Abstract

MILFONT, Taciano L.  and  GOUVEIA, Valdiney V.. A capital sin: dispositional envy and its relations to wellbeing. Interam. j. psychol. [online]. 2009, vol.43, n.3, pp. 547-551. ISSN 0034-9690.

Envy is a pancultural emotion felt by most individuals during their lifetime. The Dispositional Envy Scale (DES) is a 8-item self-reported measure developed to assess people’s tendencies to feel envy. This study first examines the reliability and validity of the DES in measuring envy in a Brazilian sample, and then the relationship between envy and wellbeing. The DES had acceptable reliability (internal consistency and homogeneity) as well as factorial and criterion-related validity. As expected, envy was negatively related to wellbeing measures (life satisfaction, vitality, and happiness), indicating that an envy-prone person is more likely to have low feelings of aliveness and energy, and to express unhappiness with their lives. The findings support the psychometric properties of the Brazilian-Portuguese version of the DES, and also highlight the potential impact of envy on people’s wellbeing.

Keywords : Envy; Wellbeing; Dispositional Envy Scale; Validity; Reliability.

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