When we think about types of relationships, most people picture love or marriage. But relationships are far more complex than that. Many different types can exist at once — and each person in a relationship might experience a different type at the same time.
Here’s a way to think about relationships in a more organised, realistic way:
1. Emotional Bond Relationship Types
Relationships formed through feelings, teamwork, and personal choice. Read more about what Psychology Today has to say about Emotional Intimacy.
- Staying Together:
Simply enjoying each other’s company, much like a deep friendship. No major external pressures — just companionship. - Love:
An emotional bond that usually lasts longer than seven years if undisturbed. It is a natural emotion that is formed in order to keep parents cooperating during the time a child needs to become self sufficient (in historical context).
Love on its own is not stronger than commitment. It can blind you to flaws (helping you stay together during hard times) but it doesn’t guarantee lifelong stability.
Importantly, love can be renewed — shared growth, new experiences, and conscious effort can breathe life back into fading love. - Codependency:
A relationship where each person relies on the other to perform tasks or roles they themselves aren’t good at. There’s mutual respect, but also risk if the balance becomes unhealthy. - Unity:
Working together as a true team. Here, both people complete the same tasks or goals side-by-side, gaining satisfaction as one functioning unit. Read our article explaining Robbers Cave Experiment. - Personal Commitment:
Choosing to stay together because you made a promise — to yourself or each other — not because of feelings or external pressure.
Commitment can outlast love and becomes the backbone of many long-term relationships.
2. Legal and Institutional Bond Relationships
Relationships formed or maintained by external structures. Read what the Methodist Church has to say about Marriage.
- Marriage:
Traditionally reinforced by religion or cultural systems. The church often acts as a manipulating force to bind couples legally and socially, using the marriage contract as a tool. - Civil Partnership and Similar Legal Agreements:
The government often offers similar binding through legal contracts, granting rights and recognition and sometimes support without religious context. - Gang, Agency, or Company Ties:
In some organisations, companies, or groups (even gangs), certain types of relationships are encouraged or people manipulated (often positively) to maintain loyalty and productivity for the organisation. Resources and social pressure can tie people together. These relationships often differ in the resources available to support you.
3. Gain-Based or Manipulative Bond Relationship Types
Relationships built around benefit — sometimes, but not always, exploitative. These relationships are based on what each party can gain.
- Scam or Exploitation:
One person deliberately manipulates the other for personal gain — money, status, affection, or services — with little to no genuine care in return. - Mutual Gains:
These types of relationships when both parties knowingly benefit from the relationship without feeling tricked or harmed.
Examples:- Trophy Wife or Husband: One offers status or beauty, the other offers wealth or power.
- Green Card or Visa Marriage: A relationship formed to secure immigration status, sometimes arranged with open consent.
- Third-Party Manipulation:
Sometimes, it’s not one of the partners who beneifts or manipulates — but an outsider.
A boss, gang leader, religious figure, or even a family can encourage two people to stay together using rewards, pressures, or promises of safety to keep two (or more) people together.
Important Extra Thoughts About Types of Relationships
- Relationships are rarely just one type.
Two or more types often exist together at the same time — like love, codependency, and marriage law overlapping. - Each person may experience a different relationship type.
One may feel love, while the other seeks legal benefits or emotional support, which can lead to imbalance and insecurity, and breakups. - Love is not a guarantee.
It is a powerful feeling but not an unstoppable force. It can fade — or it can be renewed through effort, growth, and a decision to reconnect. Read ONS Statistics on Devorce.
In the end, understanding these layers can help us build healthier, more honest relationships — where emotions, commitments, and gains are recognised clearly instead of being tangled up and confused.