عزت نفس و حسادت: آیا بی ثباتی اعتماد به نفس در ارتباط با اشکال خوش خیم و مخرب حسادت است؟ Self-esteem and envy: Is state self-esteem instability associated with the benign and malicious forms of envy?

1. Introduction Envy is a deeply unpleasant emotion that arises from upward social comparisons that reflect poorly on the self (e.g., Parrott & Smith, 1993). Envy is rooted in an individual’s realization that he or she lacks something valuable that belongs to another person such as a personal attribute (e.g., intelligence, beauty), an accomplishment (e.g., winning an election), a relationship (e.g., having an attractive spouse), or a possession (e.g., financial wealth; Parrott & Smith, 1993). The sorts of upward social comparisons that tend to trigger feelings of envy are those that involve threats to one’s feelings of self-worth because they reflect an erosion of one’s relative social position (Salovey & Rodin, 1984). That is, individuals are most likely to experience envy when they perceive themselves as being inferior in some way to another individual (see Lange, Blatz, & Crusius, in press, for a review). Feelings of envy often motivate individuals to attempt to overcome their perceived inferiority (Salovey & Rodin, 1984). In essence, there are two approaches for leveling the differences between oneself and the envied individual (e.g., Lange & Crusius, 2015). The first approach is referred to as benign envy which involves the desire to attain the advantage that the superior person possesses (i.e., the goal is to bring oneself up to the level of the superior person). The existence of this benign form of envy is supported by research showing that envy is associated with positive thoughts about superior others (van de Ven, Zeelenberg, & Pieters, 2009), hopes for future success (Lange & Crusius, 2015), and shifts in attention toward means that are beneficial for fostering one’s own achievements (Crusius & Lange, 2014). The second approach is referred to as malicious envy which involves the desire to deprive the superior person of his or her advantage (i.e., the goal is to pull the superior person down to one’s own level). The existence of the malicious form of envy – which has been the focus of most previous research concerning envy – is supported by a wide array of results including those showing envy to be associated with certain aspects of narcissism (Lange, Crusius, & Hagemeyer, 2016), hostility and antagonistic thoughts about superior others (van de Ven et al., 2009), and fear of failure (Lange & Crusius, 2015). Individuals are most likely to experience envy when they perceive themselves as being inferior in some way to another individual but not everyone relies on these sorts of social comparisons to the same extent. For example, individuals with low levels of trait self-esteem are more likely to make upward social comparisons than individuals with high levels of trait self-esteem (Wayment & Taylor, 1995) which may explain the negative association between trait self-esteem level and envy that has often emerged in past studies (e.g., Rentzsch, Schröder-Abé, & Schütz, 2015). Although previous research has examined the connection that trait self-esteem has with envy, the results of those studies are at least somewhat limited because they did not distinguish between individuals with stable and unstable forms of self-esteem.