Loneliness, Sex, Romantic Jealousy, and Powerlessness

Abstract

The revised UCLA Loneliness Scale, items from a revision of an interpersonal jealousy personality scale varying in partner-rival contact, and vignettes depicting partner-rival contact were administered to 194 female and 97 male college students in Study 1. Those measures and a measure of powerlessness, comprising the learned helplessness attribution style, were administered to 44 female and 28 male college students in Study 2. Results showed that the relation between jealousy and both loneliness and powerlessness varied as a function of the type of contact between romantic partner and rival. Loneliness and powerlessness were: (i) positively associated with jealousy for unilateral contact (e.g., a partner admiring an opposite-sex person), (ii) not associated with jealousy for bilateral contact (e.g., a partner having an opposite-sex person as a friend), and (iii) negatively associated with jealousy for mutual contact (e.g., a partner kissing an opposite-sex person). Regression analyses indicated that powerlessness mediated, in part, the relation between loneliness and jealousy. Although some sex differences were found in jealousy, those differences did not conform to the pattern expected on the basis of sex differences in powerlessness. It was proposed that lonely individuals tended to display situationally inappropriate jealousy because of their powerlessness and that tendency posed a problem for their romantic relationships.