What Is Jealousy and Why We Feel?

Jealousy is part of human nature, it is an emotional response that occurs as a result of a complex psychological process that is never pleasant. That is why today I invite you to try to describe what jealousy is and why we are jealous.

What is Jealousy?

Jealousy represents one of the most natural and essential emotions and at the same time, one of the darkest, harmful and uncomfortable world.

There is evidence that this feeling is inherent in the human condition since ancient times, being such a recurring theme in Greek mythology or stories.

However, we can also meet this emotion in other animal species such as chimpanzees, elephants and dogs , which are also jealous, among many others.

Some believe that jealousy is another form of envy but, unlike this, jealousy appears more like a fear, like the fear of losing certain thing, object, function or relation, among other things.

Envy

Sadness or sorrow for another’s good.

Emulation, desire for something you do not own.

Zeal

Extreme and active interest someone feels for a cause or a person.

Suspicion that someone feels any affection or enrich or intends to become hit by another. Suspicion, concern and fear that a loved one has moved or move your baby, putting it in another.

Then we can differentiate these emotions to consider who or what things come into play. So, we say that we envy refers to something that someone else has the zeal while refers to fear the possibility of losing something we possess.

Why are we Jealous?

Although in ancient times, the causes of this phenomenon were awarded to deities or supernatural entities and illogical , we now know that the responsibility is ours. From the field of sciences, such as Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology, particularly since we know that everything happens in our brains, so the way we establish our relationships, and the way in which we seek to maintain (or not) the same.

As such, according to various contemporary psychologists, jealousy is an inherent emotional response to the nature of Men, where both men and women occurs in the same manner and is linked to a very simple question: what is seeking to protect wants.

Humans appreciate, want and love their belongings, their jobs, their friends, partners, etc.. , And the thought of losing that link or just threaten their existence, martyred with this horrible feeling.

So much has to do with our cognitive abilities, with how we process information and how we stipulate with her. Also, jealousy has a lot to do with sexuality and the nature of our reproductive habits however, not only with her since, for example , going back to what these cognitive processes concerned, think of the children or even babies just few months of life that present this kind of this kind of emotions or behavior.

The root of jealousy and the influence of different issues such as gender , age , ethnic origin and so have always been a subject of controversy. Indeed, if all these factors have to do with the outbreak of jealousy , the type of zeal or graduation in which they could be rated . In the area of sex, for example, many may call their attention to the sexual practice known as swingers couples or those that share a sex partner. Many will find it a taboo or considered that in such a situation , would die of a jealous rage .

The truth is that there come into play many of the aforementioned aspects , especially those related to the cognitive processes of the individual. But beyond all this social, cognitive and cultural issue, beyond factors such as age, gender or psychological nature of the individual, there are some details to the point from which we enter the field of Neuroscience.

Leaving aside the social aspects, Neuroscience is considered that there are differences between the sexes and, more specifically , women are more jealous than men. But to enter this field , we should consider a complex differentiation between the concepts of sex and love, we will not do this time but it’s worth mentioning.

Through different experiments, it has been determined that such a couple, infidelity intercourse elicits a response involving a higher degree of jealousy and other feelings such as anger, rage, etc.., Which in the case of infidelity psychic type or some “spiritual” way. If the person is cheating in bed, but no connection (what we call “love”) jealousy appears to a lesser extent and with less harmful consequences.

In turn there are different kinds of jealousy from most common employment-related jealousy, friendship, family, romance, to abnormal jealousy, that border on paranoia and psychological pathologies.

We might say that our jealousy, largely, is then the result of our insecurity, our limited capacity to develop as independent individuals, the weight of our quality as social subjects and to some extent, our profound selfishness.