Mize, Krystal D.

Jealousy results from the fear of loss of an important relationship partner or his/her
exclusive attention (Neu, 1980; Tov-Ruach, 1980). Infants are dependant on their
caregivers for basic needs and emotional support. Therefore, if an infant perceives that a
rival threatens the parent-child dyad relationship, it is possible that the infant will respond
in a jealous manner just as adults do when their important relationships are threatened .
Although infants have limited emotional understanding, Palmer and Palmer (2002)
suggest that jealousy evolved out of other resource-protecting drives. Because parental
care is a valuable resource, supporting survival, infants may have at least precursory
jealousy capabilities. Research on infant jealousy is minimal however, Hart and
Carrington (2002) characterized approach responses to the loss of maternal attention to a
life-like doll as jealousy. The purpose ofthe current repeated-measures research design is
to provide a conceptual replication of previous infant jealousy research. Whether infant jealousy responses are moderated by individuals approach or withdrawal tendencies, is
still to be determined and is another focus of the current research. Temperamental
characteristics may influence emotional responses and asymmetrical frontal brain activity
is associated with individual differences in emotional responding (see Coan & Allen,
2004 for a review). Therefore baseline electroencephalography (EEG) is collected in the
current research followed by subjecting 15 infants (mean age = 12.87 months) to two
maternal ignoring conditions, one involving the mother attending to a social object (lifelike
doll) and a control condition in which the mother attends to a non-social object
(book). Results show that infants respond differentially to the two conditions with
increased approach behaviors, arousal, and negative affect in the doll condition. The
infants' responses in the social-object condition are identified as jealousy, suggesting that
infants are capable of at least some complex emotional experiences.
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From 1976 to 2001 over 50,000 people in the United States were victims of documented intimate partner lethal violence. In a study of intimate partner homicides in Chicago, Block and Christakos (1995) found that the weapon used varied based on the offender's gender. Relative to heterosexual partners, homosexual partners experience added stress due to a lack of social support of their relationships. The current study examined the effect of sex and sexual orientation of intimate partner homicide offenders on brutality of killing methods. Two hypotheses were formulated addressing the brutality of the murders as a function of the offender's sexual orientation and sex and the comparative rates of intimate partner homicides in various groups. The results provided robust support for both hypotheses and provide compelling evidence that there is a significant need for social support services to assist in reducing stressors in the gay and lesbian community.

Jealousy