University Honors

Although the concept of love languages is a popular topic known by many, there is not sufficient research to support their existence in romantic relationships. There has also not been any previous studies that audibly observes the existence of love languages between romantic couples. Conducting a study examining the presence of love languages, if any, through audible recordings is significant for giving a greater extent of how individuals may express and receive love. Love language is determined by Chapmanís Five Love Languages model, a model designed from a marriage counselorís experiences with helping individuals improve their relationships. Based on his personal observations when working with couples, he noted expressive language, such as words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch, as ways individuals express and receive love. In this research design, I developed and implemented a coding system to observe love languages in the everyday lives of romantic couples. The participants were 78 couples, including people who identified as being a woman in a romantic relationship with a woman, a man with a man, and different-sex couples from the Southern California community who were at least 18 years old. Couples wore an Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) used to naturalistically observe their daily social interactions through audible recordings. By developing a coding system, I expect to empirically examine Chapmanís love languages, as well as explore other behaviors that should be incorporated into his original model.