Relational emotions are affective responses that arise within close relationships, especially when the bond feels important, vulnerable, uncertain, or threatened. Unlike general emotional traits, these experiences are directed toward a specific partner and shaped by expectations of commitment, trust, availability, and relational security.
This domain includes jealousy, trust, mistrust, relational uncertainty, fear of loss, emotional dependency, forgiveness, infidelity, betrayal, and obsessive or maladaptive relational concerns. These constructs combine emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components and help explain how people respond to safety, threat, vulnerability, and repair in close relationships.
Jealousy is a complex emotional response to perceived threats to a valued romantic relationship. It may include fear of loss, anger, suspicion, comparison with a rival, intrusive thoughts, and attempts to protect or monitor the relationship.
The Multidimensional Jealousy Scale (MJS) assesses emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components of jealousy, providing a differentiated view of how jealousy is experienced and expressed.
The Interpersonal Jealousy Scale assesses dispositional tendencies toward jealousy in close relationships, capturing general patterns of suspicion, insecurity, and emotional reactivity.
The Romantic Jealousy Scale focuses specifically on jealousy in romantic relationships, including emotional responses to perceived threats from rivals or alternative partners.
The Chronic Jealousy Scale assesses persistent tendencies toward jealousy across situations, reflecting a more enduring vulnerability to jealous reactions.
The Self-Report Jealousy Scale provides an earlier operationalization of jealousy as a dispositional tendency.
The Jealousy/Fear of Abandonment Scale captures the overlap between jealousy and fear of losing a partner, linking jealousy to attachment-related insecurity.
Jealousy is not only an internal experience; it may also be expressed through communication, questioning, withdrawal, confrontation, surveillance, or reassurance seeking. Digital communication can create additional ambiguity, visibility, and perceived threats through social media, messaging, and online interactions.
The Communicative Responses to Jealousy Scale (CRJS) assesses how individuals communicate jealousy, including constructive, avoidant, aggressive, and controlling responses.
The Facebook Jealousy Scale assesses jealousy triggered by social media interactions, including partner visibility, ambiguous online behavior, and perceived alternatives.
The Digital Jealousy Scale extends this approach to broader online environments, capturing jealousy related to digital communication, social media activity, and technology-mediated relational monitoring.
Trust reflects expectations that a partner is reliable, responsive, honest, and not intentionally harmful. In contrast, mistrust and relational uncertainty involve doubts about the partner, the relationship, commitment, future stability, or the meaning of the partner's behavior.
The Dyadic Trust Scale assesses trust within a specific romantic relationship, focusing on reliability and confidence in a partner.
The Trust Scale conceptualizes trust as a multidimensional construct, including predictability, dependability, and faith in the partner.
The Specific Interpersonal Trust Scale assesses trust toward a specific other person, including expectations of honesty, reliability, benevolence, and emotional safety in the relationship.
The Relationship Uncertainty Scale assesses uncertainty about one's own involvement, the partner's commitment, and the future or status of the relationship.
Some measures focus on intrusive, excessive, or maladaptive concerns about the relationship or the partner. These may involve obsessive doubts, checking, reassurance seeking, heightened suspicion, intrusive jealousy, or persistent preoccupation with the partner's feelings, fidelity, or suitability.
The Obsessional Jealousy Severity Scale (OJSS) captures pathological forms of jealousy associated with significant distress, impairment, and intrusive preoccupation.
The Relationship Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (ROCI) assesses obsessive doubts and compulsive checking related to the relationship itself, such as uncertainty about feelings, compatibility, or the “rightness” of the relationship.
The Partner-Related Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms Inventory (PROCSI) assesses obsessive concerns focused on perceived flaws or characteristics of the partner.
The Romantic Relationship Addiction Scale (RRAS) assesses addictive-like involvement in romantic relationships, including craving, loss of control, withdrawal-like distress, and persistence despite negative consequences.
Relational transgressions often evoke strong emotional responses and may require processes of interpretation, repair, forgiveness, or disengagement. These measures assess attitudes toward infidelity, expectations of betrayal, offence-specific forgiveness, and emotional responses to violations of trust.
The Marital Offence-Specific Forgiveness Scale (MOFS) measures forgiveness in marital relationships, capturing emotional and behavioral responses to partner transgressions.
The Attitudes Toward Infidelity Scale assesses beliefs, norms, and evaluations regarding infidelity.
The Infidelity Expectations Questionnaire captures expectations about partner behavior and the perceived likelihood of infidelity.
The Brief Betrayal Trauma Survey (BBTS) assesses exposure to traumatic events, with particular attention to betrayal trauma involving harm or violation by trusted or close others.
The Betrayal Trauma Inventory assesses psychological responses to betrayal, especially in the context of close and dependent relationships.
Emotional dependency reflects reliance on a partner for security, reassurance, validation, and emotional stability. It may be accompanied by fear of abandonment, distress at separation, and heightened sensitivity to signs of rejection or loss.
The Spouse-Specific Dependency Scale (SSDS) focuses on dependency within marital relationships, including reliance on a partner for emotional and practical support.
The Fear of Being Single Scale (FOBS) assesses anxiety and negative beliefs associated with being single and concerns about not having a romantic partner.
⇒ Attachment. Attachment anxiety and avoidance shape jealousy, trust, fear of abandonment, emotional dependency, and responses to relational threat.
⇒ Relationship Dynamics. Partner responsiveness, emotional safety, communication, conflict, repair, relational turbulence, and long-term couple functioning are considered in the Relationship Dynamics domain.
⇒ Emotion Regulation. Jealousy, suspicion, fear of loss, and betrayal-related distress involve emotional reactivity, regulation strategies, and control of intense affect.
⇒ OCD. Relationship-centered obsessive doubts, checking, reassurance seeking, and partner-focused obsessions overlap with obsessive-compulsive processes.
⇒ Social Attitudes. General interpersonal trust, mistrust, and expectations about other people may extend beyond close relationships and are considered as broader social attitudes.