Toward a goal-oriented approach for understanding communicative responses to jealousy

Communicative responses to jealousy fulfill critical functions within romantic relationships. They can help maintain one's relationship, preserve one's self-esteem, reduce uncertainty about the primary relationship, reduce uncertainty about the rival relationship, re-assess the relationship, and restore equity through retaliation. This study, which utilized self-report data from 266 individuals currently involved in romantic relationships, investigated the role that these six jealousy-related goals, in concert with emotional frequency and intensity, play in shaping communicative responses to jealousy. Results from regression analyses suggest that each communicative response to jealousy is associated with a different profile of goals. These and other findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theory on jealousy and interpersonal communication.