jquery get selected dropdownlist text

Question

Hi How can i get the selected text on a dropdowm, ive seen examples of how to do eg $('select option:selected').text()

but looking at my code below, how can i modify it to work as the line

    alert($(this).parent().text());

gets all the list items as opposed to selected text

$(document).ready(function () {

$('.mutuallyexclusive').live("click", function () {

    checkedState = $(this).attr('checked');
    $('.mutuallyexclusive:checked').each(function () {
        $(this).attr('checked', false);
    });
    $(this).attr('checked', checkedState);

    alert($(this).parent().text());
});

});