The studies reported in this paper had two purposes, the construction of a measure of jealousy and the use of this measure to test some prevalent beliefs concerning jealousy with the aim of providing construct validity for the scale and expanding our empirical understanding of jealousy. Using the rational approach to test construction, a 28-item test was constructed. This scale was expected to correlate positively with romantic love, insecurity, and low self-esteem and negatively with separate identities. Also scores should not correlate with liking. These relationships were noted except for positive correlations between jealousy and insecurity for men and jealousy and low selfesteem for both sexes. Enough evidence for construct validity was found to warrant further use of the scale for research. It war suggested that open marriage relationships must be based primarily on liking rather than romantic love to avoid jealousy.
The hypotheses that physical attractiveness is positively correlated with happiness, psychological health, and self-esteem was tested with 211 men and women undergraduates. Physical attractiveness was measured by judges' ratings, while happiness, psychological health (neuroticism), and self-esteem were measured by self-report inventories. Physical attractiveness was found to correlate positively with happiness (r equals .37), negatively with neuroticism (r equals minus.22), and positively with self-esteem (r equals .24) for women but not for men (corresponding rs equals .09, .03, and minus.04, respectively). These results were accounted for by the suggestion that physical attractiveness "buys" more for women than for men, and the most prominent outcomes obtained by physical attractiveness--friends and dates--are of greater value to women undergraduates than men. The superior outcomes obtained by the attractive women made them happy, psychologically healthy, and proud of themselves.
White's (1981) theory of romantic jealousy states that the loss (or anticipated loss) of a romantic partner to a rival causes two kinds of suffering: loss (or anticipated loss) of relationship rewards and loss (or anticipated loss) of self-esteem. Elaborating this theory, we proposed that loss of relationship rewards causes depression, whereas loss of self-esteem causes anxiety and anger. General support was found for White's theory and the elaborations, but not for the hypothesis that the loss of self-esteem causes anxiety. Anxiety may be a product of both loss of self-esteem and loss of relationship rewards.
Life history theory predicts that an array of behaviors will shift in response to life expectancy cues. Findings from a number of studies suggest that among these shifts is a willingness to engage in criminal behaviors. Using the framework of the general theory of crime, this possibility was explored more directly by examining differences in self-control and criminal intent under three different life expectancies (5 months, 5 years, and 50 years). The results revealed that under conditions of short life expectancy, self-control decreased and criminal intent increased, but that this effect was moderated by individual differences in life history strategy. Consistent with the general theory of crime, it was found that differences in criminal intent across life expectancies were predicted by differences in self-control across life expectancies. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between life history theory and criminality.
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