Briefly describe Sternberg's triangular theory of love.

Answers will vary. Robert Sternberg's "triangular theory" of love includes three building blocks, or components, of loving experiences: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy is the experience of warmth toward another person that arises from feelings of closeness and connectedness, and the desire to share one's inmost thoughts. Passion is an intense romantic or sexual desire, accompanied by physiological arousal. Commitment is the devotion to maintain the relationship through good times and bad. Sternberg's model is triangular in that various kinds of love can be conceptualized in terms of a triangle in which each vertex represents one of the building blocks. In Sternberg's model, couples are well matched if they possess corresponding levels of passion, intimacy, and commitment. According to the model, various combinations of the building blocks of love characterize different types of love relationships. For example, infatuation (passionate love) is typified by sexual desire but not by intimacy and commitment.