Jealousy

Jealousy has disrupted lives, relationships, and communities for centuries. Not until the twentieth century, however, did social science began to study it.

While jealousy and envy are often treated as synonyms, the two emotions are distinct and occur in reaction to different situations. Jealousy is a response to a threat from an agent to a person's relationship with someone. In contrast, envy is a negative reaction that arises when someone else has a relationship to a person or object.

Emotions can be classified as either primary or compound. According to psychologist Ralph Hupka, primary emotion words such as anger and fear describe an emotional state, while compound emotions such as jealousy explain that state. In other words, jealousy is best thought of as a compound emotion that arises from the situational labeling of one or more of such primary emotions as anger or fear. Through the socialization process, our society and community teach us to label as jealousy the primary emotions we experience when faced with a threat to a significant relationship.

The case of a husband who discovers his wife's ongoing extramarital sexual relationship illustrates this distinction. The husband may experience anger, fear, sadness, or a combination of such primary emotions, depending on a variety of personal, interpersonal, and cultural factors. If the man shares the values and holds the attitudes common in most Western societies, he will view his wife's extramarital relationship as a threat to their marriage and will have learned to label his emotional reaction as jealousy. While many people think of jealousy as arising in response to sexual behavior, the situation that provokes it need not be sexual. Jealousy can arise from a partner's involvement with children, professional colleagues' actions, or solitary activities, if such involvement or activities are perceived by the jealous person as a threat to a valued relationship.