Jennifer L. Hughes, Abigail A. Camden
2020
Citations
1
Influential Citations
2
Citations
Quality indicators
Journal
Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research
Abstract
Chapman (2015) proposed that a main reason for relationship problems is that couples speak different love languages. For couples to effectively communicate, each partner must learn to speak the love language that their partner prefers. His love languages theory includes words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Polk and Egbert (2013) suggested that future research on the love languages should gather data on behaviors that partners perceive they are receiving. For the current study, we followed their suggestion and assessed whether the perception that a partner was using a love language well predicted love and relationship satisfaction for the other partner. We also evaluated sexual orientation and gender identity as predictors. For this study we used the Love Languages Profile written by Chapman (2015) to assess the love languages. Most research has not used his scale. Instead, the authors developed their own scales based on the theory. Bland and McQueen (2018) argued that not using Chapman’s inventory has led to measurement issues that could have affected the results of these studies and created mixed results. They also contended that the scale that Chapman developed is conceptually closer to his model as compared to the scales developed by the other authors. Some of those scales also have had poor reliability coefficients (e.g., Bunt & Hazelwood, 2017). In this article, we define the love languages and give information about how to determine an individual’s preferred love language or languages. ABSTRACT. Chapman (2015) proposed a popular love language theory about couples’ communication of love. For the present study, we predicted that partners who perceived that their partner used their preferred love language well would report greater feelings of love and relationship satisfaction. We expected this would be the same for both women and men, as well as those in heterosexual and gay relationships. We recruited 981 individuals in couples to complete online surveys. Using multiple regression, we found support for our hypothesis that a partner’s perception that their partner was using their preferred love language well would increase love (i.e., words of affirmation R2 = .26, quality time R2 = .23, gifts R2 = .17, acts of service R2 = .25, and physical touch R2 = .24) and relationship satisfaction (i.e., words of affirmation R2 = .32, quality time R2 = .24, gifts R2 = .11, acts of service R2 = .20, and physical touch R2 = .24). Unexpectedly, we found that women who thought their partners were using their preferred love language (i.e., gifts, acts of service, and physical touch) well reported greater feelings of love as compared to men. This research provided some support for teaching people in romantic relationships how to learn and use their partner’s preferred love languages well. In addition, partners should be taught to recognize when their partners are attempting to use their preferred love language because this could lead to increased feelings of love and relationship satisfaction.