Analysis: Ways Of Coping With Jealousy

4) Think back to times when you have been jealous, have you done any of these things, even subconsciously?

5) Can this be applied to all situations or only a few?

Question 4 was relating to Buunks experiment on the ways people cope with spouses extramarital relationships. Buunk identified 3 strategies:
avoidance (of the spouse),
e.g. possibility of leaving the spouse and retreating
reappraisal (of the situation),
e.g. cognitive attempts to reduce one's jealousy which may include developing a critical attitude toward one's own jealousy as well as direct attempts to get the jealousy under control by relativizing the whole situation.
Communication.

Analysis:
I asked people if they used any of these strategies and then asked them the type of situations they can be applied to, this was to see if they are relevant for types of jealousy other than extramarital relationships. The results I obtained confirmed the 3 strategies Buunk identified, with reappraisal being the most common way of dealing with this.

Question 5 was asking the participants whether they thought these strategies could be applied to all forms of jealousy and this was what I found:

Results:
All – 12 (60%)
Most – 4 (20%)
Few – 4 (20%)

These were comments by participants:
- Depends on how jealous you are.
- Depends on what you’re jealous of e.g. this could be applied to jealousy in a relationship.
- All people are individual so act differently.
- Most can be discussed.

Analysis:
This showed the strategies Buunk identified as coping with jealousy can be applied to most forms of jealousy and is slightly obstructed by individual differences.