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Means and Standard Deviations of Demographic Variables for HME and Control Groups Group
Source publication
This study examined whether humiliating marital events (HMEs; husbands' infidelity, threats of marital dissolution) precipitated Major Depressive Episodes (MDEs) when controlling for marital discord. Participants were 25 women who recently experienced an HME and 25 control women who did not experience an HME. Both groups reported similar levels of...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... total of 96% (n = 48) of participants were Caucasian, and 4% (n = 2) were Hispanic/Latina, which is representative of the suburban New York metropolitan area in which the study was conducted. Table 1 displays demographic variables for the HME and control groups. No significant differences were indicated by t tests between groups on age, years married, education completed, and number of children (ps > .20). ...
Citations
... Evidence from an Experimental Survey of Reactions to the Petraeus Affair Infidelity affects many intimate relationships and can cause significant distress (e.g., Cano & O'Leary, 2000). Although there are multiple configurations of infidelity (Blow & Hartnett, 2005), one is particularly recurrent: Older, socially and financially well-established married men pursuing extramarital affairs with young, attractive women; and especially with women younger and more attractive than their spouses (Buss, 2015). ...
We investigated sex differences in cognitive and moral appraisals of sexual infidelity using the case of General David Petraeus as an example. Because visual stimulation may impact psychological evaluations of other people's behavior, including infidelity, participants were randomly assigned to view either a photograph (n = 127) of General Petraeus with his wife plus a photograph of him with his mistress, or a photograph (n = 195) of General Petraeus alone. Both conditions included an identical brief description of the scandal following his affair with his biographer. Participants provided their moral appraisal and cognitive appraisal of infidelity after viewing the visual stimuli. As predicted, men more than women reported lower scores of moral appraisal (“condemnation”) and higher scores of cognitive appraisal (“understanding”) across both conditions. Men who viewed photographs of General Petraeus with his wife and with his mistress reported higher cognitive appraisal than did men who viewed a photograph depicting General Petraeus alone. These results suggest sex differences in appraisals of infidelity, which are particularly salient when participants are presented with visual stimuli contrasting the wife and the more attractive mistress of the unfaithful man.
... Theoretically speaking, these conflicting understandings lead to the experience of cognitive dissonance (14)(15); therefore, perpetrators of infidelity must report psychological experiences indicating cognitive dissonance such as: dissonance in the selfconcept; psychological affliction and weak general emotions, for example, low levels of positive emotions and high levels of negative emotions (16)(17); briefly speaking, the way perpetrators of infidelity think and act may conceptualize in the form of the cognitive dissonance process: the conflict between infidelity behaviors and the self-concept leads to cognitive dissonance in the perpetrators and, as a result, they reduce it through dissonance reduction strategies (18). Infidelity may be experienced by some people during a stage in their lives and its continuity may lead to unhealthy lifestyles and problems for the mental health of the hurt spouse including depression, disorder in communications, addiction to drugs and alcohol, and, in some acute cases, suicide; Infidelity is reliably associated with poorer mental health particularly depression/anxiety and PTSD (19), and relationship dissolution/divorce (20,21). Which has been shown to adversely impact offspring (22). ...
Introduction: The purpose of this study was to design and evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention package on the attitude toward infidelity and marital intimacy among the infidel women. Materials and Methods: The present research uses the pseudo experimental pretest-posttest-follow up methodology with a control group to investigate the effectiveness of the formulated intervention package. Population of the research includes all married infidel women who had referred to Entekhab No Psychology Clinic during 2019, with the statistical sample being made up of 30 married infidel women who had referred to Entekhab No Psychology Clinic. Following the introduction of the research objectives to obtain an informed consent from the participants, they were organized into experimental and control groups by observing the inclusion criteria. The standardized questionnaire on marital infidelity and the marital intimacy questionnaire presented by Vandon-Brouck and Bertommen (1995) were used in the pretest, posttest, and follow up stages. Mixed analysis of variance with repeated measures in SPSS v.24 was adopted to investigate the effectiveness of the formulated intervention package. Results: The results implied that provision of training courses based on phenomenological description of the marital infidelity provides the infidel women with sustainably increased average levels of the sexual intimacy, negative attitude toward infidelity, religious encountering, problem-solving skill, and infidelity avoidance. The findings further indicated that such training material might lead to stably enhanced levels of intimacy, affection/amour, agreement and adherence to marital intimacy commitments among the infidel women. Discussion: Based on the findings of this study, it can be argued that designing an intervention package based on the ecological status of the community under study can effectively improve the components of marital commitment and thus if used by therapists. It can be extremely helpful in preventing marital breakdowns in society.
... In this study, the risk of somatic symptoms was 3.4 times more in Divorced/Widowed participants than single ones. There are different findings regarding the relationship between marriage and mental disorders, but one Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) study revealed married men and women had the lowest depression than divorced men and women [31]. Anxiety also was similar. ...
Introduction:
Today mental disorders are important concerns of health care system in all countries. Among different mental disorders; depression, anxiety, and somatization are more frequent. This manuscript was conducted to evaluate the frequency of somatization symptoms, its related factors and the correlation between somatization symptoms and anxiety and depression disorders in Iranian population.
Methods:
The cross-sectional study was conducted in Kerman, Iran, 2017. Participants were selected from patients who referred to the Clinics of Educational Hospitals using convenience sampling method. The PHQ-15 and HADS questionnaire were used to assess the somatization and depression and anxiety, respectively. The univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the predictive factors of somatization symptoms. The correlations between each PHQ-15 item score and anxiety and depression score were expressed.
Results:
The frequency of mild, moderate and severe levels of somatization was 66.3%, 20.5% and 13.1%, respectively. Considering multivariate logistic regression analysis; age was associated with somatic symptoms, significantly. The risk of somatic symptoms was 3.4 times more in Divorced/Widowed participants than single ones (p-value: 0.035). There were significant positive correlations between anxiety and depression scores. Each additional score of anxiety and depression were associated with 1.14 times more likely (p-value: < 0.001) and 1.11 times less likely (p-value: 0.003) of having somatic symptoms, respectively.
Conclusion:
The burden of somatization, depression and anxiety is high in Iranian population. Psychologists and policy-makers should consider these predictive factors for primary prevention of somatization at the personal and community level, respectively.
... Marital infidelity can increase domestic violence and eventually lead to divorce (6,5). Moreover, it threatens mental health and increases depression, anxiety, and even causes post-traumatic stress disorder in the victim (7,8). Due to the experience of infidelity, the victim loses his or her mental peace and may even commit suicide (9,10). ...
... It refers to any relationship (sexual or emotional) outside of the framework of a committed relationship between the couples, which has a profound effect on the performance and stability of the marital relationship (Drigotas and Barta 2001;Ogwokhademh 2013). Different emotional responses such as depression, anger, dismay, and distress have been reported in many people referred to psychiatric and counseling centers as a result of revealing the betrayal of the spouse (Cano and O'Leary 2000). Some researchers such as Treas and Giesen (2000) declared that the most factors involving in sexual infidelity are those with more permissive sexual values, stronger sexual interests, weaker network ties to partner, lower subjective satisfaction with their union, and greater sexual opportunities. ...
Extramarital affairs (EA) have become a common occurrence in modern society. Many studies have pointed to the lack of variety in a relationship as a contributing factor related to divorce and EA. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between addiction to mobile social networking (MSN) with marital commitment (MC) and EA among married students and negative interpersonal relationship outcomes. This research is considered as applied research and is descriptive and correlational. The population for this study comprised all married adults in Islamic Azad University of Quchan Branch (138 married students) while the target sample is 100 married students who were randomly selected from the population. The method of data collection in this field research is based on the questionnaire of addiction to MSN (Khaje Ahmadi questionnaire), the standard questionnaire of MC (Adams and Jones 1997) and the questionnaire of crisis relations, due to the nature of the research subject. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses. All hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 alpha level. In this way, after determining the research sample, the researcher individually distributed the relevant questionnaires and asked the subject to honestly answer the questions. Data extracted from three questionnaires were analyzed through the SPSS statistical analyzes (descriptive and inferential). The findings of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between addiction to MSN with MC and EA among married students. The phenomenon of addiction to MSN can lead to a cold relationship by disturbing family order and balance and, consequently, emotional divorce.
... Infidelity may be experienced by some people at different stages and its continuity may lead to unhealthy lifestyles and major psychological issues such depression, addiction and even suicide to the victim of infidelity. Infidelity is reliably associated with poorer mental health particularly depression/anxiety and PTSD (25), and relationship dissolution/divorce (26,27), which has been shown to adversely impact offspring (28). Indeed, across 160 societies infidelity is the single most common cause of marital dissolution (29). ...
Introduction: Considering the lack of knowledge in the field of infidelity and its consequences in the country and the insufficient familiarity with the expressions of infidelity behaviors, the present study aimed at investigating the phenomenological experience of infidelity in married women. Methods: The present study used a qualitative method with a descriptive phenomenological approach. Population of the study included women engaged in infidelity visiting one of the consultation centers in the city of Tehran in the year 2017. Sampling of the population was carried out using the targeted snowball sampling method. Size of the sample was increased up to saturation point and, overall, 10 married women with the experience of infidelity were subjected to investigation. Semi-structured interview method was used to gather data and the data were analyzed through the Colaizzi's method. Results: The results demonstrated that infidelity occurs due to several factors including deficiency needs, the perpetrators' psychological qualities, marital compatibility, consequences expected from infidelity, and etiology of starting infidelity. Discussion: There are several factors involved in women's inclination to infidelity. Based on the findings of the present study, the practical proposition is to arrange therapy sessions and instructional manuals based on the concepts and axes extracted from the analysis of the interviews with people who have shared their phenomenological experience of infidelity with us.
... ; Songprakun &( ال�سلوكي على القائم والعالج ،)e.g., Ryan, 2014( واللتزام بالقبول والعالج ،)McCann, 2012 ،)e.g., Geschwind, Peeters, Drukker, Van, Wichers, 2011( الذهنية اليقظة e.g., Loprinzi, Prasad, Schroeder, Sood, 2011 Agnew et al., 1998;Cano & O'Leary, 2000;Glass, 2002;( بحوث نتائج ذلك .) Ong et al., 2006;Reed, & Enright, 2006;Schneider et al., 1998 ...
... A combination of such diminished self-worth, self-blame, perceptions of lost control, shattered assumptions of safety and trust in the relationship, and other cognitive and emotional effects of romantic betrayal may explain the association between infidelity victimization and major depressive episodes. One study found that experiencing negative marital events such as learning of a partner's infidelity predicted depressive episodes in 38% of women without a history of major depression (Christian-Herman, O'Leary, & Avery-Leaf, 2001) and in 72% of women with such a psychiatric history (Cano & O'Leary, 2000). See also Mearns (1991), who demonstrated that 40% of an undergraduate sample experienced symptoms of clinical depression within 8 weeks following a romantic breakup resulting from infidelity. ...
The existing literature indicates that sexual and emotional infidelities are common in adult romantic relationships. Additionally, research suggests that such infidelity is highly detrimental to relationship longevity and to the well-being of betrayed partners, with some authors characterizing it as a trauma and noting its potential to constitute an “attachment injury.” This literature review summarizes the existing research on how infidelity impacts romantic relationships and its emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and stress-related physical health consequences for betrayed partners, thereby providing greater specificity to the nature of this trauma or attachment injury. The integration of the findings discussed herein suggests that infidelity-based attachment trauma manifestations may resemble disorganized attachment behavior. The implications for clinical practice are discussed. Based on these consequences, we evaluate the common “adjustment disorder” diagnosis for infidelity-based attachment trauma and suggest a refined diagnostic sub-categorization for cases with traumatic symptomatology. Finally, we provide recommendations for future research.
... A combination of such diminished self-worth, self-blame, perceptions of lost control, shattered assumptions of safety and trust in the relationship, and other cognitive and emotional effects of romantic betrayal may explain the association between infidelity victimization and major depressive episodes. One study found that experiencing negative marital events such as learning of a partner's infidelity predicted depressive episodes in 38% of women without a history of major depression (Christian-Herman, O'Leary, & Avery-Leaf, 2001) and in 72% of women with such a psychiatric history (Cano & O'Leary, 2000). See also Mearns (1991), who demonstrated that 40% of an undergraduate sample experienced symptoms of clinical depression within 8 weeks following a romantic breakup resulting from infidelity. ...
This article examines moral hypocrisy and the self-serving bias (SSB) in the sexual infidelity context. We found evidence of self-serving attributions that occur between primary relationship partners following sexual betrayals. Specifically, we found that sexual infidelity perpetrators (a) blamed their primary dyadic partners (i.e., victims) for infidelities significantly more than those victims blamed themselves for such infidelities, (b) blamed the surrounding circumstances for infidelities significantly more than their victims did, and (c) rated the emotional impact of infidelities on their victims as significantly less than victims' ratings of such impact. Moreover, we found that participants with prior experience as both sexual infidelity perpetrators and victims displayed "sexual hypocrisy" by judging others more harshly than themselves for sexually unfaithful behavior. Our findings demonstrate that personality variables associated with sexual infidelity (narcissism, sexual narcissism, avoidant attachment, and primary psychopathy) are also relevant to self-serving attributions in the sexual infidelity context.
... Although none of these studies examined the effects on partners of the infidelity, general relationship literature shows that infidelity is associated with decreased relationship satisfaction (Spanier & Margolis, 1983), increased psychological distress for both partners (Cano & O'leary, 2000), and is one of the most common predictors of divorce (Amato & Rogers, 1997). These studies raise questions about whether a narcissist's lack of empathy and remorse may exacerbate the adverse effects on their female partner or whether there is also the possibility that if the women have been unfaithful themselves, they may be experiencing guilt and shame, or possibly retribution from their partner, given that narcissists are more vengeful and less forgiving. ...
ABSTRACT
This research explores how women are affected by a long term, intimate relationship with a suspected narcissistic male partner. There has been very little empirical research, other than case studies, into women’s experiences in this area, and I have not located any similar research within the New Zealand cultural context. Practitioner research methodology was used to gain an in-depth understanding of women’s experiences with a view to improving my therapeutic counselling practice.
Six women, whose ex-partners (from long-term relationships) were judged to have met specific criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, were interviewed using a semi-structured interview method. The inquiry focused on their experiences at three stages of the relationship (beginning, during and post) and how they were affected. Transcripts were then analysed using thematic analysis which showed women were subjected to ongoing and repeated physical and psychological aggression, coercion, social isolation and financial exploitation throughout their relationship. They lost their independence and agency, and the relationships had a significantly detrimental effect on them in most areas of their lives, i.e. mentally, physically, socially, sexually, spiritually and financially. This abuse was insidious, and the women lived in fear for their safety and the safety of their children. The research shows that the deterioration of these relationships happens gradually, it ultimately erodes and annihilates the sense of self, which makes it almost impossible to leave. The negative effects on the women were immense and continued long after the relationships had ended. Despite what they endured, they showed enormous strength, courage and resiliency. Recovery was a long process, often self-directed, including seeking help from counsellors.
Implications from the findings are discussed, and it is concluded that the experience of living long-term with a partner with strong narcissistic behaviours produces some outcomes of domestic abuse that may not be typical for other victims of domestic abuse. I discuss how these women become annihilated and trapped in these relationships and make recommendations on how response-based therapy and narrative therapy could be used to help these women rebuild their lives and sense of self.
