Changes in Social Comparison Orientation over the Life-span

Background: Social comparison is a basic human process, which may change dependent of one’s age. The purpose of this study was to examine how Social Comparison Orientation (SCO), i.e., the tendency to engage in social comparisons, varied across the lifespan. Method: A representative sample of 1613 adults from the Netherlands filled out the widely used 11-item scale for Social Comparison Orientation (SCO). Age was categorized in terms of decades, including both 19 years or younger and 80 years or older as categories. Results: The results showed a strong curvilinear effect of age: SCO was highest among people 19 years or younger, decreased substantially with increasing age until the age of 60, after which it increased moderately. Women were somewhat higher in SCO than men. Conclusion: The tendency to engage in social comparisons changes considerably over the life span, which may be due to the different challenges and insecurities that people may face in different stages of the life span

Age and gender differences in mate selection criteria for various involvement levels

The present study investigated mate preferences for five different levels of relationship involvement-marriage, serious relationship, falling in love, casual sex, and sexual fantasies-among individuals of 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years of age. Consistent with an evolutionary perspective, men preferred mates who were higher in physical attractiveness than themselves, whereas women preferred mates who were higher in income, education, self-confidence, intelligence, dominance, and social position than themselves. The lower the level of relationship involvement, the lower were the preferred levels of education, physical attractiveness, and, particularly for males, preferred intelligence in comparison to oneself For sexual fantasies, men and women preferred mates who were higher in physical attractiveness than those they preferred for real partners. There were few age differences in mate preferences, although older individuals set higher standards for a potential mate's education

Types of jealousy scales

Jealousy has been defined as a negative response to the actual, imagined, or expected emotional, and particularly sexual, involvement of one's partner with someone else, and has been conceptualized as a multidimensional phenomenon. In line with these perspectives, our purpose was to develop separate scales for three types of jealousy

The Dark Triad and three types of jealousy: Its’ relations among heterosexuals and homosexuals involved in a romantic relationship

The current study examined the relations between the three Dark Triad (DT) traits and three types of jealousy, among both heterosexual and homosexual men and women involved in a romantic relationship (n = 439). It was hypothesized that the three DT traits would be related positively to those types of jealousy that have the potential to become delusional, that is anxious and preventive jealousy, but not to the relatively ‘healthy’ type of jealousy, that is reactive jealousy. In addition, differences were examined between men and women, and between homosexuals and heterosexuals with regard to the DT traits, the three types of jealousy, and the relationships between these variables. Results largely confirmed the hypothesis. In addition, moderation analyses showed that the relationships between the three DT traits and the three types of jealousy were not moderated by participant sex or sexual orientation. The current study's findings may deepen our understanding of the role of the DT in the mating psychology of both heterosexuals and homosexuals