Degrees of Self-Actualizing and Corresponding Levels of Jealousy in College Students

In order to examine the relationship between jealousy and overall level of self-actualizing, measures of these constructs obtained from four groups of college students, males presently in romantic relationships, males presently not in romantic relationships, females presently in romantic relationships and females not presently in romantic relationships, were compared. Scores obtained from the Inner-directed scale of the Personal Orientation Inventory, a measure of overall level of self-actualizing, and a seven-item jealousy scale were examined separately for each group via 2 by 2 analyses of variance (sex by romantic status) and linear regression analysis. Results of the 2 by 2 analyses of variance revealed the presence of a main effect of sex upon jealousy scores (females scored significantly higher than males) and a main effect of romantic status upon self-actualizing scores (subjects presently romantically involved scored significantly higher than subjects not presently involved romantically). Results of the linear regression analyses proved to be significant for only one of the four groups: a relationship between scores on the jealousy and self-actualizing measures was found to exist for male subjects who reported themselves as presently not involved in a romantic relationship. A similar, yet non-significant, trend was found for the second male group, while a relationship between scores on the jealousy and self-actualizing measures was not found to exist for either of the female subject groups. Implications of the study and a need for further research investigating jealousy and related factors were discussed