Jealousy
Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety.
[9] Jealousy can either be suspicious or reactive,[10] and it is often reinforced as a series of particularly strong emotions and constructed as a universal human experience.
The word stems from the French jalousie, formed from jaloux (jealous), and further from Low Latin zelosus (full of zeal), in turn from the Greek word ζῆλος (zēlos), sometimes "jealousy", but more often in a positive sense "emulation, ardour, zeal"[14][15] (with a root connoting "to boil, ferment"; or "yeast").
[citation needed] The "biblical language" zeal would be known as "tolerating no unfaithfulness" while in middle English zealous is good.
Scientists instead define it in their own words, as illustrated by the following examples: These definitions of jealousy share two basic themes.
Jealous reactions typically involve aversive emotions and/or behaviors that are assumed to be protective for their attachment relationships.
The terms are used indiscriminately in such popular 'feel-good' books as Nancy Friday's Jealousy, where the expression 'jealousy' applies to a broad range of passions, from envy to lust and greed.
It was not until the postclassical era that Latin borrowed the late and poetic Greek word zelotypia and the associated adjective zelosus.
It is from this adjective that are derived French jaloux, Provençal gelos, Italian geloso, Spanish celoso, and Portuguese cioso.
Gerrod Parrott draws attention to the distinct thoughts and feelings that occur in jealousy and envy.
[35] Still, the differences between envy and jealousy in terms of thoughts and feelings justify their distinction in philosophy and science.
A jealous behavior, in women, is directed into avoiding sexual betrayal and a consequent waste of resources and effort in taking care of someone else's offspring.
[40] Research by Sybil Hart, PhD, at Texas Tech University indicates that children are capable of feeling and displaying jealousy at as young as six months.
The five sub-types differ in whether a response is 1) directed at partner or rival(s), 2) directed at discovery or repair, and 3) positively or negatively valenced: While some of these communicative responses are destructive and aggressive, e.g., distributive communication and active distancing, some individuals respond to jealousy in a more constructive way.
[48] Integrative communication, compensatory restoration, and negative affect expression have been shown to lead to positive relation outcomes.
The research identified that if a person valued long-term relationships more than being sexually exclusive, those individuals were more likely to demonstrate jealousy over emotional rather than physical infidelity.
It seems that male jealousy in heterosexual relationships may be influenced by their female partner's phase in her menstrual cycle.
In the period around and shortly before ovulation, males are found to display more mate-retention tactics, which are linked to jealousy.
These findings imply that psychological and cultural mechanisms regarding sex differences may play a larger role than expected.
Although there are no sex differences in childhood attachment, individuals with dismissing behavior were more concerned with the sexual aspect of relationships.
Thus psychological and cultural mechanisms are implied as unvarying differences in jealousy that play a role in sexual attachment.
[56] In 1906, The American Journal of Psychology had reported that "the weight of quotable (male) authority is to the effect that women are more susceptible to jealousy".
This claim was accompanied in the journal by a quote from Confucius: "The five worst maladies that afflict the female mind are indocility, discontent, slander, jealousy and silliness.
However, one must consider for jealousy the life stage or experience one encounters in reference to the diverse responses to infidelity available.
Research states that a componential view of jealousy consist of specific set of emotions that serve the reproductive role.
Despite this fact, anger surfaces when both parties involved are responsible for some type of uncontrollable behavior, sexual conduct is not exempt.
Jealousy is composed of lower-level emotional states (e.g., anger and hurt) which may be triggered by a variety of events, not by differences in individuals' life stage.
"[64] Artistic depictions of jealousy occur in fiction, films, and other art forms such as painting and sculpture.
[66] This means if someone watches a reality dating show that displays men and women reacting violently or aggressively towards their partner due to jealousy they can mirror that.
A study was done in order to cross examine jealousy among four different cultures, Ireland, Thailand, India and the United States.
