When Your Lover Loves Another: Contexts for Jealousy and Compersion
1h 21m
Glenna Hunter
Behaviour Analyst
Trailer
Get AccessFull VideoContent and Aim: Jealousy is a common source of conflict within relationships. Defined as an emotional response to the threat to something important in a relationship (Aumer, 2013), jealousy is generally considered the expected response when a person’s partner shows an interest in someone else. In contrast, compersion is the experience of positive emotions, thoughts, attitudes or actions in response to a partner’s intimate relation with another person (Thouin-Savard & Flicker, 2023). If both jealousy and compersion are possible responses to a partner’s involvement with another, what determines which response one experiences? In this talk, the behaviour analyst Glenna Hunter explores the role of contingencies in the experience and expression of jealousy. Drawing on recent research on compersion, she also considers factors that may favour compersion versus jealousy.
Learning Objectives: This course is designed to help clinicians
- To describe jealous responding as a functional response that may be understood in context.
- To map contingencies that may play a part in jealous responding.
- To describe two ways of navigating jealousy that arise from a contingency analysis.
- To identify one key difference in the contingencies that influence whether a person experiences compersion or jealousy.
Produced in 2025
Glenna Hunter
Behaviour Analyst
Lecturer
Glenna Hunter is a Registered Behaviour Analyst in Ontario, Canada. She is currently a student at Western University where she is pursuing a Doctorate of Education in Behaviour Analysis, having previously obtained a Master of Psychology through the university of Nevada, Reno, and a Bachelor of Science at the University of Guelph.
Glenna works at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario as part of an interdisciplinary team providing wraparound care to the families of children and youth experiencing behavioural and mental health challenges, helping them to understand and safely navigate big emotions and tough situations. Glenna has taught in the Bachelor of Behavioural Psychology program at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario, and has served as a behaviour consultant with the Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre, and as clinical supervisor with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s Autism program and Dual Diagnosis program.
Outside of work, Glenna finds it helpful to apply the analysis of behaviour to everyday matters, including navigating emotions in the context of relationships. For fun, she plays cello and fiddle in various musical groups, and puzzles over complex human behaviour, including her own and that of those she loves.