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

Communicative responses to jealousy fulfill critical functions within romantic relationships. They can help maintain one's relationship, preserve one's self‐esteem, reduce uncertainty about the primary relationship, reduce uncertainty about the rival relationship, re‐assess the relationship, and restore equity through retaliation. This study, which utilized self‐report data from 266 individuals currently involved in romantic relationships, investigated the role that these six jealousy‐related goals, in concert with emotional frequency and intensity, play in shaping communicative responses to jealousy. Results from regression analyses suggest that each communicative response 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.