PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Stacie Yvonne Bauerle
MA-Research
August 2001

An Attribution Theory Analysis of Romantic Jealousy

    This study applied attribution theory to the emotion of romantic jealousy.  Four dimensions of attribution theory were applied: personal vs. impersonal causality, control vs. no control, causal controllability vs. responsibility, and intent vs. neglect.  Participants read hypothetical scenarios in which an individual’s romantic partner was involved in jealousy-eliciting situations with a romantic rival.  These scenarios were manipulated so the partner’s actions were due to low-blame conditions (i.e., impersonal causes, lack of control, causal controllability, or neglect) or high-blame conditions (i.e., personal causes, control, responsibility, or intent).  Participants’ ratings of how jealous they believed the protagonist would feel served as a dependent measure of jealousy.  It was hypothesized that scenarios from the high blame conditions would yield higher jealousy ratings than those from the low blame conditions.  Results confirmed these hypotheses.  It was also found that participants with high trait jealousy scores gave higher jealousy ratings overall.

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