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THE PILL AND ITS EFFECTS ON WOMENS JEALOUSY By: Nicole Ostlund, Mikayla Kemp, and Matt Meneses Cobey, K.D., Pollet, T.V., Roberts, C.S., & Buunk, A.P. (2011). Hormonal birth control use and relationship jealousy: Evidence for estrogen dosage effects. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 315-317

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Prior research has shown that women using oral contraceptives express higher levels of jealousy than those women who are regularly cycling. In the study done by Cobey, Pollet, Roberts, and Buunk, they looked at the effects of different levels of the combined oral contraceptives, either low dose or ultra-low dose, on womens jealousy. They predicted that women on a higher dose (the low dose) would express higher levels of jealousy than women on an ultra-low dose. Their measurement of jealousy was done on a scale created by Buunk, which measured jealousy on a continuum from healthy to unhealthy. Cobey, K.D., Pollet, T.V., Roberts, C.S., & Buunk, A.P. (2011). Hormonal birth control use and relationship jealousy: Evidence for estrogen dosage effects. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 315-317

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275 women participated in their study, all of which had been using oral contraceptives for at least 3 months. While also looking at the differences between low and ultra-low doses, they looked at the presence of progesterone on jealousy. In doing so they tested the effects of progesterone against the effects of estrogen on jealousy levels to see if a difference would be found between them. Cobey, K.D., Pollet, T.V., Roberts, C.S., & Buunk, A.P. (2011). Hormonal birth control use and relationship jealousy: Evidence for estrogen dosage effects. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 315-317

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What they found was that women in the low dose condition expressed more jealousy than those in the ultra-low dose condition. They also concluded that the presence of progesterone had no effect on jealousy, meaning changes in jealousy are dependent on levels of estrogen. Ultra low doseLow dose Cobey, K.D., Pollet, T.V., Roberts, C.S., & Buunk, A.P. (2011). Hormonal birth control use and relationship jealousy: Evidence for estrogen dosage effects. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 315-317

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RESULTS. TURNED OUT BETTER THAN EXPECTED. Cobey, K.D., Pollet, T.V., Roberts, C.S., & Buunk, A.P. (2011). Hormonal birth control use and relationship jealousy: Evidence for estrogen dosage effects. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 315-317

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TOO MUCH ESTROGEN? Taken from Saturday Night Live, Season 3, Episode 5

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Prior research has also shown that women who are taking an oral contraceptive tend to show no or weaker preferences for deeper voices and masculine faces, than women who are maintaining a normal cycle. What this studys conclusions postulate are the chances that women who are on higher doses of these contraceptives could have problems forming pair bonds (female-male relations). Cobey, K.D., Pollet, T.V., Roberts, C.S., & Buunk, A.P. (2011). Hormonal birth control use and relationship jealousy: Evidence for estrogen dosage effects. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 315-317

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This study takes a new approach to exploring the effects of oral contraceptives on behavior. Prior research has explored different emotional phenomena that occurs as a result of the pills, but has been lacking in other behavioral effects. The experimenters suggest that brands and pharmaceutical companies look deeper into the psychological effects of these contraceptives. Cobey, K.D., Pollet, T.V., Roberts, C.S., & Buunk, A.P. (2011). Hormonal birth control use and relationship jealousy: Evidence for estrogen dosage effects. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 315-317

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Interesting Points: A previous study found that a larger amount of women on hormonal contraceptives rather than non-users, reported that they would be more upset with their partners sexual infidelity rather than their partners emotional infidelity. A previous study showed that progesterone affects behavior affiliative motivation, but these results suggest that differing progesterone have no significant affect on reported jealousy levels This study concludes that woman taking higher doses of the Combined Oral Contraceptives could have problems forming pair bonds.

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Weak Points: The age of participants had a significant difference in jealousy levels. Therefore, the experiment could have been broken into different age groups to find a more specific result within the separate age groups The study suggests that the use of Combined Oral Contraceptives have an influence on depressive symptoms, but to further research was done on this topic in the study. The study only concentrated on low-dose users and ultra-low dose users. High-dose users could have also been incorporated into the study.