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

Communicative responses to jealousy fulfill critical functions within roman tic relationships. They can help maintain one's relationship, preserve one' s self-esteem, reduce uncertainty about the primary relationship, reduce un certainty about the rival relationship, re-assess the relationship, and res tore equity through retaliation. This study, which utilized self-report dat a from 266 individuals currently involved in romantic relationships, invest igated the role that these six jealousy-related goals, in concert with emot ional frequency and intensity, play in shaping communicative responses to j ealousy. Results from regression analyses suggest that each communicative r esponse 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.