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Interpersonal Assignment
Love is an umbrella term that means a strong sense of affection, intimacy, or fondness

that exists between individuals or parties. Ideally, love is expressed in many forms based on the

type of relationship involved. For instance, Agape is a rare style of love where the parties

involved are selfless in extending compassion to each other. Ideally, Agape is associated with

parents’ love for their children. The other style is Ludus which refers to a situation where the

parties in the picture are merely playful with each other and have no desire to establish a

commitment to each other. Storage is another style of love where a party gradually develops the

need for attachment (Eshaw). Although commitment lacks at the beginning, emotional

attachment develops over time leading to commitment. On its part, Eros is a romantic style of

love where the individuals involved have a strong emotional and physical attachment. That

established, the following paper will use the movie Friends With Benefits in an attempt to

define the different love styles that exist amongst humans. Ideally, this will be achieved through

analyzing interpersonal behaviors of the main characters and examining how they view love at

different points of their relationship.

Love Style Each Character is Using in the Relationship
As for Dylan, he is using Ludus as his preferred style of love as he lures Jamie into having an

affair with her. After the two watch a romantic movie, Dylan suggests that they should have

some form of connection to each other besides working together. He suggests that the two

should start having casual sex with zero strings attached. On the other hand, Jamie has zero

interest in Dylan when they first meet as she is only interested in having him hired by the GQ

men’s magazine so that she can receive her bonus at work (Gluck et al.). To entice Jamie into

taking the job, she decides to impress him by getting closer to a friend. That said, she is using
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Pragma love style. Pragma is defined as the practical form of love where partners are in a

mutually advantageous relationship. Idyllically, Jamie merely gets close to Dylan so that he can

entice him to take up her preferred job position that can earn her a bonus. Dylan benefits from

this relationship because he gets a new job in a city he knows next to nothing about. As such,

both benefit from the relationship they share.

Communication Behaviors that Inform the Decision
In the case of Dylan, the communication behavior he expresses can be best described as

assertive. After hanging around Jamie for some time since his arrival in New York, he realizes

that she has not shown a particular interest in him and so he decides to make the first move.

After the romantic movie that the two watch together, Dylan suggests that they should at least

have sex. That mentioned, he asserts himself with regards to his need for a Ludus style of love

(Gluck et al.). He also appears comfortable introducing Jamie as a friend as long as he keeps

having sex with her. None of them wants to lose their status quo as both benefits from the

arrangement they have. On her side, Jamie is aggressive in gaining and keeping her Pragma

form of love with Dylan. Besides picking Dylan at the airport and urging him to take the job

offer, she waits for hours for Dylan-who is at this point still a stranger-to finish with his

interview and even negotiates an offer for him. She takes him to a street party and on a rooftop

spot, “The only place in the City where you could see the stars” (Gluck et al.). As she described

In any case, she even agrees to sleep with him despite not having any form of emotional

attraction to him just to maintain her Pragma love style status. She is always smiling around

Dylan and does her best not to offend him (Gluck et al.). All of the fun activities, favors, and

respectful introduction to her friends are meant to keep Dylan happy with his job in New York.

Dylan’ job retention benefits Jamie as she gets to earn her bonus- a fact she does not hide from
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Dylan who although he feels a bit used likes the fact that he keeps his Ludus relationship and

keeps Jamie closer.

How Different Styles Might be Blended
In certain instances, the love between the character has expressed a blend of more than

one style. An example of this can be seen in Jamie as she is both in a pragma and a ludus

relationship with Dylan. For instance, Dylan expresses his affection for Jamie in the form of

Agape when he accepts to take up a job that he had not decided was the best for him so that

Jamie can get the bonus she wanted. On the other hand, he partly takes the job because he saw

the possibility of having an Eros type of love with Jamie (Dargis). Besides, he suggests that the

two engage in a casual-sex relationship-Ludus-so that he can pull Jamie towards him and

probably lure her into a romantic relationship. As far as Jamie is concerned, she expresses

Pragman on the first day she met Dylan since she wanted a promotion and she knew that Dylan

wanted a new job. As she interacted with Dylan, she engaged in Ludus and at some point Eros

styles of love.
How the Love Styles have Changed Over Time
The love styles used by Dylan and Jamie evolve over time into other forms of love styles as the

two continuously interact with each other. For instance, Dylan’s initial love for Jamie can be

described as slightly agape because he agrees to accept the job offer at GQ men’s magazine just

to please Jamie-a stranger he had just met. Even so, he becomes attracted to her but remains

silent for he did not see the same sign from Jamie. To break the ice, he graduated their love

style to Ludus after they had a chat about sex (Gluck et al.). The Ludus slowly lured Jamie into

accepting an Eros style of love. At some point though, Dylan expresses a mania style of love

when he heard that Jamie took one of her male friend’s virginity. At this point, he wants to

know their history although the two are not yet a couple. Nevertheless, he is relived when

Jamie says that she was just joking and that she and the White were just friends. Another
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evidence of Dylan expressing a maniac type of love can be seen in his question on whether

Jamie takes all of her recruits at her favorite spot on the rooftop (Dargis). He lightens up when

she even warns him against telling anyone that she had taken him up there as that would

indicate some form of intimacy between the two. On her part, Jamie begins her relationship

with Dylan in the form of an association of convenience (Gluck et al.). All she cares about

when she first meets Dylan is getting a hefty bonus for bringing in a valuable recruit to the

company. She acted as GQ’s corporate headhunter, and she used to be paid for every employee

she brings aboard. As such, she did not want to have emotional attachments to her recruit and

thus kept it strictly professional. Nevertheless, her methods of luring Dylan led her relationship

with him to evolve first into Ludus, storage, and later an Eros style of love.
In conclusion, love can be expressed in many forms depending on the nature of the

relationship between the parties under scrutiny. Love can either be Agape, Pragma, Mania,

Ludus, Eros, or Storage. In the context of the Movie Friends With Benefits, all of these forms

are expressed in one way or another in the two main characters as they interacted with each

other. As seen, the initial love between Dylan and Jamie can be classified as Pragama when

viewed from Jamie’s perspective or agape when viewed from Dylan’s point of reference. Even

so, their love slowly evolves into Ludus, partly mania, storage and finally Eros. The

relationship began as one of convenience but ends up as a legitimate romantic relationship with

firm commitment. With regards to communication behaviors of the two, Dylan prefers an

assertive form of behavior in relating to Jamie while she prefers an aggressive form since she

seeks to gains from relating well with Dylan

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Works Cited
Dargis, Manohla. "It’S Just Sex. We’Re Just Friends. You Know The Rules. Etc., Etc.." The

New York Times, 2011,.

Eshaw, Ann. "6 Types Of Love That Might Help You Understand It Better." Thought Catalog,

2015,.
Gluck, Will, Keith Merryman, Martin Shafer, Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, and Patricia

Clarkson. Friends with Benefits. , 2015.