Kumulative Dissertation, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2024

Von der genannten Lizenzangabe ausgenommen sind folgende Bestandteile dieser Dissertation:

Article 2 "Does Insecurity Lead to Envy? The Longitudinal Interplay Between Dispositional Envy and Self-Esteem" (S. 73-126) und Article 3 "Vaccine Envy During the COVID-19 Pandemic” (S. 128-151) stehen unter der CC-Lizenz CC BY-NC.

Lizenzvertrag: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Some people have a stronger tendency to experience envy than others, marking individual differences in dispositional envy. Dispositional envy has been conceptualized as an emotional trait that varies between individuals and across the comparison domains of attraction, competence, and wealth. Given that envy is connected to low well-being on the individual level as well as to harmful behavior in social interactions and groups, it is extremely important to understand how individual differences in dispositional envy unfold across time and how they are connected to experiences of envy in specific situations. In three articles, the present dissertation therefore aimed to extend existing knowledge on dispositional envy by employing a personality psychology perspective and large longitudinal data sets.
Article 1 investigated stability and change in global and domain-specific dispositional envy over time. In a preregistered longitudinal study across 6 years, data from N = 1,229 adult participants were analyzed. In line with conceptualizations of dispositional envy as a stable emotional trait, dispositional envy was found to be stable across time spans of several years with stability coefficients similar to those of established trait characteristics reported in the literature (e.g., self-esteem and the Big Five). Moreover, the results indicated that domain-specific dispositional envy is as stable as the global construct. By providing evidence that dispositional envy can rightfully be considered a stable emotional trait, these findings place research on dispositional envy on more solid ground.
With previous theoretical and empirical accounts emphasizing a close and reciprocal association between dispositional envy and low self-esteem, Article 2 examined the interplay of these two constructs across time. In two preregistered longitudinal studies with a total sample size of more than 7,000 adult participants, change in dispositional envy across 2 to 6 years was found to be negatively correlated with concurrent change in self-esteem at the global level and within comparison domains, such that people who increased in dispositional envy were likely to experience a decrease in self-esteem within the same time span and vice versa. Moreover, there was initial evidence that change in dispositional envy could be predicted by the previous level of or antecedent change in self-esteem, suggesting a directional effect of self-esteem on envy. By illustrating that the development of dispositional envy is closely intertwined with self-esteem development, these findings can inform theoretical models on the association between envy and self-esteem as well as practical approaches on how to reduce a person’s level of dispositional envy.
In Article 3, an applied focus was adopted by investigating vaccine envy, a new phenomenon that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine envy describes envy that is experienced when becoming aware that others are given the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine while one is still waiting for the vaccination. In two preregistered online surveys conducted in May 2021 (N = 1,174) and October/November 2021 (N = 535), almost half of the unvaccinated participants reported experiencing vaccine envy at least sometimes during the early stages of the vaccination campaign, but vaccine envy had almost disappeared by the end of 2021 when vaccines had become more accessible. As hypothesized, vaccine envy was found to be associated with dispositional envy, low self-esteem, victim sensitivity, social comparison orientation, and appraisals of injustice and undeservingness. Moreover, vaccine envy was connected to subjective perceptions of being threatened by the pandemic and an increased willingness to be vaccinated. These findings significantly advance the understanding of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide important implications for policies and interventions aimed at reducing health-related envy. At the same time, Article 3 can be seen as an illustration of how experiences of envy in specific situations emerge from a complex interplay between person variables (e.g., dispositional envy and self-esteem) and envy-specific appraisals.
Overall, the present dissertation significantly advances the understanding of dispositional envy as a stable and domain-specific emotional trait. The findings shed light on stability and change in dispositional envy across time, on its reciprocal interplay with self-esteem, and on processes of envy generation in specific situations and might thus be used to substantiate theoretical models in envy research. Moreover, the present findings have important practical implications, as they may be used to help identify ways to reduce envy in individuals and society as a whole.