-to-love-in-couples-relationships","Love as Caring Maturity - A Criticism of the Love Triangle Theory and Presenting a New Approach to Love in Couple’s Relationships","","The need for love is portrayed as a vital human need and a key motivation for family formation and continuity. The study addresses how misunderstandings of “love” endanger families by critically analyzing love in couple relationships and emphasizing Sternberg’s “love triangle” (1986). Using interpretive qualitative research and thematic document analysis, it contrasts “love as a caring maturity” with earlier accounts and proposes the “Love Pyramid” with a “Caring Maturity” vertex.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/love-as-caring-maturity-a-criticism-of-the-love-triangle-theory-and-presenting-a-new-approach-to-love-in-couples-relationships/635003/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/love-as-caring-maturity-a-criticism-of-the-love-triangle-theory-and-presenting-a-new-approach-to-love-in-couples-relationships/635003.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"xXChrisXx","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-10-22",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the main purpose of the study?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The study aims to provide an analytical overview of “love” in couple relationships, focusing on Sternberg’s love triangle and critiquing earlier approaches.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does “love as a caring maturity” differ from earlier theories?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It argues that “true love” is the product of rationality integrating cognitive, emotional, and voluntary capacities, under an “adult ego state,” and it distinguishes true love from pseudo love.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What is the “Love Pyramid” approach?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The study proposes the “Love Pyramid” model, using “Caring Maturity” as the key vertex, to give a more complete picture of true love in couples’ relationships.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},635003,1793121769,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},8796112263567,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Love as Caring Maturity: A Criticism of the Love Triangle Theory and Presenting a New Approach to Love in Couple’s Relationships  \nMehrnoosh Hedayati  \nInstitute of Humanities and Cultural Studies  \nAbstract  \nThe need for love is one of the vital needs of the mankind and one of the most important motivations for the family formation and its continuity. However, as mentioned by the experts, along with other factors, a misunderstanding of the concept of “love” has put family at risk. The main goal ofthe present study is to provide an analytical overview of the concept of “love”in couple relationships, particularly by emphasizing on Sternberg’s theory of “love triangle”(1986) as a common approach among Iranian psychologists and counselors. The method of the present qualitative research is interpretive and critical, and the extracted data from the documents are thematically analyzed. The fundamental distinction between the “love as a caring maturity” approach and the earlier ones, which either describe love in the struggle with reason, or call one of the two as slaves to the other, is that “true love” is the product of rationality with all three cognitive, emotional, and voluntary capacities. Although, it is influenced by unconscious schemes, but it is multifaceted, selective, and under the authority of“adult ego state”. In this study, we will distinguish between “love” and “pseudo love” and propose the “Love Pyramid” approach with “Caring Maturity” vertex. In this approach, we will provide a more complete picture of the meaning of true love in couples’ relationship. This love is transformative in nature and nourishes itself at every stage of family life with the knowledge to remain firm and vibrant.  \nKeywords: love, love triangle theory, caring maturity, love pyramid  \nIntroduction  \nIn complex and industrialized modern world, many deterrents in society are barriers to accepting the responsibility of married life. Factors such as economic problems, interpersonal problems, responsibility, limitations on individual freedoms, changes in the entertainment and enjoyments, lack of differentiation from the primary family, and so on, increase young people’s fears of starting a family. Undoubtedly, a very powerful and intrinsic factor must convince people to prefer the pleasure of living together to its problems; this inner factor is nothing but“love”. Love is the basis for human distinction from the other creatures (Glasser, 1998) . It is a  \nbasic and inner need which despite all the social changes, keeps the people’s desire for marriage as a permanent contract of living together alive.  \nToday research shows that the most common reason for marriage and divorce is the presence or absence of love (Sperechr &Hatfield, 2015) . Presentation of a kind of love as “romantic love”through the media, has changed the premise of premarital love into a “romantic love complex”(Brardo&Owens,2000)nowadays which plays an important role in the quality and continuity of marital relationships and family stability (Siren,2011) . But despite the growing popularity of ideas such as democracy, choosing a partner with love, but unfortunately, the stability and strength of the family is also threatened by the change of romantic feelings after marriage (Kim & Hatfield, 2004) . Undoubtedly, there are numerous individual, economical, and social reasons which contribute to the deterioration of family life, but evidences suggest that marital conflicts are usually exacerbated by a decrease in the expression of emotions and positive feelings and lack of intimacy and love (Sternberg, 2004; Gottman&Gottman2006) .  \nFundamentally, the problem of instability or marital dissatisfaction between couples today unlike decades ago is not due to the repression or lack of romantic sentiments, especially at the time of choosing a partner, rather it seems more about the perception of couples about the love phenomenon. This perception leads to damaging expectations and breakdowns o","cbCaij8ERxBgdilZ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaij8ERxBgdilZ","pdf",638555,17,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n# A Summary of Sternberg’s “Love Triangle” Theory","[{\"question\":\"What is the main purpose of the study?\",\"answer\":\"The study aims to provide an analytical overview of “love” in couple relationships, focusing on Sternberg’s love triangle and critiquing earlier approaches.\"},{\"question\":\"How does “love as a caring maturity” differ from earlier theories?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that “true love” is the product of rationality integrating cognitive, emotional, and voluntary capacities, under an “adult ego state,” and it distinguishes true love from pseudo love.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the “Love Pyramid” approach?\",\"answer\":\"The study proposes the “Love Pyramid” model, using “Caring Maturity” as the key vertex, to give a more complete picture of true love in couples’ relationships.\"}]","Love as Caring Maturity - A Criticism of the Love Triangle Theory and Presenting a New Approach to Love in Couple’s Relationships | PDF",1792675087,43]