This test has six sections to help you learn what your style of loving is. answer how strongly you agree with each statement as it relates to your current relationship (with a lover, significant other, or spouse). If you aren't in a relationhip right now, think of your ideal relationship and your beliefs about relationships in general. To complete the test, indicate the extent to which you agree with each item using the scale below.

After you take the test you will learn what your love style is. The subscores you will have when you're done represent different styles of loving: Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Mania and Agape. These categories - and these Greek words for love - will be explained when you're done.

For each of the subsections, your score appears below. These subsection scores are associated with three main love styles that are related to how you feel.

The three subsection scores below are secondary styles that are related to how you act.

The range for each subscore is from 0 through 28.

Identify your love style by finding the highest score in the first set and the highest score in the second set of love styles.

What do your love style scores mean? These love styles may change over a lifetime, but not always. These categories give you a sense of the kind of lover you tend to be - even if you aren't in a relationship right now. If you are in a relationship, they also help describe what you are like and how you behave in that relationship. Consider asking your partner to take this test, too, and then see how well you match.

What do these categories mean? the terms are derived from six Greek words for different kinds of love.

• Eros stands for passionate love. In researching this test, the authors found that people who reported that they are currently in love were particularly likely to be identified with Eros. Eros involves strong physical preferences and responses to a lover, and a lot of commitment is involved. Eros was the most common feeling among respondents in recent research on Love Attitudes.



• Ludus stands for game-playing love. People who score high in this category approach love as an interactional game - even if it sometimes involves deception. Ludus types may even be wary of closeness. Men were more likely to approach love as a game, although men and women were pretty similar in this regard. People who have never been in love and those who have been in love again, and again, and again tended to fit well into this category, while people who have been in love only once or twice were not as likely to belong in this category. Ludus was the least common feeling among respondents in recent research.



• If you scored high on Storge, you have an inclination to link love and friendship. It is an enduring kind of love, but it is not a particularly passionate kind of love. Storge was less common than Eros, but much more common than Ludus in recent research.

The next three types are subtypes that reflect how you behave regarding your feelings.

• If you scored high on Pragma, you are a rational thinker. You focus on finding a lover who has the kind of qualities that you prefer; you may even have a plan about the ideal relationship before you find the lover of your dreams. Among the second set of love attitudes, Pragma was the least common.



• Mania may be what is somstimes called puppy love - since it is particularly common among adolescents (although plenty of older lovers can be manic). There is a high degree of uncertainty about the lover and a lot of activity around seeking to fix that uncertainty.



• Agape is rare in its purest form, although it received the highest score among the second three Love Attitudes. agape is selfless love, the kind that involves giving without taking, and may only appear in its true form in parents of small children - and then perhaps only on occasion.

If you take this test with your partner, matching is ideal. If your scores for each "love type" are less than 12 points apart, you should consider that matching.

From Clyde Hendrick and Susan Hendrick, "A Theory and Method of Love" (Department of Psychology, Texas Tech University), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50 (1986): 392-402. Copyright ©1986 American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission of the authors and APA. The authors also have a revised, relationship-specific version.

This test is from the book The Love Test by Virginia Rutter and Pepper Schwartx, Ph.D. To read reviews or buy this book from Amazon.com, click on the book's title.