Issue 3
Vol. 44
2002
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A Comparison Between Love and Friendship - An Empirical Study Ulrich Mees Earlier findings from an empirical study by Mees (1997a) have confirmed the hypothesis that "one's greatest love" (GL) is not only more comprehensive than "one's best friendship" (BF), - since the first reveals a greater number of features than the latter (e.g., passion, cf. Davis & Todd, 1982), - but the features of Concept GL are even more intensive than those of the best friendship thus far. That means the intensity of those features which are common to both concepts is higher for Concept GL than for Concept BF. Grau (1998) has interpreted this result to be an effect of the questionnaire in which the items from the two concepts were presented simultaneously (item per item in a direct comparison of the two concepts). In a recent study (n = 227), Group 1 rated Concepts GL and BF item per item in a direct comparison (= direct-immediate; replication study of Mees, 1997a); Group 2 estimated Concept GL first, following the twenty-eight items of the questionnaire, and then (in an altered sequence) gave their ratings on Concept BF (= direct-successive); Group 3 judged only Concept GL, Group 4 only Concept BF (= indirect comparison). In a comparison of Concepts GL and BF, the total mean values of all three modes of presentation yielded each significant differences in favour of GL. The "greatest love" proves to be more important for one's existence than even the best friendship. Also the mode of presentation of the items had an significant influence on the assessment of the concepts of GL and BF. The paper provides a discussion of the methodological and theoretical reasons for these findings. Key words: Love, Friendship, Intensity
Indicators Prof. Dr. Ulrich Mees
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