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Jealousy: Psychiatric Diagnosis

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Synonyms

Delusional disorder - jealous type, Pathological jealousy, Othello syndrome, Morbid jealousy, Conjugal paranoia

Introduction

Jealousy refers to an emotional response that emerges when an interpersonal relationship is impacted by another person. Jealousy is functional because it alerts individuals to the presence of a rival and motivates behavioral responses to minimize the impact of a rival on valued interpersonal relationships. For example, people become jealous in response to partner infidelity, new members of social relationships, and parent-sibling interactions. However, some people experience jealousy in the absence of a threat or rival and maintain such beliefs even in the presence of disconfirming evidence (Cipriani et al. 2012). In these cases, jealousy is no longer functional because it can lead to expending energy and resources fending off a rival that does not exist (Kingham and Gordon 2004). In the context of intimate relationships, when jealousy is not based on a...

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References

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Correspondence to Kristina M. Tilli .

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Tilli, K.M., Camilleri, J.A. (2018). Jealousy: Psychiatric Diagnosis. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2034-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2034-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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