Gregory L. White

A model of romantic jealousy

A definition of romantic jealousy is offered and imbedded within a general coping framework. Published and unpublished research is reviewed and then ordered within this framework. It is suggested that viewing jealousy as a “thing” like an emotion (anger), a behavior (competitive rivalry), or thoughts (desires for exclusivity) is incomplete. Jealousy is viewed as a label given to a complex of interrelated emotional, cognitive, and behavioral processes. New research is presented that suggests that jealousy is related to certain features of romantic relationships.

Inducing Jealousy A Power Perspective

Partners in 150 heterosexual romantic relationships were asked to indicate if, why, and how they had intentionally attempted to induce jealousy in their partner. Females were more likely to report inducement than males, especially if they were relatively more involved in the relationship. Females were also more likely to cite desire for a specific reward as the motive for inducing jealousy. These findings are consistent with a power and dependency perspective on jealousy.

Jealousy and Partner's Perceived Motives for Attraction to a Rival

Partners in 150 romantic couples (predominantly white college students) rated the importance to partner of four motives that might lead to partners romantic involvement with a third person. The strength of motives (Sexual Variety, Rival Attractions, Dissatisfaction, Commitment) perceived in partner varied as a function of gender and relative involvement in the relationship. For both sexes, perception of dissatisfaction and sexual variety as motives predicted to indicators of romantic jealousy, while perception of rivals attractions as a motive predicted to female jealousy. The perception of partners greater desire for commitment as a motive was not related to jealousy. The data are discussed in relation to sex roles and the types of threats that trigger romantic jealousy.

Post-Decisional Reevaluation of Choice Alternatives

In a free-choice experiment, subjects chose between two pairs of alternatives, each containing a positively and a negatively valued feature. The results confirmed dissonance theory in that the negative feature of the chosen alternatives increased in value from before to after the choice. However, the positive feature of the rejected alternative decreased only slightly. Implications of the findings for the theory are discussed.

Relative involvement, inadequacy, and jealousy

Romantic jealousy is defined as a reaction to a perceived threat to self and/or relationship. Based on the concepts of comparison level and comparison level for alternatives, and guided by the concepts of primary and secondary appraisal processes in coping with stress, a causal model of jealously is presented. This model was tested based on responses of 150 romantically involved couples to a survey. A slightly revised model was found to predict the observed correlations among model variables fairly well for both males and females. In the revised model greater relative involvement in the relationship and perceived inadequacy as a partner independently and directly cause jealousy. These two primary appraisal variables indirectly affect jealousy through the operation of two global secondary appraisal variables: noticing and worrying. A distinction is drawn between threat based on comparison and threat based on partners evaluation of oneself. Both types of threat may be either acute or chronic.

Misattribution of arousal and attraction: Effects of salience of explanations for arousal ☆

Abstract Based on previous research demonstrating that salience of a plausible cause increases the likelihood of causal attribution ( S. E. Taylor & S. T. Fiske, in J. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 11), New York: Academic Press, 1978 ) it was predicted that salience of plausible causes of arousal would affect romantic attraction. Male subjects were differentially aroused by running in place. Aroused subjects were particularly likely to be attracted to an attractive female confederate if they expected to meet her (high salience of confederate) and if cues associated with the running in place were minimized (low salience of exercise). Though results are consistent with a misatribution of arousal hypothesis, it is suggested that emotion schemata are a potentially more useful explanation.

The Effects of Threat of Surveillance and Actual Surveillance on Expressed Opinions toward Marijuana

Summary Two social-psychological theories can be applied to the effect of potentially aversive surveillance on opinion inhibition. The deindividuation position predicts that people will avoid opinion expression, while the reactance position predicts opinion assertion and/or attack upon threatening agents. To test these notions, 41 female and 35 male undergraduate students were recruited from introductory psychology courses at the University of California, Los Angeles, for a study ostensibly dealing with student movements. Ss were told to prepare a statement of their opinions on marijuana. The threat of surveillance (videotaping of marijuana opinions which would be sent to the FBI) was orthogonally crossed with actual surveillance. Content analyses of opinions and a factor analysis of mood ratings substantially support the deindividuation position although, unexpectedly, those Ss both threatened and actually videotaped were most antigovernment and antimarijuana. None of these effects were attributable to t...

Don't I know you? antecedents and social consequences of perceived familiarity

Abstract The antecedents and consequences of the perceived familiarity, or resemblance, of a stranger to someone already known are explored in two studies. Study 1 showed that subjects in a discussion group who expected hostility to be directed toward them were more likely to perceive familiarity in group members compared to subjects in control conditions. In Study 2 male perceiver subjects had an 8-min phone conversation with female targets who did or did not resemble a close friend of the perceiver. Familiar targets were rated by both perceivers and naive judges to be more similar to the close friends in central trait descriptors. Results are discussed in terms of the social functions of perceived familiarity.

Pupillary activity while listening to verbal passages

Abstract Twelve college students were presented with neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant verbal passages each of 120 sec duration. Changes in pupil diameter before, during, and after each passage were continuously monitored. Dilation accompanied the pleasant and unpleasant passages relative to the neutral passage. No evidence for defensive pupillary constriction was found. Habituation occurred during periods of silence as well as during the stimulus passages. These results suggest that a study reported by Hess and Goodwin (1974) as demonstrating pupillary constriction to unpleasant visual material may be interpreted as reflecting differential habituation.

Postdecision evaluation of choice alternatives as a function of valence of alternatives, choice, and expected delay of choice consequences

Abstract The effects of valence of alternatives, choice, and expected delay of choice consequences on postdecision evaluations of choice alternatives were studied by either giving subjects a choice between two experimental tasks (both either pleasant or unpleasant) or assigning subjects their initially preferred task. Crosscutting valence and choice, subjects expected either no delay, 10-min delay, or 30-min delay before engaging in the task. All subjects evaluated both tasks immediately after the delay instructions but before experiencing the actual delay. Results confirmed the expected dissonance effect; that is, an upward evaluation of the chosen alternative and a downward evaluation of the rejected alternative, relative to no-choice conditions. Moreover, the relative upward evaluation of the chosen alternative increased as the expected delay decreased. Valence was not found to interact with other variables. The results are discussed in terms of differential salience of choice alternatives.