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Cognitive behavioural responses to envy: development of a new measure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2019

Cheryl Jordan ,
Silia Vitoratou ,
Yee Siew  and
Trudie Chalder
Cheryl Jordan*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London, 57 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8WA, UK
Silia Vitoratou
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, 16 De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK
Yee Siew
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, Weston Education Centre, Cutcombe Road, London SE5 9RJ, UK
Trudie Chalder
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, Weston Education Centre, Cutcombe Road, London SE5 9RJ, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Background:

Envy is depicted as motivating destructive desires and actions intended to spoil or destroy that which is envied.

Aim:

To develop a new valid and reliable measure of malicious envy (C-BRES), which included items representing the cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses empirically associated with this emotion.

Method:

A total of 203 adults completed the new 22-item cognitive and behavioural responses to envy scale (C-BRES). Exploratory factor analysis was carried out to test for reliability and internal consistency of the C-BRES. Evidence towards the concurrent construct validity (convergent and discriminant) of the C-BRES was assessed through correlations with the Dispositional envy scale and other measures of psychosocial outcomes empirically linked to envy.

Results:

Factor analysis for categorical data identified five dimensions of envy, namely: injustice, hostility, malicious action tendencies, malicious feelings and behavioural responses. The reliability indices of the five factors and the total scale were satisfactory (>0.85). Evidence towards the concurrent construct validity (convergent and discriminant) of the C-BRES is reported. In particular, envy was associated with higher levels of depression, psychoticism, neuroticism, anger and lower levels of self-esteem and quality of life.

Conclusion:

All findings support the psychometric adequacy of the C-BRES.

Keywords

behaviouralcognitiveemotionalenvymaliciouspsychometric
Type
Main
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , July 2020 , pp. 408 - 418
Copyright
© British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2019

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