TITLE:
Factors That Determine Jealousy
AUTHORS:
Kevin Patrick Barman
KEYWORDS:
Jealousy, Infidelity, Anxiety, Commitment, Self-Esteem
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.16 No.9,
September
24,
2025
ABSTRACT: This study aimed to examine the relationships between jealousy and the variables of self-esteem, anxiety, relationship commitment, and gender. Using a survey-based approach with 99 community college students, the study tested five hypotheses derived from existing literature. It was expected that the levels of jealousy would be higher among those in a committed relationship than those who were not, and the degree of jealousy would have a negative correlation with levels of anxiety and self-esteem. Another expectation was that the degree of emotional infidelity or sexual infidelity was a result of one’s gender status. Jealousy is a major topic of study in romantic and sexual relationships. In fact, jealousy is an important issue in romantic relationships: it is rated among the top three most frequent problems experienced in intimate relationships (Zusman & Knox, 1998). For this experiment, the null hypothesis revealed that there were no statistically significant relationships for any of the hypotheses, indicating that, in the sample, these factors did not predict levels of jealousy.