The Affective Structure of Love: Sentiment, Action Readiness, and Caregiving

Attachment theory gives sophisticated accounts of attachment, caregiving, internal working models, and the regulation of behavior, but it does not ordinarily provide an explicit concept for the relatively enduring organization of a person's diverse emotional dispositions toward someone loved. A. F. Shand's technical theory of *sentiments* and Nico Frijda's accounts of concern and action readiness can supply this level of description. I propose: L(A, B) = (S_L(A, B), D_C(A, B)), where S_L(A, B) is A's sentiment of love for B and D_C(A, B) is A's caregiving disposition or behavioral system directed toward B. In Shand's technical sense, a sentiment is not an opinion, passing feeling, or single persistent emotion. It is an organization of a plurality of emotional dispositions concerning an object and subordinated to a common end: S_L(A, B) = Org_{G_L} {D_{E_1}(A, B), ..., D_{E_n}(A, B)}. The two components of love are distinct but functionally coupled. When a disposition organized within \(S_L\) is activated, the resulting emotion can modify one or more modes of action readiness. These readinesses can remain latent, be inhibited, compete, or contribute to different overt actions. Together with the monitoring, representations, goals, repertoire, and feedback organization of \(D_C\), they constrain situated caregiving. The Shandian common end, the Frijdian concern, and the caregiving set-goal remain distinct structures, but they can be oriented toward one motivational domain: the attachment needs of B. Bell and Richard's theory of enduring caring emotion is an important partial precedent. The present proposal differs categorically by distinguishing episodic emotion, emotional disposition, sentiment, and caregiving behavioral system.