Research Paper on Jealousy and Relationship Satisfaction

Abstract

In relationships, men and women display differences beyond the anatomy and behaviour. This is a study of relationships in New York of youths of ages between 21-29 years depicting the influence of jealousy and relationship satisfaction. Jealousy is usually associated with damaging effects on relationships. In other cases, in cases of long-term commitment jealousy is associated as a side effect of increased commitment. We conduct this study to address the inconsistencies in between these roles jealousy plays in relationships and how it affects them in terms of relationship satisfaction. The survey is conducted through an online survey taken by 16 people randomly 8 males and 8 females with participants of the specified ages.

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Literature Review

Jealousy as that emotional response to the real and imagined threat of losing someone or something of value in a romantic relationship according to (White & Mullen, 1989). It is a common occurrence currently in relationships. Most people often relate jealousy to negative qualities as far as relationships are concerned. However, it is a regular and completely expected feeling among those in a romantic relationship. It is however often, as a result, external vulnerability caused by a spouse's impending or real participation in a relationship with someone else. After this insightful angle need not be looked as a negative emotion always. The degree of satisfaction in relationships is affected by many factors jealousy being one of them. The degree of closeness relates to the impression that the partners have of each other. Being close in a relationship is affected if symbiotic proficiencies between the spouses is shared to the challenger thus it is more likely that one to be provoked hence feel jealousy once their intimate arrangements are unsettled or may possibly be unsettled by an external challenger to the link.

Most of the research that has been done has tried to depict jealous as bad. Considering how it has been conventionalized over time has been viewed in a negative light. According to Barelds and Dijkstra (2006), "Jealousy has a negative connotation in Western culture and is often looked upon as a socially undesirable emotion (p. 184)". In a survey that was conducted by Sharpsteen in 1993 most of the people that were required to share the impact of jealousy. Most of the subjects' feature indicated suffering from references such as fear, hurt, threatened and bad thought concerning a challenger towards the challenger in the relationship. Jealousy has also been viewed as an unhealthy sign of insufficiency of a partner in a relationship which occasionally is a destructive emotion. Jealousy is also more often than not characterized by associated with the uncertainty about fellow partners love and can lead to negative actions (White and Mullen 1989).

Jealousy can also be a good thing. some scholars have argued that in relationships the event its self can be negative but in the end perform an act of good faith which will be good for the long-term endurance of the bond. In their study, Harris, Darby (2010) determined that "Despite its destructive side, jealousy also may have some positive effects on individuals and relationships. For example, it alerts one to relationship threats and can motivate behaviours that protect the relationship (p. 547)". This therefore only widens the research to divide jealousy into two. The positive jealousy which is motivated by emotions towards the partner and suspicious jealousy that is motivated by the intrusion by a challenger in the relationship.

Methods

A group of random 16 youth from New York was used. Among them, 50% were male (8) and 50%(8) were female. All the subjects were between the age of 21 and 29 with the mean age of 25 years. A condition of inclusion was that the individual should have been involved in a relationship at the time of data collection. The mean for relationship duration was 4 months.

Results and Discussion

An oral exam was conducted in each of the subjects. 75 percent of the women claimed that they would be jealous in an event their partner had a close platonic relationship with another woman. There was no difference when it came to the women with 6 out of the 8 who claimed they would be jealous in a similar situation. All eight women expect men to be jealous in an event a challenger arrives in the relationship but only half of the men think their partners have a reason to worry. However, most 50 percent of the women deny that jealousy has brought them together. These statistics establish that different dimensions of jealousy bring about different actions and as we have seen the decision is split in half. It may, however, depend on the relation how the relationship is constructed and other support factors available in the relationship.

References

Barelds, D. P. H., & Barelds Dijkstra, P. (2007). Relations between different types of jealousy and self and partner perceptions of relationship quality. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 14, 176-188. doi:10.1002/cpp.532

Harris, C. R., & Darby, R. S. (2010). Jealousy in adulthood. In S. L. Hart & M. Legerstee (Eds.), Handbook of Jealousy: Theory, research, and multidisciplinary approaches (pp. 547-571). New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sharpsteen, D. J. (1991). The organization of jealousy knowledge: Romantic jealousy as a blended emotion. In P. Salovey (Ed.), The psychology of jealousy and envy (pp. 31-51). New York, NY: Guilford.

White, G. L., & Mullen, P. E. (1989). Jealousy: Theory, research, and clinical strategies. New York, NY: Guilford.