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Abstract
In this paper, I sum up more than 20 years of research and reflection on jealousy. A chronological account of this work is followed by a thematic summary of the findings and some discussion of the relationship between sociology and psychology. Sociological analysis shows that jealousy and other emotions are shaped by social situations, social processes, and social forces. Micro-sociology reveals that jealousy is learned. Jealousy reflects the life experience of the individual. Meso-sociology reveals that jealousy is socially useful, indeed, indispensable to social order. Jealousy reflects the institution of marriage and the prohibition of adultery. Macro-sociology reveals that jealousy is shaped by society and culture. Jealousy reflects the history and the values of a people- and the relevant values vary from time to time and place to place. In the United States, for example, a new and more negative view of jealousy emerged after about 1970 as a result of the sexual revolution and the women's movement.
Looking at jealousy Sociologically
Since graduate school, I have been interested in the dramatic changes in matters of sex, love, marriage, and the family that began in the 1960s (see Clanton and Downing, 1975; Clanton, 1984). As Brigitte and Peter Berger (1984) later noted, Americans have been involved since the 1960s in a cultural war over the family - a vociferous and value-loaded debate over the history, the present condition, the prospects, and the human and societal value of the family. Americans are sharply divided over issues such as birth control, abortion, sex education, unmarried cohabitation, single parents, and homosexuality.
I approached the broader issue of family and social change by focusing on jealousy, an emotion that becomes especially salient when sexual norms and gender roles are in flux. Although jealousy may be experienced in many types of relationships including sibling rivalry and jealousy of non- sexual friends, the focus of this research is the adult jealousy that arises in romantic relationships and in marriage.
For present purposes, jealousy may be defined as a protective reaction to a perceived threat (especially adultery) to a valued relationship (especially marriage) or to its quality (Clanton, 1981:260). The protective reaction can involve thoughts, feelings, and/or actions. Although jealous behaviours sometimes damage relationships, the intention of jealousy is...