Checkpoint: styles of love

Checkpoint: Styles of Love Psy/265 Scenario 1: George and Lisa have been married for five years and have no children. George works as a salesman for a small local company and gets easily stressed from a demanding day in the sales field. George will often arrive home upset and expects sympathy from his wife Lisa who will always drop what she is doing to ensure that he feels better. Lisa works as a nurse and also has much stress involved from her job, but has never burdened George with the stress of her own job. George has never even asked about how her days are at work. Scenario 2: Bert and Larry have been dating on and off for the last three years. They enjoy the same interests and have a great time when they are together. Larry expresses verbally his love for Bert, yet Bert cannot verbally return the favor. Bert will usually respond with “ me too” whenever Larry say’s “ I love you”. It is this small gesture of unepreciation that has caused these two to break up so often. However, everything that Bert does towards Larry has love and affection written all over it. He just won’t say it. Both of these love styles are similar because one side is more giving than the other. It would fall under the selfless love, however, scenario two also shows signs of game-playing love. These two scenarios are different due to the fact that George and Lisa have been together longer and have more time into their relationship. Both scenarios have one side who seems to be putting forth effort to express their feelings toward the other while the other side is only taking for granted their expressed gestures. I have been married for eighteen years and have found that even though I have experienced several different styles of love throughout my relationship, only a couple still stand out. We have always possessed a friendship love, where our friendship aside from intimacy is very strong. We started our relationship as friends years ago and have found that this has always remained our strong point. We share common interests along with many other friends of ours. We also hand on tightly to possessive, excited love. Whenever my wife ignores me out of anger or game playing, it will drive me insane until she acknowledges me again. It also works the other way around. We cannot sleep alone without each other, sort of like our security blankets to each other.