Infatuation —843 recovery. During these interactions, infants learn Malatesta, C. Z., Culver, C., Tesman, J. R., & Shepard, communicative tools and important information B. (1989). The development of emotion expression about others’ emotional states. Both infants and during the first two years of life. Monographs of the caregivers are active agents in these interactions, Society for Research in Child Development, 54, mutually acting to shape the emotions and behav- 1–104. ior of the other. These face-to-face interactions Thompson, R. A. (2006). The development of the wane as infants become more mobile and require person: Social understanding, relationships, communication across larger spaces regarding more conscience, self. In E. Eisenberg, W. Damon, & R. M. complex situations. Infants use pointing to create Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. joint attention, and they combine pointing and Social, emotional and personality development (pp. 24–98). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. other gestures to create shared intentionality with Tomasello, M. (1999). The cultural origins of human others around interesting and desired objects and cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. events. In addition, infants use others’ emotional Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., & Liszkowski, U. (2007). expressions to guide their behavior in ambiguous A new look at infant pointing. Child Development, situations, evidencing an understanding that others 78, 705–722. have important information to convey in their Tronick, E. Z. (1989). Emotions and emotional assessments of such a complex world. During the communication in infants. American Psychologist, 44, second year of life, infants develop a more sophis- 112–119. ticated understanding of others’ goals and inten- tions, allowing for action-based communication around the intentions of others. These provide the avenue for more complex imitation and helping INFATUAT I ON behavior, shared pretense, and the development of language. Infatuation is a state characterized by intense Infants are thus capable of much more than we feelings of passion toward a specific individual. once thought in their ability to understand the The term infatuation typically refers to the early emotions and information provided by their care- stages of romantic love, before the infatuated indi- givers through both direct and indirect communi- vidual has had a chance to get to know or develop cative acts. These communications provide the an intimate relationship with the love object. foundation for psychological growth as infants Colloquially, infatuation is frequently associated approach the development of linguistic communi- with youth and suggests an irrational, capricious cation and develop an even more complex under- approach to love. Although some consider infatu- standing of others. ation to be a special, perhaps early or intense form of passionate love, researchers often use the term Ross A. Thompson and Emily K. Newton infatuation interchangeably with passion, pas- See also Mother–Child Relationships in Early Childhood; sionate love, limerence, or being in love. Therefore, Parent–Child Relationships; Parenting this entry reviews research and theory on infatua- tion and these associated terms. Further Readings Adamson, L. B. (1995). Communication development Features of Infatuation during infancy. Madison: Brown & Benchmark. Fogel, A. (1993). Developing through relationships: When individuals are infatuated with a potential Origins of communication, self, and culture. Chicago: or current romantic partner, they frequently University of Chicago Press. exhibit any or all of an assortment of features. For Gopnik, A., Meltzoff, A., & Kuhl, P. (1999). The one, infatuation is often characterized by persis- scientist in the crib. New York: Morrow. tent, intrusive thoughts about the love object. Legerstee, M. (2005). Infants’ sense of people: Precursors These thoughts may take on a fantasy-like quality, to a theory of mind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge or, alternatively, they can be anxious ruminations University Press. that are distracting and distressing to the infatuated 844 Infatuation individual. Frequently, the character of these over time in most romantic relationships. There intrusive thoughts will ebb and flow, focusing at are several reasons for this decline. For one, rela- one moment on the possibility that one’s feelings tionships are initially exciting because people’s are reciprocated and the next moment on the pos- self-concepts expand to incorporate their romantic sibility that they are not. This volatility contrib- partners, but this excitement fades once the self- utes to the emotional turbulence experienced by expansion process runs to completion. In addition, infatuated individuals, who tend toward euphoria it takes a certain measure of anxiety and uncer- when the love object demonstrates romantic inter- tainty to maintain the infatuated state, and as time est in them and toward despair when the love passes, people typically accrue enough evidence to object is insufficiently responsive. Infatuated indi- confirm or refute the possibility that a love object viduals also commonly idealize the love object, desires the self in return. Tumultuous, off-again/ worshipping his or her positive qualities while on-again relationships that perpetuate confusion only indifferently acknowledging his or her nega- about romantic partners’ feelings and intentions tive qualities. Finally, infatuated individuals direct probably have the best likelihood of sustaining their passions toward only one potential partner. infatuation. (Of course, such relationships proba- Only rarely do individuals experience strong bly do a poor job of sustaining interpersonal trust infatuation toward multiple individuals, and, con- and security!) sequently, they yearn for their love object to reciprocate this exclusive desire. Although not all Conceptual Frameworks of these features are necessarily present in every infatuation, the more acute the infatuation, the Many social-psychological theories have explored more likely it is that these features will be present infatuation and related constructs. One relevant and pronounced. and well-known theory of love is Sternberg’s tri- Another important component of infatuation is angular theory. Sternberg proposes that love has sexual desire. In most cases, individuals become three components: passion, intimacy, and deci- infatuated with potential romantic partners who sion/commitment. The passion component refers are of the sex that they prefer romantically, and to the experience of arousal and sexual desire; the sexual fantasies are often present in infatuated intimacy component refers to feelings that pro- individuals’ persistent thoughts about their love mote closeness, bonding, and connectedness; and object. (Exceptions to these rules are also impor- the decision/commitment component refers to the tant in understanding the nature of infatuation and decision to love a particular individual and the are reviewed later.) In one study, participants commitment to maintain that love. Different types named people with whom they were currently “in of love emerge from different mixtures of any or love” and reported that, in 87 percent of the cases, all of these components, and each component may they also experienced sexual desire for these same be present in varying degrees. Sternberg suggests individuals. However, sexual contact is rarely the that infatuation is a kind of love that exists when central stated goal of an infatuation. Instead, only the passion component is present. That is, infatuated individuals long for moments of emo- individuals are infatuated when they experience tional union with the love object; sexual encoun- sexual desire and arousal for a particular roman- ters do not necessarily lead to emotional unions, tic interest, but they do not feel bonded to and and emotional connections can frequently be have not yet committed to the romantic interest. achieved through nonsexual means. Also, given That infatuation is derived mainly from passion is that people can feel sexual desire (but not infatua- consistent with the characterization of infatuation tion) for a number of different individuals at the as an immature kind of love that emerges early same time, sexual desire alone is insufficient to in a relationship, before any real intimacy or generate or sustain an infatuation. commitment has been achieved. Infatuation is more likely to emerge during the In contrast to Sternberg’s model, other theoreti- early stages of a romantic or potentially romantic cal perspectives suggest that the complete experi- relationship. But infatuation is unlikely to last for- ence of infatuation or passion does not emerge if ever: Such intense passion has a tendency to fade sexual desire is the only active motivation. Infatuation —845 Attachment theorists posit that the typical experi- Empirical and theoretical work that has explored ence of passionate love results from the activation the association between passion and intimacy also of both the sexual system and the attachment sys- sheds light on the nature of infatuation. Some theo- tem. Although sexual desire frequently accompa- rists have suggested that as romantic partners nies infatuation, as noted earlier, passion can accumulate knowledge about one another, passion emerge without sexual desire. For example, prepu- emerges as a result of such increases in intimacy. (In bescent children experience infatuations that evi- mathematical terms, passion is