The Psychology 242 Love Machine

 

Our lab assignment this week is to create our own special Love Test—something that will allow us to measure the love that people feel for one another.

 

Here is what we’ll do:  In sections, brainstorm with group members to develop some questionnaire items that, at face value, appear to tap into the extent to which people love their dating/marital partners.  In other words, try to think of some of the manifestations of love—a latent variable—but, more specifically, manifestations that could be assessed easily with a questionnaire.  Some example items that fit the bill are “I am strongly committed to this person.” or “I cannot imaging loving someone else as much as I love this person.”  Both of these items could be rated on a 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) scale, or they could involve simple “yes/no” responses.

 

Each section will be responsible for submitting to me (via your TA) FIVE questionnaire items that you think best assess love. I will compile what I consider to be the best 25 items to create a Psychology 242 Love Test that we’ll place on-line for people to fill out.  Next week I will ask you to find two to three friends or family members to fill out the questionnaire with respect to a variety of targets (e.g., they can complete the questionnaire with respect to their dating partners, spouses, TV characters, etc.).  Then, in sections, we can analyze the data.  It will be fun, no?