Since antiquity, jealousy has been counted among the traits of character that one must
feel ashamed of and try to eliminate through self-improvement. In the ancient Greece all the
attributes that could become the object of another person’s jealousy, such as: good fortune,
health, beauty, wisdom, talents, were perceived not as something that resulted from human
efforts but rather as a gift from God and, simultaneously, a task associated with their proper
use. Jealousy was considered an impious act and a form of ingratitude for what one had been
endowed with. Over the next centuries jealousy did not phase into obsolescence and remained
a significant concept in social, legal, political, moral, religious or upbringing spheres.
Today jealousy is viewed as a component of the human nature while the behavior resulting
from jealousy is treated rather with leniency. This “sanctioning” of jealousy does not
seem favorable due to the hazards if creates, such as the breakup of the bonds of brotherhood
or solidarity, first among smaller social groups and then among the whole of humanity. As
a result, jealousy ceased to be thoroughly analyzed as a human trait that may inhibit or in
some cases render impossible an optimal academic development and hinder cultural progress.
The author decided to focus this research project on the issue of destruction in the academic
development not in order to brand the evil existing in a certain environment, institution
or an occupational group. One of her motives was the desire and the necessity to reveal
the stumbling blocks in the academic development in the form of “artificial obstacles”, created
by jealous individuals, which strain the relationships and complicate the progress of academic
career for others, especially as regards the practice of unequal treatment of employees (not
always in the form of mobbing, but relatively often – as distributive inequality). Among other
motives for focusing this research on jealousy was the author’s concern and worry for the
quality of life of researchers as well as the quality of their occupational activity (dynamism
of individual academic development). There is one more reason why the author selected this
particular subject as the focus of her study. The aim of permanent education (including academic)
is to acquire the ability of enjoying cordiality that comes from individuals who do not
feel jealousy towards the researchers but wish them a good and happy life.
The aim of this study, whose results are hereby published, was to fathom the opinions of
academics (researchers and academic teachers) concerning the symptoms, types and conditions,
as well as ways of preventing chronic jealousy in this occupational group. Increased
and long-term jealousy, manifested most often in the form of hostile behavior towards other
employees has come to be considered as an inhibitor of scientific development, that is to say
a factor that makes it difficult both for the person who feels jealous and for the person who
becomes the object of jealousy, to carry on a relatively normal occupational life. Examining the problem of jealousy in this occupational group, apart from following
cognitive aims related to the indicated subject of the study, the author also needed to focus
on utilitarian aims (such as raising the level of awareness in the field of destructive effects of
escalation of jealousy in collective life, especially as regards the development of researchers
and the general academic progress). Aims such as shaping a proper approach to the problem
in research employees and academic teachers, supporting attitudes that oppose jealousy,
increased self-control of behavior caused by this complex negative emotion can be classified
as upbringing and preventive aims, which in turns leads to the necessity of going beyond the
cognitive function in this study.
The structure of this monograph contains the answers to the research problems and
outlines how these answers were reached. Apart from the table of contents and a detailed
introduction (which justifies the undertaken scope of the studied problems, describes the
methodological and organizational foundations for the study and presents the structure itself
of the monograph), the work contains 7 chapters closely related as regards the studied subject
matter, the end, bibliography, personal index, a summary with key words and a note on the
author.
In the course of the first chapter, in order to identify jealousy as an emotion, it became
necessary to disambiguate the term from other semantically related concepts, especially
envy, hatred, greed, vanity, unkindness and disapproval. Subsequent lexical analyses made
it possible to discern other terms, such as “rivalry”, “emulation”, “competition”, “ambition”
and “aspirations”, all bearing certain significance in the process of revealing the genesis of
jealousy.
The second chapter examines the types of jealousy. In order to illustrate this negative
emotion three levels of jealousy were analyzed. The stages of becoming jealous were described,
along with the response on the part of the person who becomes the object of jealousy. The
description of short-term and chronic jealousy is a result of examining the problem of persistence
of jealousy.
The third chapter focuses on the mechanism, reasons and objects of jealousy, revealing
personal, environmental and situational factors constituting significant obstacles in prosperous
occupational development of academic researchers and teachers. Jealousy is depicted both
as an affective mechanism necessary for human survival and, at the same time, as a deficiency
in research activities. Emphasis is laid on the multiplicity and variety of objects of jealousy as
well as on the fact that their number is virtually limitless.
The fourth chapter deals with a differential description of somatic, psychic and behavioral
symptoms of jealousy, and discusses similarities and differences in the expression of
this negative emotion among men and women. The author has analyzed the results of her
own studies, in which the participants expressed their opinions concerning the forms of
jealousy experienced from their academic colleagues as well as from employees of other
universities.
The fifth chapter studies probable effects of jealousy both for those who succumb to it and
those who suffer it from the social environment. The author proves that jealous individuals
expose themselves to: mental suffering, disturbances in interpersonal communication, sense
of loneliness, acquisition of other unfavorable character traits (such as mendacity, cynicism),
negative inclination, unflattering social opinion, slowdown of academic development. Probable
effects among those suffering jealousy from their environment are: disturbance of the image
of the world, other people and oneself; generation of other negative emotions; the feeling of
lack of academic support; hypercritical reactions; mobbing; attempts aimed at hindering and
slowing down of academic development or even at preventing one from getting promoted;
inhibiting creativity of talented academics. The sixth chapter contains a description of values, dispositions and attitudes of academics,
which constitute direct opposites to jealousy. The author points out that among the values
diminishing the risk of escalation of jealousy are: respect, tolerance, freedom, courage. The
list of dispositions reducing such an emotional state as jealousy includes: gratitude, generosity,
benevolence, generosity, selflessness, openness, modesty, truthfulness, authenticity, magnanimity,
honesty. Among the attitudes considered to be completely opposite to jealousy are:
expressing admiration and recognition, protectiveness, passion for research work, sensitivity
to manifestations of originality of research projects, affirmation of life.
Chapter seven concentrates on preventing jealousy and neutralizing the habit of feeling
jealousy, by means of an educational process, especially among academic students and budding
researchers. The author presents the principles of upbringing and moral self-education
along with methods for eliminating jealousy such as reflection and auto-reflection, overcoming
stereotypes and resisting delusions, developing talents, avoiding perfectionism, developing
a tradition for celebrating one’s own successes and those achieved by others, demonstrating
the pointlessness of this emotional state. In order to prevent chronic jealousy the author proposes
that university employees should frequently refer to the code of professional ethics and
modify unfavorable institutional procedures.
This monograph constitutes an inter-disciplinary study in the field of pedagogical science,
and as such it is addressed to the academics representing all the fields (the humanities,
social, technical), disciplines (especially pedagogics, philosophy, psychology, sociology) and
sub-disciplines. It is also recommended to students (including at the doctoral level) and all
those cooperating with universities, for example to those applying the results of studies in certain
practical specialties, such as in the sphere of the economy. It may also prove interesting
to the family members of various academics and help them better understand the difficulties
this kind of work involves. The monograph may also help specialists in the field of pedagogics,
teachers, educators, guardians and animators in the process of preparing the youth for
university education and possible employment as academic teachers. The author also hopes,
perhaps first and foremost, that this work will foster dynamic cognitive, emotional and moral
development of students and young researchers.
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