AGE AND GENDER DIMENSIONS OF JEALOUSY DURING THE PERIODS OF MATURITY

Abstract

Jealousy as a mental experience has been known since ancient times. In the public consciousness and in the fields of science, jealousy is conceived as a complex phenomenon with diverse genesis and manifestations. However, the attempts to study it empirically have been sporadic. Therefore, the present study seeks to shed light on the mental phenomenon in question by tracking its age dynamics during the different periods of maturity, as well as the effect of gender. For this purpose, 119 persons (men and women) aged 20 to 60 years were examined through a self-assessment scale concerning jealousy. The results, as expected, registered declining jealousy with age providing the statistical significance of the difference. Gender, on the other hand, turned out to be a weaker factor initiating differences in the investigated dimension.