Abstract
This study confirmed a hypothesis from the Emotion-in-Relationships conceptual model, which predicts that greater interdependence between relationship partners—or closeness—creates the potential for jealousy. The study also sought to better define the positive side of romantic jealousy in addition to its more negative attributes. College students in premarital relationships ( N = 229) completed a questionnaire, including 27 different measures and the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale. Select data were obtained from 122 cases at 3-month follow-up. Each jealousy scale was tested for associations with demographic (age, sex, and race), person (life satisfaction, loneliness, romantic attachment styles, love styles, and romantic beliefs), and relationship (affective, closeness, and social exchange theory) constructs. Results clearly distinguished emotional/reactive jealousy as mostly “good” and cognitive/suspicious jealousy as “bad.” Behavioral jealousy was associated with few measures. Implications are discussed for the interdependence model of relationships and the transactional model of jealousy.
Highlights
A common thread among most definitions of jealousy is that it is an emotional response to the real or imagined threat of losing something of value from a romantic relationship (Salovey & Rodin, 1985; White & Mullen, 1989)
Much of the literature on jealousy has not focused on the relationship closeness perspective and has instead cast jealousy in a primarily negative light when considering how it is defined, how it is conceptualized, and how it is associated with other individual difference and relationship constructs
This study examined how different dimensions of romantic jealousy were associated concurrently and longitudinally with conceptually relevant person and relationship constructs as well as demographic factors
Summary
This review of the literature has produced evidence for negative and positive sides of romantic jealousy. They found that greater emotional/reactive jealousy was related to greater relationship dependency and greater trust in the relationship partner They found that greater suspicious jealousy (as measured by a combined index of the cognitive and behavioral subscales of the MJS) was related to greater insecurity about the relationship, lower trust in the relationship partner, and to several negatively valued individual difference measures (i.e., anxious romantic attachment style and lower self-esteem). All of these findings support the transactional model of jealousy. Hypothesis 3: The suspicious types of cognitive and behavioral jealousy will have a profile that includes positive associations with “bad” person and relationship factors and negative associations with “good” person and relationship factors
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