This book contains 11 theory-based chapters reporting the findings of a study on patterns of work, love, and learning in adulthood. (The study gathered data about events related to work, relationships, and learning from 405 adults and graphed them to identify life patterns.) The following topics are covered: (1) the origins and development of the concepts of work and love and how people learn to love and to work; (2) work and love in adulthood; (3) how work and love-related life events motivate adults to engage in learning; (4) how the study originated, and how the "work, love, and learning in adulthood" questionnaire used to gather the book's data was constructed; (5) the parallel pattern between love and work; (6) the steady/fluctuating pattern of love and work; (7) the divergent pattern of love and work; (8) the insights about work and love gained from comparing the three patterns; (9) learning and its relationship to work and love patterns; (10) how learning is related to the development of the capacity to work and to love; and (11) the major contributions of the study (the discovery of three patterns of interaction, the uncovering of a stabilizing factor in each pattern, the lack of gender differences in the findings, and the role that learning plays in the development of the capacity to work and to love). The book includes notes on methodology, instructions for graphing life patterns, and 142 references. (KC)