Last Updated on December 20, 2023
Jealousy can be manifested in different ways, from adequate to completely socially unacceptable behavior. In the context of the manifestation of jealousy, it is important to emphasize that there is a difference between the experience of jealousy and its external expression. The experience of jealousy refers to an emotional and cognitive component of jealousy and its manifestation to the behavioral component of it. The experience of jealousy does not necessarily lead to its manifestation. For example, at the beginning of a love relationship, partners invest the most effort in creating and maintaining a beautiful atmosphere marked by positive emotions. However, as the love relationship becomes more stable, people are more prone to giving and receiving negative feedback from their partners. In long romantic relationships, people experience and show jealousy more frequently, believing that it is more appropriate.Â
Factors that influence the manifestation of jealousy
There are different factors that affect the experience and manifestation of jealousy and they are usually interlinked. Factors that influence the manifestation of jealousy can also be social norms in the individual’s surroundings. Social norms are socially acceptable forms of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. People are under the influence of dominant social norms and are looking for people who share similar norms and patterns of behavior. Therefore, people who are prone to jealous behavior may encourage others to start behaving in a similar way.
The second factor that affects the expression of jealousy refers to the individual’s preference for one jealous behavior in relation to the other. For example, jealous partners often use indirect aggression to achieve specific goals. Researches have shown that women use this method more, while men are more prone to physical aggression. People in romantic relationships face the biggest difficulties when they find out that their partner really cheated on them. Afterward, it comes to many characteristics of thinking and behavior that can end up in three different ways; forgiveness, revenge or ending a relationship.
Staying in a relationship after it turns out that the jealousy was justified
Forgiveness is one of the most interesting phenomena. The most frequent motives of staying in a relationship after infidelity are fear of the unknown, financial dependency, lack of self-confidence, existence of children, feeling of being in love, love for the partner, etc. The stated motives of forgiveness of infidelity are more common for women, but they are equally valid for men. However, after the discovery of a partner’s infidelity, not everyone is willing to forgive and therefore they subject their partner to various forms of punishing because of what he/she did. Revenge may manifest itself in different ways, the most common of which is a drastic change in physical appearance due to the belief that (former) partner will be jealous.
