12 Types of jealousy: characteristics and examples

In order to better analyze the phenomenon in its complexity, we distinguish several types of jealousy, because you can be jealous of the most diverse "objects" of love: of one's own things, of one's own "private" life, of one's partner, of everything that can be preceded by the pronoun possessive "mine". The idea that something that is ours can be taken away is the basis of the mechanisms of jealousy. In this Psychology-Online article we will see together what are some types of jealousy: features and examples.

Index

1. Material jealousy
2. Romantic jealousy
3. Jealousy in the family
4. Jealousy of social confrontation
5. Preventive jealousy
6. Emotional or reactive jealousy
7. Retrospective jealousy
8. Professional jealousy
9. Pathological jealousy
10. Anxious jealousy
11. Possessive jealousy
12. Projective jealousy

Although the background dynamics are the same, it is different to be jealous of an object or a person. In the first case there is a desire for exclusivity for things that belong to us and that we would not want to give up in a use to others, we speak, therefore, of material jealousy.

This type of jealousy is found to a greater extent in children and the elderly, precisely because in these phases of development we find mechanisms more similar to those of the animal world. There is no place for the relationship with the other, responding to a strong narcissistic need, the other only enters I play as someone who can take away something that is ours, someone to defend ourselves against, someone with whom to struggle...

In the most serious cases, material jealousy can lead to true obsessive-compulsive behavior which leads to putting into practice a whole series of behaviors to "defend" what we consider ours.

In general, research in the psychological field, as well as the literature in a broad sense, has dealt with especially of this type of jealousy: we speak, in fact, of romantic jealousy when we commonly refer to the jealousy. In this case, the fear of losing the affection of the other, most of the time the exclusive affection of a person we love, and it is manifested in the more intimate affectionate relationships, where they meet the needs of security and belonging. At the base of this form of jealousy there seems to be:

• The conviction that the loved one belongs to us.
• The fear that someone we feel like a rival might take it away from us.
• The prediction that if this happened, the image of the being would be greatly affected.

This leads to a kind of ambivalence towards the loved one that translates into increased interest and desire for them, associated with hostilities and fear of loss. The other becomes for us an object that satisfies our need and not a subject to love.

In this article we explain What is jealousy in psychology.

We refer to the jealousy that arises between brothers and sisters, between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, between mother and daughter, to the jealousy of a father at the time of the birth of a son or with regard to his own daughter. Like romantic jealousy, it is linked to the needs of security and belonging, but we can distinguish two types of family jealousy:

1. Horizontal jealousy. In horizontal jealousy the subjects have the same role; examples are jealousy between brothers and sisters, between couples, between families of origin.
2. Vertical jalousie. Instead, it unfolds over several generations and subjects fill different roles; In this type of jealousy, the time variable is fundamental. Example One of the vertical jealousies that occurs between the generations is that of the mother-in-law with respect to the daughter-in-law, seen as the one that took away the affection of her son; or the jealousy of the parents regarding the youth of the children they no longer have.

Family jealousy is unleashed with particular violence because the "certainty" of the family allows the extreme liberation of feelings, without the limits of social control that the external environment exerts on U.S.

The specific characteristic of social competition jealousy is the object of desire, which is not always a person, but rather a thing, a type of success or a good social position, and is born of the fear that our position in the world is at risk of a recoil. In the workplace, in sports, simply in the social sphere, when someone can be more successful than us, we lose our power. In this case, the roots that tie jealousy to envy intertwine, invading one another.

Jealousy of social confrontation responds to the highest needs for self-realization and is manifested in social relations, in the broadest sense, to imply the dimension transpersonal. The emergence and intensity of this type of jealousy vary depending on the importance that the individual attributes to the desired goal, the identity and emotional value of other competitors. In fact, jealousy of social confrontation increases when:

• They primarily blame themselves for an unfavorable comparison or failure.
• The check will be considered at least partially controllable.
• It is considered that the lag in the comparison depends on relatively stable conditions over time and, above all, on one's own personality.

In this type of jealousy, it is essential to defense of one's own social image and the meaning attributed to the judgment of others.

The next type of jealousy is preventive jealousy. Preventive jealousy occurs when, for example, despite having no proof, we accuse our partner of having flirted or worse, having started an adventure with a hypothetical rival. As a consequence, our attitude towards the partner will go to extremes that are difficult to handle.

For example, we could even try to prevent the most common social contacts as much as possible to prevent the "danger" from materializing and the occasions from multiplying. This attitude can degenerate to the point where it is possible to see enemies or hypothetical rivals in any situation and will tend, thus, to try to control the life of his partner with pressures excessive.

Reactive jealousy is the reaction to a specific event. It can be triggered by a real event such as a true betrayal, or it can be the product of our imagination, wisely driven by our fear of being betrayed.

Emotional or reactive jealousy is the response to intimate and / or sexual behaviors that our partner may have with another person. It is the healthiest and most rational form of jealousy, since it is based on real events and / or problems (small or large), such as experiencing anger or sadness if we see our partner flirting with someone or if we discover that they have been betrayed or if, in other words, we get angry when we catch our partner with red fish eyes staring at someone. Naturally, this reaction is all the more suitable the more proportional it is to the events that have caused it.

Retrospective or retroactive jealousy, also known as Rebecca syndrome (inspired by the Hitchcock's film, i.e., Rebecca the First Wife), occurs when we demonstrate a true obsession with our partner's past. This type of jealousy has the characteristic of covering the entire past life of our partner, including, of course, love relationships.

When retroactive jealousy attacks us, it may happen that we see the ex of our current partner as endowed with special characteristics that we will never achieve. We could slip into the conviction that it has qualities that we do not have and, to try to stop this being "special", we try to belittle or denigrate him on each occasion with the intention of eliminating him from the past of our partner.

In this article, we talk in depth about how they feel and how to overcome hindsight jealousy.

Speaking of the types of jealousy, we must mention jealousy in the workplace. One of the common problems that can be found in the workplace is related to conflicts between colleagues or between managers and collaborators. Normally, we can speak of conflict when the relationship, the exchange between two or more people is characterized by differences in terms of objectives and interests; that is, when one expects the other to adapt to her needs and accept her position, and neither of them wants to give in. At the root of this behavior is the need to assert oneself and see their own identity recognized of person, to be able to maintain unaltered and reinforced the own self-esteem.

Jealousy becomes distorted when combined with obsessive ideas and attitudes. In other words, the jealous person slips into a compulsive behavior looking for evidence to support their theories, exercising a oppressive control about the person, following him during his day. Pathological jealousy is present in diagnostic manuals and is classified as "delusional disorder" of which there are several types:

• Obsessive jealousy, which has its origin in the feeling of being inadequate and which is divided into other subcategories.
• Anxious jealousy, which causes a continuous anxiety of fear of being betrayed.
• Paranoid jealousy, when the jealous person is always too suspicious.
• Jealousy from separation anxietyThose who cannot accept the possibility that their relationship may end suffers; For these people, losing their partner is equivalent to dying.
• Hyperaesthetic jealousy, it almost always affects men who have excessive negative reactions if the couple entertains themselves even talking with others and without any involvement.
• Post-shedding jealousy, is the feeling that is born after the end of a relationship by the left partner, towards the partner who ended the relationship.

Anxious (or cognitive) jealousy is a more mental form. That is, it develops in our head when we create images and thoughts depicting unfaithful behavior (real or imagined) of our partner, fueling anxiety, suspicion and loss of confidence. If we find ourselves in the whirlwind of anxious jealousy, we are more likely to feel depressed and have low self-esteem.

Partly related to the above, we speak of possessive jealousy if we do great efforts to prevent the couple from having contact with people of the sex of their orientation. Like when we hate all the friends of our partner and we get dizzy every time they go out together. These efforts can be positive in themselves or lead to problem behaviors. In the first case, the jealous person tries to "remove" the partner from other temptations by devoting more attention to their own appearance or highlighting the quality - of yourself or of the relationship - that reinforce the pleasure of being together (for ex. travel more, cultivate common hobbies). In the most extreme cases, on the contrary, there can be a progressive loss of control that goes from reading emails and messages on the smartphone from the other, to much more serious phenomena of violence or harassment, in an attempt to limit the freedom of the partner.

To finish the list of types of jealousy, we must talk about projective jealousy. Sometimes jealousy seems to be the result of a well-studied mechanism in the psychological field, that of projection. This happens when we attribute to our partner wishes of sexual or emotional infidelity that actually belong to us. An example? Each of us, even the most faithful and in love person, will find ourselves fantasizing - maybe just for a second - about someone other than her partner. It is inevitable and normal. However, not everyone manages to reconcile the image of oneself as a couple in love with that of a man or woman who inevitably feels attraction to the other and, therefore, these fleeting desires live as an intrusion. An unconscious way to get rid of this conflict is to project her fantasies or an actual infidelity onto the wife or husband.

In this article you will find What is projection in psychology, with definition and examples.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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