CULTURAL AND ETHNIC INFLUENCES ON LOVE AND ATTACHMENT

Recently, theorists have begun to speculate about the nature of passio nate and companionate love. Evolutionary psychologists have tended to emphasize the pan-cultural nature of passionate love. Historians have stressed the fact that, in different historical eras, people's attitud es toward love, sex, and intimacy have varied widely. Cross-cultural r esearchers contend that, even today, societies differ greatly in their attitudes toward love. In this study, 124 men and 184 women from four ethnic backgrounds were asked if they were currently in love and how passionately and companionately in love they were. The four groups dif fered, as predicted, in their general orientations toward life. Europe an-Americans were the most individualistic, Japanese-Americans and Pac ific Islanders were intermediate in individualism/collectivism, and Ch inese-Americans were the most collectivist. Nonetheless, in the specif ic area of love, the various American ethnic groups did not differ sig nificantly in the likelihood of being in love, nor in the intensity of the passionate love (PL) or companionate love (CL) they felt. In all ethnic groups, men's and women's adult attachment styles predicted rom antic feelings and experiences. The anxious were the most likely to be in a love relationship, and they scored the highest on the PL scale; avoidants scored lowest. The secure scored the highest on the CL scab; avoidants scored the lowest.