Jealousy, general creativity, and coping with social frustration during the menstrual cycle

Abstract

Sensitivity to feelings of jealousy in women (n = 16) at three phases of their menstrual cycle differing in serum hormone concentrations (menses, preovulatory phase, midluteal phase) was investigated. Nonspecific electrodermal activity indicating sympathetic excitation was measured while subjects listened to stories and imagined situations inducing (i) nonsexual jealousy (the partner forms a deep emotional attachment to another woman), (ii) sexual jealousy (the partner has sexual intercourse with another woman), and (iii) no jealousy (social interaction lacking intense emotionality). Subjective ratings of the intensity of jealousy during both stories of jealousy were also assessed. In addition, changes in cognitive coping abilities, in general, and in the context of socially frustrating events, were assessed by tests of divergent thinking (creativity) and the Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Test. Frequency of nonspecific electrodermal reactions was generally enhanced during the preovulatory phase. This increase was particularly strong when the women listened to stories inducing nonsexual jealousy, i.e., a story characterized by cues of a complete loss of the partner's investment. Rated jealousy tended to be enhanced during the ovulatory phase, especially after the story of nonsexual jealousy. These changes in emotionality were paralleled by an improved divergent thinking performance and less aggressive coping with socially frustrating events around the time of ovulation.

Acute Influences of Estrogen and Testosterone on Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Postmenopausal Women

“…With respect to working memory functions in young women, we found particularly consistent changes for abilities of divergent creative thinking which are distinctly enhanced around the time of ovulation (Krug et al, 1994(Krug et al, , 1996(Krug et al, , 1999. Divergent thinking refers to the fluency and flexibility with which new representations become activated in working memory (Guilford, 1967;Guilford and Hoepfner, 1971).…”

Cognitive and Affective Aspects of Creative Option Generation in Everyday Life Situations

“…In our study, we did not find a difference between men and women with respect to their propensity to generate creative options. However, there might be differences within the female menstrual cycle given that it has already been argued that estrogen could improve creative performance ( Krug et al, 1994 , 1996 ), a research avenue that unfortunately has not been pursued any further so far. Recently, the links between dopamine and divergent as well as convergent cognitive processes of creativity have been researched, where different constellations between phasic changes in dopamine and individually different tonic dopamine levels as well as mood have been suggested to be of key importance ( Akbari Chermahini and Hommel, 2010 , 2011 , 2012 ).…”

The More Fertile, the More Creative: Changes in Women’s Creative Potential across the Ovulatory Cycle

“…For a couple of days in the middle of the menstrual cycle, women’s sensitivity to a potential mate is supposed to increase [ 11 ]. Some studies indicate that they experience both a greater arousal [ 12 ] and sexual desire, and report more frequent sexual fantasies [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Women show a higher openness to uncommitted sexual relationships during ovulation [ 16 ] and preferences for more traditionally masculine features in men [ 17 ].…”