Love Test

This measure is designed to support a brief self-report screening of interpersonal feelings, attitudes, and attachment patterns in close relationships. Grounded in Zick Rubin's foundational work on love and liking and Hazan and Shaver's attachment theory, the Love Test provides a structured profile of how you tend to connect, seek closeness, and respond to emotional vulnerability in both romantic and friendship contexts. It includes 18 items and typically takes about 4 minutes to complete.

Why Take a Love Test

The way we experience love and close friendship is not random — it is shaped by deeply ingrained attachment patterns that develop early in life and influence how we seek and maintain emotional connection as adults. These patterns determine how comfortable we feel with closeness, how we respond to conflict and perceived rejection, and what we need to feel secure in a relationship.

Most people are unaware of their own attachment tendencies until they see them reflected clearly in recurring relationship dynamics — the same arguments, the same distances, the same fears. A structured test for love and attachment provides a framework for recognizing these patterns before they cause damage, and for understanding what lies beneath them. This insight is directly actionable: knowing whether you lean toward secure, anxious, or avoidant attachment tells you specifically what to work on — in yourself and in how you communicate with a partner or close friend.

The Love Test is particularly useful for couples who want to understand each other's emotional needs more clearly, for individuals examining what makes intimacy feel safe or threatening, and for anyone preparing to discuss relationship patterns with a therapist or counselor.

What the Assessment Measures

The instrument yields scores across four attachment dimensions in close relationships:

• Secure attachment — comfort with emotional intimacy, dependability, openness to vulnerability, and the ability to both give and receive support consistently
• Anxious attachment — fear of rejection or abandonment, need for reassurance, and self-sacrificing behavior driven by worry about losing closeness
• Anxious-avoidant attachment — a conflicted pattern combining strong desire for closeness with discomfort that leads to distancing, doubt, and emotional ambivalence
• Dismissive-avoidant attachment — a tendency to downplay the importance of closeness, rely on emotional distance, and experience intimacy as threatening or uncomfortable

Results describe your dominant attachment pattern and the relative strength of each tendency — giving you a differentiated picture rather than a single label.

Who This Assessment Is For

This Love Test is appropriate for any adult who wants to better understand how they experience and express love and closeness in their relationships. It can be completed individually for self-reflection, or by two partners separately for comparison and discussion. Therapists and counselors use it as a structured conversation starter to identify attachment themes relevant to treatment goals and to clarify what clients need to feel safe and connected.

Clinical Validity and Use in Practice

This instrument draws on Rubin's pioneering research distinguishing love from liking, and on Hazan and Shaver's influential attachment framework — among the most widely cited bodies of work in relationship psychology. Results are best interpreted as descriptive indicators of relational tendencies rather than diagnostic conclusions. In clinical or counseling contexts, they provide a structured framework for discussing emotional needs, relationship history, and protective strategies — and should always be considered alongside clinical interview and relevant contextual information.