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Distress in response to relationship infidelity: The roles of gender and attitudes about relationships
Abstract
According to the evolutionary model of psychology, biological influences may be a force behind many gender differences in relationship strategies and responses to relationship issues. For example, prior research has shown that males indicated more distress in relation to sexual infidelity, whereas females indicated more distress at the emotional infidelity of their partner. The current study attempted to replicate and extend this previous research by also examining relevant attitudinal factors possibly related to responses to infidelity. Participants (N = 156) were surveyed regarding probable responses to relationship infidelity (sexual vs. emotional infidelity), and measures of participants’ sexual attitudes and romantic beliefs were obtained. Results indicate a clear gender difference: Women were more likely to choose emotional infidelity as most distressing, while more men chose sexual infidelity as most distressing. For the men and women who did choose the same type of infidelity as most distressing, their ratings of the intensity of the distress did not differ. Sexual attitudes were found to be significant in predicting distress caused by either type of infidelity. Romantic beliefs were only significant in predicting distress due to emotional infidelity.
... Moreover, Parental Investment Theory (Trivers, 1972) also claims that due to differential investment in offspring, a partner"s infidelity will have different reproductive costs for men and women and, therefore, they have different reactions and attitudes toward extramarital sex (Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001;Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992;Buunk, Angleitner, Oubaid, & Buss, 1996;Shackelford, Buss, & Bennett, 2002;Cramer, Abraham, Johnson, & Manning-Ryan, 2001). For males, the potential cost of sexual infidelity may jeopardise certainty in paternity (Shackelford et al., 2002). ...
... Females, on the other hand, are certain of their genetic legacy, but risk losing a mate"s energy, time, commitment, protection, and emotional investments due to a partner"s potential infidelity (Buunk, et al., 1996;Shackelford, et al., 2002;Buss et al., 1992). Several studies have found that women and men have different reactions to extramarital sex (Cann et al, 2001;Buss et al., 1992;Buunk et al., 1996;Shackelford et al., 2002;Cramer et al., 2001). That is, males are likely to express distress over situations that reflect a partner"s sexual infidelity; which jeopardizes paternity, while women are concerned with their mate"s emotional involvement with another; which jeopardizes resources (Cramer et al., 2001;Can et al., 2001;Buunk et al., 1996;Buss et al, 1992;Shackelford et al., 2002). ...
... These beliefs are reflective of what females and males have learned regarding sex, relationships and fidelity. While evolutionary pressures may result in gender differences in responses to infidelity, individuals" socialization may also determine their views of relationships and their expectations (Cann et al., 2001). In other words, social factors, or institutions, can and do, in fact, shape the expression of beliefs regarding extramarital sex (Cann et al., 2001). ...
... It is a prevalent occurrence, 1 poses health risks (Bell, Molitor, & Flynn, 1999;Bohner & Wänke, 2004), and is a cause and a consequence of relationship deterioration (Previti & Amato, 2004). As such, researchers of face-to-face infidelity have investigated prediction (Drigotas, Safstrom, & Gentilia, 1999), discovery (Afifi et al., 2001), and response methods (Mongeau, Hale, & Alles, 1994;Mongeau & Schulz, 1997), as well as men's and women's reported engagement in and perceptions of sexual and emotional infidelity (Boekhout et al., 1999;Brase, Caprar, & Voracek, 2004;Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001;Cramer, Abraham, Johnson, & Manning-Ryan, 2001;DeSteno, Bartlett, Braverman, & Salovey, 2002;Harris, 2003;Nannini & Meyers, 2000;Sabini & Green, 2004). Infidelity via the Internet, however, remains a nebulous topic. ...
... Thus, the following research question is asked: RQ1: Which types of Internet infidelity acts, if any, are considered more severe than others? Cann et al. (2001) assert that ''there is no doubt'' that gender plays a role in infidelity (p. 189). ...
... For example, a number of studies suggest that men describe their infidelities as more sexual than emotional, whereas women describe their infidelities as more emotional than sexual (e.g., Glass & Wright, 1985;Spanier & Margolis, 1983). Further, there is strong support that women find their partners' emotional infidelity as most distressing or upsetting, whereas men find their partners' sexual infidelity as most distressing or upsetting (Buss, 2000;Buss et al., 1992;Cann et al., 2001;Cramer et al., 2001;Daly, Wilson, & Weghorst, 1982;DeSteno & Salovey, 1996;Harris & Christenfeld, 1996;Symons, 1979). In the context of the Internet, however, and when participants are asked to rate potential acts of infidelity (from ''not considered as infidelity'' to ''extreme infidelity''), rather than how upset they would be, women rated sexual infidelity higher than men (Whitty, 2003). ...
This exploratory study analyzed which types of acts involving the Internet are considered most severe, sex differences in the perceptions of infidelity, and the evaluation of infidelity when one commits it versus one's partner. Two-hundred and eight participants rated the severity of 44 specific acts (e.g., disclosing love to a person met in an Internet chat room) on either the self-infidelity or partner-infidelity questionnaire. The results indicated that involving/goal-directed acts were rated as more severe than superficial/informal acts, women viewed involving/goal-directed acts of Internet infidelity as more severe than did men, and partner-infidelity was perceived as more severe than self-infidelity. The severity of 44 specific acts are also provided, and this information advances our ability to describe infidelity on the Internet and predict if, and to what degree, others will consider particular actions as infidelity. The implications of these results, as well as future directions, are discussed.
... We also explored the possibility that gender may interact with the attachment dimensions in predicting how individuals may anticipate responding to the infidelity of their romantic partners. One reason for considering gender in our analyses was that men have been found to be more distressed than women when considering the sexual infidelity of their partners (Buss, Larsen, & Westen, 1996;Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992;Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001). However, this gender difference was found to be qualified by attachment style such that men and women with an avoidant attachment style selected sexual infidelity as most distressing (Levy & Kelly, 2010;Treger & Sprecher, 2011). ...
... The third limitation of this study is that previous research has found sex differences in response to sexual and emotional infidelity such that men have generally been found to be more distressed by sexual infidelity whereas women are more distressed by emotional infidelity (Buss et al., 1992;Cann et al., 2001). This is a potential limitation for the present study because our threat manipulation concerned sexual infidelity even though our sample was composed largely of women. ...
The associations between adult attachment dimensions and responses to romantic relationship threats have been investigated in recent years. The present study extended the results of previous studies by examining whether attachment dimensions moderated the anticipated responses that individuals had to the imagined infidelity of their romantic partners. College student participants (N = 243) were randomly assigned to imagine either a high threat scenario (i.e., finding their partner having sex with someone else) or a low threat scenario (i.e., hearing a couple on television having sex) and report their anticipated responses to these scenarios. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that the attachment dimensions moderated the anticipated responses of participants to the imagined infidelity of their romantic partners but the exact patterns of these results were different than we expected. For example, individuals with low levels of attachment avoidance provided more positive evaluations of their romantic relationships than individuals with high levels of attachment avoidance in the low threat condition but this difference did not emerge in the high threat condition. These findings suggest that low levels of attachment avoidance may be most beneficial for romantic relationships when there is relatively little threat to the relationship. Further, men with high levels of attachment anxiety reported relatively positive evaluations of their relationships in the high threat condition compared to men with low levels of attachment anxiety or women (regardless of their level of attachment anxiety). Discussion focuses on the implications these results may have for understanding the connections between attachment and relationship evaluations under conditions of threat.
... China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Sweden, USA, and Turkey) have been conducted using the same forced-choice questionnaire (e.g. Buunk et al. 1996, Cann et al. 2001, Demirtaş-Madran 2006. ...
... Apart from a couple of exceptions (Harris andChristenfeld 1996, Nannini andMeyers 2000), most of these studies seem to support the aforementioned hypothesis , Geary Relationship among Facebook Jealousy, Aggression, and Personal and Relationship Variables et al. 1995, Buunk et al. 1996, Hupka and Bank 1996, Pines and Friedman 1998, Wiederman and Lamar 1998, Buss et al. 1999, Cann et al. 2001, Cramer et al. 2001. ...
In the last decade, jealousy research has focused on the Facebook jealousy; however, few studies have identified its relationship to aggression. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between Facebook jealousy and aggression, and some personal and relational variables. A sample of 846 participants (516 females, 330 males) aged 18–66 years from Turkey completed the Facebook Jealousy Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire. From an evolutionary perspective, gender differences in jealousy could be explained through evolution-based differences in parental investment, and that males exhibit increased jealousy in response to sexual infidelity, whereas females become jealous in response to emotional infidelity. A forced-choice question (with a choice of sexual infidelity or emotional infidelity as the more jealousy evoking) was asked to the participants in order to determine gender differences on sexual and emotional jealousy. Results indicated no significant gender differences in Facebook Jealousy scores. Self-esteem and age negatively predicted Facebook jealousy. All aggression sub-types significantly predicted Facebook jealousy. Consistent with the evolutionary perspective and previous evidence, chi-square analysis showed that males’ and females’ responses to the forced-choice question differ significantly.
... upsetting, whereas men chose sexual infidelity more often than emotional infidelity as most upsetting. This pattern of results has been replicated using similar forced choice measures (Bailey, Gaulin, Agyei, & Gladue, 1994;Buunk, Angleitner, Oubaid, & Buss, 1996;Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001;Sagarin, Becker, Guadagno, Nicastle, & Millevoi, 2003;Wiederman & Kendall, 1999). In an extension of this forced choice paradigm, Schutzwoohl (2004) reported that women choosing sexual infidelity as most upsetting took longer to make their decision than women choosing emotional infidelity as most upsetting, but the opposite pattern was true for men. ...
... The first approach involves looking at individual differences in dimension likely to alter the way sexual and emotional infidelity will be appraised. This approach is exemplified by Cann, Mangum, and Wells (2001), who examined the ability of individual differences in romantic and sexual attitudes to predict emotional distress to sexual and emotional infidelity. In this study, attitudes toward romance were a significant predictor of distress over a partner's imagined emotional infidelity and accounted for as much variance as did gender. ...
This study compares predictions about sex differences in jealousy from the perspective that jealousy is an evolved sex specific mate retention mechanism against predictions from the perspective that jealousy is a general mechanism evoked by cognitive appraisals following social comparisons in a number of contexts. In this study, 214 women and 72 men completed measures of social dominance and rated the extent to which they felt angry and hurt in response to imagining four scenarios depicting a partner's infidelity (sexual infidelity with someone of a different race, sexual infidelity with someone of the same race, emotional infidelity with someone of a different race, and emotional infidelity with someone of the same race). The race of the infidelity affected the emotional response only of White men high on social dominance. The race of the infidelity did not moderate the effect of type of infidelity. Men reported more anger and more hurt in response to sexual than emotional infidelity. Women reported more anger in response to sexual than emotional infidelity but were equally hurt by sexual and emotional infidelity.
... Women, on the other hand, are more likely to become emotionally involved with their affair partner, and more likely than men to have "emotional-only" affairs (Atkins, Baucom, & Jacobson, 2001). Women appear more likely to consider emotional infidelity more distressing, while men appear more distressed by sexual infidelity (Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001). ...
As monogamy is a culturally prevalent ideal, patients often suffer shame and guilt to the extent that they fail to live up to that ideal though desiring to or to the extent they reject that ideal in favor of nonmonogamous arrangements. Recent research in social, personality, and evolutionary psychology can lead to a mode of thought that can be helpful in overcoming the cultural bias that only monogamy is adaptive and that nonmonogamous practices are most likely maladaptive and pathological. Monogamous and nonmonogamous orientations may be better predicted by personality variables than by gender and both orientations may function as adaptations for reproductive advantage, despite the costs. The implications of these ideas for clinical practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... This deliberate processing, or deliberate rumination, in turn predicts refinement of partner preferences and readiness for new relationships. While the literature suggests that infidelity leads to negative outcomes (Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001;Whisman, 2015), these findings suggest that this process of rumination can actually lead people to experience positive psychological changes that ultimately are recovery-oriented and are adaptive to developing romantic relationships in the future. Within other frameworks, rumination is ultimately a negative experience that is associated with negative outcomes (Fresco, Frankel, Mennin, Turk, & Heimberg, 2002;Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000). ...
Existing investigations of infidelity focus on facilitating relational repair and recovery. However, little work examines recovery in betrayed partners after a breakup resulting from infidelity. The purpose of this paper is to examine recovery and positive psychological changes following infidelity through the lens of posttraumatic growth theory. Findings suggest a process by which disruption of core beliefs leads to greater intrusive, then deliberate rumination, which in turn leads betrayed partners to refine what they desire in a romantic partner, detach from their former relationships, and become open to new romantic connections.
... Consequently, infidelity judgments will be used to help predict variations in attitudes, affect, and experiences relating to infidelity (predictive validity). Previous research has also identified relationships between judgments of infidelity and sexual attitudes (Boekhout, Hendrick, & Hendrick, 2003;Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001;Treger & Sprecher, 2011), how one may cope with attractions to others and unwanted sexual situations (Wilson et al., 2011), and the frequency with which someone feels attraction to those other than their primary romantic partner (Gibson, Thompson, & O'Sullivan, 2014). These relationships were examined to help establish convergent validity of the scale. ...
Infidelity is a leading cause of relationship discord and dissolution, and couples generally report expectations to maintain monogamy. However, a majority of men and women report engaging in some form of infidelity at least once in their lives. Research assessing judgments of the behaviors that constitute infidelity is lacking. The three studies reported here advanced the literature by developing and validating the Definitions of Infidelity Questionnaire (DIQ), a comprehensive measure examining infidelity judgments. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated four factors to the scale: sexual/explicit behaviors, technology/online behaviors, emotional/affectionate behaviors, and solitary behaviors. Investigation of the psychometric properties demonstrated the DIQ to be reliable and valid. Participants agreed that sexual/explicit behaviors comprised infidelity to the largest extent, whereas other types of behaviors (technology/online behaviors, emotional/affectionate behaviors, and solitary behaviors) were judged as comprising infidelity to a lesser extent. Men reported more permissive judgments than did women. This study provides insights regarding operationalizing infidelity and identifying areas of ambiguity and consensus. Implications of the findings for educators and practitioners working with individuals in intimate relationships are discussed.
... Gender did not predict consistency in judgments and behaviour, despite the prevalence of gender differences in the infidelity literature (Allen & Baucom, 2004;Atkins, Baucom, & Jacobson, 2001;Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992;Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001;Green & Sabini, 2006). Hypocrisy has been linked to many personality traits, such as Machiavellianism, defined as manipulativeness or 'attending to one's interests more than to others' (Shome & Rao, 2009), and honesty-humility (Ashton, Lee, & Son, 2000). ...
Despite strong prohibition against infidelity and endorsement of exclusivity as a norm, many people report engaging in infidelity. The current study examined this paradox by employing a between-subject design using online surveys with 810 adults to assess actor-observer biases in the degree of permissiveness judging own versus partner's hypothetical behaviour, as well as hypocrisy in judgments of infidelity versus self-reported behaviour. Participants judged their own behaviour more permissively than their partner's, but only for emotional/affectionate and technology/online behaviours (not sexual/explicit or solitary behaviours). Many reported having engaged in behaviours that they judged to be infidelity, especially emotional/affectionate and technology/online infidelity behaviours. Sexual attitudes, age, and religion predicted inconsistencies in judgments of infidelity and self-reported behaviour (hypocrisy). This study has implications for educators and practitioners working with couples to improve communication and establish guidelines for appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.
... Las relaciones románticas requieren de un nivel de compromiso que asegure su continuidad. La infidelidad, en este sentido, da lugar a reacciones emocionales que amenazan la estabilidad del vínculo (Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001). En particular, en las relaciones amorosas de larga duración, la infidelidad conduce a riesgos en la salud (Bell, Molitor & Flynn, 1999) y es causa y/o consecuencia del deterioro vincular (Previti & Amato, 2004). ...
Se realizó un estudio exploratorio a 600 adultos del Área Metropolitana
de Buenos Aires, vinculado con la infidelidad, tipificando la población por
medio de una taxonomía de respuestas emocionales con un cuestionario
online. Según estudios anteriores, y por el contrario que las mujeres, los
hombres mostrarían reacciones celosas de tipo sexual y no emocional,
ya que la infidelidad femenina podría conducir a la posibilidad de que
tuvieran que mantener descendientes que no fueran genéticamente
suyos. Las conductas se organizaron de acuerdo con la Perceptions of
Dating Infidelity Scale, distinguiendo tres clases de respuestas: ambiguas,
explícitas y las engañosas. Utilizando Chi cuadrado, se discuten las
diferencias respecto a estas variables: la edad, el estado civil, el género,
nivel educativo y creencias religiosas.
Palabras clave
infidelidad; respuestas emocionales; edad; estado civil; diferencias de género.
... Marital Adjustment Scale-R. It was translated by Cann et al. (2001) and developed by Shackelford et al. (2000). It was designed to evaluated emotional and sexual infidelity. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of marital status between infidelity and development of stress, anxiety and depression. Additionally, to investigate the relationship among infidelity, stress, anxiety and depression among married couples and divorced individual.
Design/methodology/approach
A purposive sampling technique was used based on cross-sectional design. In total, 200 participants (married couples, n=100; divorced individuals, n=100) were incorporated from different NGO’s and welfare organizations of Rawalpindi, and Islamabad, Pakistan. Age ranged from 20 to 60 years. Two scales were used to measure the infidelity, stress, anxiety and depression in married couples and divorced couples.
Findings
The result revealed that emotional infidelity was positively significant correlated with stress (r=0.39, p=0.001), anxiety (r=0.40, p=0.001) and depression (r=0.35, p=0.001) for married couples. The result also displayed that sexual infidelity was positively significant correlated with stress (r=0.39, p=0.001), anxiety (r=0.39, p=0.001) and depression (r=0.34, p=0.001) for married couples. The result further elaborated that emotional infidelity and sexual infidelities were positively non-significant correlated with stress, anxiety and depression for divorced individuals. The analysis results revealed that marital status was moderator between infidelity and development of stress, anxiety and depression.
Research limitations/implications
This paper consisted of sample from three basic cities of Pakistan; thus, this paper finding may not be applied on whole population. Consequently, explanatory, exploratory and descriptive studies would be useful to enlighten the infidelity’s mechanism in prolongation of psychological distress across married couples and divorced individual in detail. Local tools to measure gender-related issues would be helpful in prospect while it combine cultural aspects as well.
Social implications
This study would be helpful in clinical settings to raise the awareness to effectively deal with their children.
Originality/value
The study recommended that those divorced individuals who had experienced either sexual infidelity or emotional infidelity were more likely to develop psychological problems as compared to married couples. This study would be helpful in clinical settings to raise the awareness to effectively deal with their children.
... There have been at least a few studies which have sought to investigate the influence of intrapsychic factors on both between-sex and within-sex effects. For instance, Cann, Mangum, & Wells (2001) have found an association between distress associated with emotional infidelity and both the belief that sex is a means to achieve personal pleasure and the endorsement of idealized CONTINGENT SELF-WORTH AND INFIDELITY 6 romantic beliefs. In the same study, distress in the face of sexual infidelity was associated with the belief that sex is an important form of intimate communication. ...
How do men and women interpret the meaning of sexual infidelities? Is it different from the way they interpret emotional infidelities? People make different attributions regarding infidelity depending on their self-worth. The influence of this intrapsychic factor on reactions to infidelity deserves greater study. Some people will construe infidelity as evidence of their partners’ lack of trustworthiness. Others might attribute infidelity to situational factors beyond anyone’s control, and avoid blaming their partners altogether. However, if one’s sense of self-worth is highly contingent on external sources their attributions may change. In these cases, one may interpret infidelity to mean that others find him or her undesirable and unlovable. In the present study, we sought to investigate how self-worth might influence reactions to sexual versus emotional infidelity using the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale (CSWS) and the Buss Jealousy Instrument. A chi square analysis was used to determine whether reactions to infidelity depended on sex and Hotelling’s T-square test was used to determine whether CSWS domains were dependent on sex. Binomial logistic regressions were conducted to assess between-sex and within-sex differences in reactions to emotional versus sexual infidelity. There was no significant difference between men’s and women’s reactions to sexual versus emotional infidelity. Greater distress associated with sexual infidelity was found in men whose self-worth was contingent on competition, but this difference was not found in women. Clinicians may benefit from an awareness of how intrapsychic factors influence clients’ reactions to infidelity.
... Scholars have found differences between men and women on the expression of jealousy, but the results vary regarding which sex expresses more jealousy (Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001;Cramer, Abraham, Johnson, & Ryan-Manning, 2001). Scheinkman and Werneck (2010) stated, ''What is experienced as a threat, and the ways it is manifested, vary according to gender'' (p. ...
This study analyses differences in the expression of jealousy between India, Ireland, Thailand, and the United States (n = 1,792). The results reveal that American, Irish, and Indian participants express more behavioral and emotional jealousy than Thai participants. In explaining the results, the discussion focuses on how individuals from more egocentric and masculine cultures (the U.S. and Ireland), and patriarchal cultures (India) are more likely to express jealousy than individuals from Thailand. Moreover, the discussion offers an analysis of this study's contribution to the sociocognitive perspective on jealousy.
... expand on the colorations of the negative emotions, gender-focused studies present that while women are in general more prone to guilt, men reported higher trait or focused guilt (Benetti-McQuoid & Bursik, 2005); while in another study men stated that sexual infidelity is highly distressing for them in comparison to women (Cann et. al., 2001). ...
The following thesis investigates the polyattraction instincts in the Greek population, instincts of attraction toward multiple individuals. Does the suppression of polyattraction affect individuals in Greece? The hypothesis is that the suppression of polyattraction instincts, negatively affects people’s psyche, causing distress. The researcher used the Polyattraction Instinct Suppression Scale (POISS) to respond to the question. The term polyattraction is defined and related concepts are discussed. Snowball sampling was applied, and a quantitative method of analysis was used, to allow generalization. This study is placed in a society based on monogamy and aims to the general public. 256 out of the 319 participants (80%) presented polyattraction instincts, a significantly high percentage. Only 63 individuals (20%) did not present any polyattraction traits at all. 206 out of the 256 individuals (80%) suppressed their polyattraction instincts in Greece with distressful responses associated. Reasons that influenced the suppression, like mono-normativity in Greece and the partner’s perceived emotions influenced the rates of polyattraction suppression. Younger individuals were slightly more interested in expressing their polyattraction instincts than older individuals. Individuals with higher education had increased suppression rates instead of the ones with lower education. The suppression rate in men was slightly higher than in women and men were more likely to have polyattraction instincts, too.
... rilmiştir ve uygulanmıştır(Bem ve Lenney, 1976;Cann, Mangum ve Wells, 2001;Coleman ve Ganong, 1992;Frazier ve Esterly, 1990;Hendrick ve Hendrick, 1995;Leaper ve Anderson, 1997;Sakallı-Uğurlu, 2003;Stafford ve Canary, 1991). Bu boyutlar ele alınırken oturumlarda temel olarak anlatım, soru-cevap, tartışma ve rol oynama gibi yön-temlerden yararlanılmıştır. ...
Genç yetişkinlik, romantik ilişkilerin ön planda olduğu bir gelişimsel dönemdir ve bu dönemde sağlıklı romantik ilişkiler kurma konusunda genç yetişkinler çeşitli problemler yaşayabilmektedir. Bu araştırmada, genç yetişkin bireylere yönelik geliştirilen romantik ilişki becerileri psikoeğitim programının etkinliğinin sınanması hedeflenmiştir. Psikoeğitim programının etkinliğinin sınanması nicel ve nitel yolla gerçekleştirilmeye çalışılmıştır. Araştırmada ön test-son test kontrol gruplu yarı deneysel desen kullanılmıştır. Psikoeğitim programının etkinliğini nicel olarak test etmek için karma desen iki yönlü ANOVA testi kullanılmıştır. Ayrıca programın uzun süreli etkinliğini nitel olarak sınamak için müdahale sonrasında katılımcılarla odak grup görüşmesi gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışma grubu, Akdeniz bölgesinde yer alan bir üniversitede öğrenim gören ve en az altı aydır devam eden bir romantik ilişkisi olan 24 (deney grubunda 12, kontrol grubunda 12) üniversite öğrencisinden oluşmaktadır. Psikoeğitim programının etkinliğini nicel olarak sınamak için katılımcıların ilişki doyumları incelenmiş ve bunun için ön test ve son test ölçümlerinde İlişki İstikrarı Ölçeği'nin ilişki doyumu alt ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Deney ve kontrol gruplarının tekrarlı ölçümlerinden elde edilen ilişki doyumu düzeylerine ilişkin toplam puanları arasında anlamlı bir fark olmadığı ancak gruplar içi ön test ve son test ilişki doyumu düzeylerine ilişkin puanlar arasında anlamlı bir fark olduğu belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca, farklı işlem gruplarında olmak ile tekrarlı ölçümler faktörlerinin ilişki doyumu üzerindeki ortak etkilerinin anlamlı olduğu belirlenmiştir. Buna göre deney grubundaki katılımcıların, kontrol grubunda olup bu eğitimi almayan katılımcılara göre ilişki doyumu düzeylerinde anlamlı bir artış olduğunu belirlenmiştir. Odak grup görüşmesinden elde edilen bulgulara göre, psikoeğitim programından sonra katılımcıların ilişki doyumlarındaki olumlu gelişimin devam ettiği görülmüştür. Ayrıca katılımcılar iletişim, ilişki inançları, hedefe ulaşma ve beklentiler gibi konularda kazandıkları bilgi, beceri ve farkındalıkların ilişkilerini olumlu yönde etkilediğini ifade etmişlerdir. Araştırma sonucunda elde edilen hem nicel hem de nitel bulgular psikoeğitim programının amacına ulaştığını göstermiştir.
... Firstly, the current study augments a growing body of research showing modest yet consistent sex differences in jealousy manifestation resulting from the discovery of infidelity online with women showing more pronounced emotional jealousy than sexual jealousy, and men more pronounced sexual jealousy than emotional jealousy (Dunn and Billett 2018;Dunn and McLean 2015;Groothof et al. 2009; Hudson et al. 2015;Muise et al. 2014). These findings are supportive of sex differences consistently reported in offline jealousy-evoking scenarios (Archer 1996;Cann et al. 2001;Cramer et al. 2001;Fernandez et al. 2007;Harris 2002;Harris and Christenfeld 1996;Pietrzak et al. 2002;Schützwohl 2005;Schützwohl and Koch 2004). The findings also challenge the criticism that sex differences in jealousy are only evident using a forced-choice paradigm. ...
Research highlighting sex-differentiated jealousy resulting from imagined scenarios has now been reaffirmed when the infidelity-revealing message is discovered on a social media platform. Participants in the current study were presented with both sexually and emotionally charged infidelity-revealing scenarios featuring a same-sex sibling, a friend and a stranger in the format of a ‘Snapchat’ message. Men indicated significantly higher jealousy to sexual as opposed to emotional messages with the reverse pattern evident in women. Sex differences were also evident in the extent of jealousy elicited by ‘third-party’ identity. Women were significantly more jealous when the imagined infidelity occurred between their sister compared to both a best friend and a stranger with males showing significantly lower jealousy directed towards their brother compared to a stranger. These findings are supportive not only of a parental investment (PI) interpretation of sex differences in jealousy but also an interpretation consistent with aspects of inclusive fitness theory.
... In species with internal fertilization, males can rarely be certain that they have successfully impregnated their mate and, consequently, they can rarely be certain that they are the father of her offspring (Gross & Shine, 1981). The uncertainty of paternity is an adaptive problem (Trivers, 1972) that creates a selection pressure on males to care about their long-term partner's fidelity (Buss et al., 1992;Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001;Symons, 1979). ...
People are motivated to self-present to their potential romantic partners. We hypothesized that due to the uncertainty of paternity, one of the self-presentational behaviors that human females engage in when they are motivated to attract a long-term mate is designed to communicate to prospective partners that they are likely to be faithful. In Study 1, we show that females in a long-term-romance mindset are less likely to agree to going to a concert with another female known to be unfaithful (cheater) than with a female known to have many sexual partners (player) or a non-flirtatious control female (control). Females in the long-term-romance mindset are also less willing to be the unfaithful female's friend and less willing to indicate that she is similar to them. In Study 2, we show that the effect is gender specific. In particular, we show that in the presence of a potential long-term partner, females (but not males) express more rejecting emotions towards a same-sex acquaintance who reveals a predilection to be unfaithful. These studies provide strong support for the role of uncertainty of paternity in the female self-presentational behaviors in the context of mate attraction.
... Tako se u jednom istraživanju pokazalo da žene s manje izraženim stavovima o instrumentalnosti seksualnih odnosa pokazuju veću uznemirenost pri pomisli na partnerovu emocionalnu nevjeru. S druge strane muškarci s izraženijim pogledom na seksualnu aktivnost kao vid zajedništva veću uznemirenost doživljavaju pri pomisli na partneričinu seksualnu nevjeru (Cann, Mangum, Wells, 2001). ...
The chapter describes the Belief in an Unjust World Scale (Cubela Adoric, 1999), including the results of its validation in 10 studies with participants from Croatian population.
... Some research has found that overall, men tend to find infidelity more acceptable than women, but that men and women view sexual and emotional infidelity similarly (Sheppard, Nelson, & Andreoli-Mathie, 1995). However, other researchers have found that men and women view different types of infidelity differently, such that men tend to find sexual infidelity more distressing, whereas women find emotional infidelity more distressing (Brase, Adair, & Monk, 2014;Buss et al., 1992;Cann, Mangum, & Wells, 2001;Kruger et al., 2015;Shackelford, Buss, & Bennett, 2002;Treger & Sprecher, 2011). Whitty (2003) found that gender and age influenced perceptions of whether a behavior was perceived as sexual infidelity. ...
Previous research indicates that extradyadic sexual behaviors and other behaviors including emotional infidelity, pornography use, and online infidelity are considered to be acts of betrayal. However, perceptions of infidelity occurring through social media and of romantic parasocial relationships (one-sided romantic attachments formed with media figures) have not been well researched. In two exploratory studies, I examined a) the extent to which participants rated parasocial, sexual, emotional, and social media behaviors as infidelity, and b) how hurtful these behaviors would be if a partner were to enact them. I also examined how often participants reported having been negatively affected by their partner’s parasocial romances. Results indicate that activities such as sexting and sexy Snapchatting are perceived similarly to both cybersex and physical sexual infidelity, and that parasocial infidelity is seen similarly to pornography use. These similarities apply to whether the acts are seen as infidelity, and in terms of the emotional pain the acts may cause. These results indicate that extradyadic social media and parasocial behaviors can be negatively perceived, and may be likely to negatively affect real-life romantic relationships.
... rilmiştir ve uygulanmıştır(Bem ve Lenney, 1976;Cann, Mangum ve Wells, 2001;Coleman ve Ganong, 1992;Frazier ve Esterly, 1990;Hendrick ve Hendrick, 1995;Leaper ve Anderson, 1997;Sakallı-Uğurlu, 2003;Stafford ve Canary, 1991). Bu boyutlar ele alınırken oturumlarda temel olarak anlatım, soru-cevap, tartışma ve rol oynama gibi yön-temlerden yararlanılmıştır. ...
To expose perceptions of – and explanations for – emotional and sexual infidelity, an Infidelity Questionnaire (INFQ) was developed for this study and was administered to university students. The structure of the INFQ included different causes under six components which are legitimacy, seduction, normalization, sexuality, social background, and sensation seeking. Results are discussed with reference to differences in the sex of participants and the sex of betrayers.
Exposure to infidelity is rife in our society, whether it has been experienced personally, through friends, or from the media. In this 2 x 3 between subjects study, 128 students read scenarios regarding infidelity (sexual or emotional) in varying situations (internet, phone, or face-to-face). The students answered a 12-item questionnaire about their reactions to the scenarios. Overall, the hypothesized evolutionary theory of men being more upset by sexual infidelity and women being more upset by emotional infidelity was not supported; both men and women were more negative toward sexual infidelity.The addition of varying the situations in which the infidelity would take place revealed that men and women do differ on responses to perceptions of infidelity.
In this paper I explore the emergence of two distinct Western cultures, gay and straight, emerging in the late 19th century and then developing through the first half of the 20th century until gay liberation in the late 1960s when the establishment of gay and lesbian “ethnic style” communities strengthened the heterosexual/homosexual dichotomy. I argue that the establishment of these two separate and recognisable cultures problematises social and cultural identities for those who are neither exclusively gay nor exclusively straight as well as those for whom desire is not primarily determined by gender. Moreover, challenges to the seeming naturalness of this dichotomy, primarily through poststructural queer theory and bisexuality, are met with resistance from both gay and straight communities. The tensions of trying to live bisexual lives between cultures for ordinary men often lead to a choice of attachment to either gay or straight culture and consequent silencing of bisexual desire. To illustrate my argument, in terms of negotiating lives between two cultures, I will use selected stories from my PhD research on men who have sex with men.
Among heterosexual couples extramarital affairs are common and they occur with regular frequency. In the short term, the discovery of an affair generally precludes a crisis for both partners and where this is not resolved, negative longer-term effects can be expected. In this article we discuss a number of key issues that have implications for practitioners working with these individuals and couples. At some point in their professional lives all counselors will encounter the dilemmas and challenges associated with a client's infidelity and they will therefore want to keep up-to-date about clinical and empirical developments. In addition to a discussion of the relevant literature, we highlight three specific aspects of working with individuals and couples that are an inherent part of this work. The three areas of handling disclosures, dealing with traumatic reactions, and fostering forgiveness are seen as unavoidable features of working with the complexities of marital infidelity.
The research presented in this article used a quantitative–qualitative mixed design to investigate components of infidelity. Two studies were completed. The first study compared responses from persons (n = 22, 16 women, 6 men) who, in the context of a romantic relationship, disclosed infidelity to their primary partner, with a matched control sample of persons (n = 22, 16 women, 6 men) who did not report infidelity. Study 2 involved in-depth, bibliographic interviews with those persons disclosing infidelity to primary partners. Study 2 explored how persons defined infidelity and the nature of their disclosure. As predicted, results from Study 1 demonstrated clear differences between persons who did and did not report infidelity on measures of sexual permissiveness and intentions to engage in extradyadic activity, but not on other sexological measures. In Study 2, disclosures of infidelity to primary partners were interrogated using principles of interpretive biography. Qualitative analyses revealed that disclosures of infidelity were embedded with multiple meanings, including transformative moments of self-understanding. Results from the current research add depth to researchers’ and clinicians’ understanding of how infidelity is defined and disclosed to partners.
The theory of evolved sex differences in jealousy predicts sex differences in responses to sexual infidelities and emotional infidelities. Critics have argued that such differences are absent in studies that use continuous measures to assess responses to hypothetical infidelities or in studies that assess responses to real infidelities. These criticisms were tested in two random-effects meta-analyses of 40 published and unpublished papers (providing 209 effect sizes from 47 independent samples) that measured sex differences in jealousy using continuous measures. A significant, theory-supportive sex difference emerged across 45 independent samples using continuous measures of responses to hypothetical infidelities, g*=0.258, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.188, 0.328], p<.00001. Measured emotion significantly moderated effect size. Effects were strongest when measures assessed distress/upset (g*=0.337) and jealousy (g*=0.309). Other commonly measured negative emotions yielded weaker effects, including hurt (g*=0.161), anger (g*=0.074), and disgust (g*=0.012). Across the 45 independent samples, six significant moderators emerged: random sampling, population type (student vs. nonstudent samples), age, inclusion of a forced-choice question, number of points in the response scale, and year of publication. A significant, theory-supportive effect also emerged across seven studies assessing reactions to actual infidelities, g*=0.234, 95% CI [0.020, 0.448], p=.03. Results demonstrate that the sex difference in jealousy neither is an artifact of response format nor is limited to responses to hypothetical infidelities.
Gender and gender role differences in the valuing of monogamy were examined using a sample of emerging adults currently in heterosexual dating relationships. Monogamy attitudes were measured on four dimensions: valuing emotional monogamy, valuing sexual monogamy, perceptions of monogamy as relationship-enhancing, and perceptions of monogamy as a sacrifice. Gender differences emerged, with women valuing both emotional and sexual monogamy more strongly than men. While both men and women viewed monogamy as relationship enhancing, men were more likely to view monogamy as a sacrifice. Individuals with gender roles defined by communal traits valued monogamy more highly. Each of the monogamy dimensions was significantly correlated with reported relationship satisfaction. Findings are interpreted from evolutionary and social constructionist perspectives.
Nowadays, infidelity means more than extramarital sexual relations and includes such acts of betrayal as clandestine spending of household savings and internet or virtual affairs. Despite the most noble of intentions to repair the relationship, impasse often results when the offending partner desires to move on and the offended partner subsequently feels retraumatized and becomes reactive. Unfortunately, family therapists are often responsible for maintaining this impasse by getting stuck in the same content-level arguments as their clients as well as failing to adequately consider contextual factors like gender and power. In this article I propose a theoretical, integrated, systemic therapy model that balances attachment-informed approaches with systems-informed neutrality. The approach focuses on rebuilding attachment while avoiding even tacit, content-level judgment. It is believed that this will help the couple use existing resources to build a loving interpersonal connection where each partner can safely and openly communicate to move beyond infidelity-related impasse.
Psychological birth order is examined as a predictor of irrational relationship beliefs among Turkish people (N = 423) using a Turkish version (Kalkan, 2005) of the White- Campbell Psychological Birth Order Inventory (Campbell, White, & Stewart, 1991) and the Relationship Belief Inventory (Kalkan, 2006). Results of Pearson correlation analysis indicate that positions of psychologically first, middle, and youngest child were significantly related to irrational relationship beliefs. The correlation between psychologically only child scores and irrational relationship beliefs was nonsignificant.
The current study explored whether differences in the practice of monogamy or non-monogamy related to the relational health of men in long-term same-sex relationships. A total of 179 monogamous and non-monogamous gay partnered men from the U.S. and Canada were surveyed via the internet in order to examine demographic, sexual, and relational variables. The majority of the sample reported maintaining a monogamous relationship (73%). The results suggested that non-monogamous men were more out, reported a greater number of sexual partners, higher frequencies of past sexual contact with men, and lower levels of dyadic attachment than their monogamous counterparts. Conversely, the monogamous and non-monogamous coupled men appeared similar in age and total number of past relationships, and did not appear to differ in their frequency of sex with their primary partners, nor in their stated relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, or attachment styles.
This study set out to determine one's communicative responses to infidelity as predicted by attachment style and gender. Three hundred ninety-two participants responded to a measure of attachment and were then randomly assigned to one of three scenarios: imagining a partner's sexual infidelity, imagining a partner's emotional infidelity, and imagining a partner's combined sexual and emotional infidelity. Participants then responded to a communicative response scale in reaction to the scenario. Results showed moderate support for attachment theory and provided support for predicted gender differences. Additional analysis revealed responses differed by whether or not the participant's partner had been unfaithful. Limitations and implications are discussed.
Love is a psychological need that necessitates reciprocation from the receiving end. This implies that love requires a language for communication. Chapman talks about five primary languages of love namely, words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, receiving gifts, and acts of service. One of the commonly cited reasons for the breakdown of intimate relationships is a deficit in expressing and experiencing love. In the present study, a qualitative approach has been adopted to conduct personal interviews with 30 married persons in order to understand the love dynamics in operation within the context of their married lives. The data collected was analysed to elicit themes that are reflective of the operationalization of love languages. Implications of the research direct counsellors, therapists, and psychologists to psychoeducation of couples on the construct of love languages and provide tailor-made interventions for conflict-filled marriages.
Fuentes Cuiñas, Ana Alejandra (2013). PERCEPCIÓN DE LA
INFIDELIDAD EN EL ÁREA METROPOLITANA DE BUENOS AIRES. V
Congreso Internacional de Investigación y Práctica Profesional en
Psicología XX Jornadas de Investigación Noveno Encuentro de
Investigadores en Psicología del MERCOSUR. Facultad de Psicología -
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires.
Infidelity is a common issue couples face throughout the world. Although infidelity is almost universally regarded as unacceptable, a significant minority of men and women commit infidelity sometime during their life. Definitions range from sexual intercourse to internet chatting, and the associated “causes” range from poor marital quality and sexual dissatisfaction to pregnancy and income-related stressors. Consequences of infidelity include marital distress, domestic violence, divorce, depression, and anxiety. The prevalence, causes, and consequences of infidelity are discussed and future research directions noted.
La finalidad del presente estudio fue desarrollar la versión corta de una de las cuatro subescalas del Inventario Multidimensional de Infidelidad (IMIN). El Inventario tiene 155 reactivos totales, con opción de respuesta tipo likert de cinco puntos, y cuatro subescalas: Subescala de conducta de infidelidad; Subescala de motivación de infidelidad, Subescala de la conceptuación asociada a la infidelidad y Subescala de las consecuencias de la infidelidad. La versión corta de la Subescala conceptuación de la infidelidad se desarrolló, a través de un análisis factorial confirmatorio. De cada dimensión se eligieron los 3 reactivos con los pesos factoriales más altos. Los 18 reactivos fueron contestados por 940 adultos heterosexuales con pareja exclusiva, 458 hombres y 482 mujeres. Los resultados arrojaron un modelo que conserva las seis dimensiones originales y un buen ajuste en GFI, AGFI, CFI, y RMSEA (factor uno Trasgresión, factor dos Sentimiento de pérdida, factor tres Inestabilidad, factor cuatro Pasión y factor cinco Cobardía y factor seis Amor). El coeficiente Alpha de Cronbach total fue de .90. Se puede concluir que se obtuvo una versión corta, práctica, válida, confiable y culturalmente relevante para adultos mexicanos.
The current study examined how exposure to a depiction of sexual infidelity on television influenced women’s responses to hypothetical infidelity. In addition, we examined three individual factors as moderators for these effects: experience with infidelity, infidelity concern, and loyalty concern. In a laboratory experiment, young women were exposed to a media narrative featuring either a romantic relationship, the same relationship but with one partner engaging in sex outside the relationship, or a control narrative before completing measures of reactions to hypothetical relationship transgressions. Results indicated that women who had a cheating partner and exhibited high levels of concern about infidelity reported a lower tolerance for infidelity following exposure to a television narrative featuring infidelity.
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence family of origin and sexual attitudes have on perceptions of infidelity through a mediation analysis to test whether sexual attitudes mediates the relationship between family of origin attitudes and perceptions of infidelity. Results indicated that family of origin attitudes were linked with higher permissive sexual attitudes and lower perceptions of infidelity. Additionally, results indicated an indirect link between family of origin attitudes and perceptions of infidelity through sexual attitudes. These findings align with previous research examining how family of origin influences the occurrence of infidelity and provides insight to helping professionals as they address infidelity in romantic relationships.
El objetivo de este estudio no experimental, cuantitativo, con alcance correlacional, fue identificar la relación entre tendencia a la infidelidad sexual y/o emocional, e inteligencia emocional en estudiantes universitarios. Se contó con una muestra de 110 estudiantes (59 mujeres y 51 hombres), entre los 18 y los 45 años. Los resultados mostraron correlaciones inversas entre el coeficiente emocional (CE) y la insatisfacción en la relación primaria, y la agresión en la relación de pareja y la infidelidad emocional. Así mismo, se hallaron asociaciones directas entre CE y percepción de consecuencias negativas ante la infidelidad y mayor número de hijos. De igual forma, se encontró que correlaciones entre el deseo a la infidelidad emocional y/o sexual e infidelidad sexual y/o emocional y consecuencias positivas, y que quienes presentan deseo de infidelidad sexual y/o emocional, puntuaban alto en infidelidad emocional y/o sexual. Se hallaron diferencias significativas entre género masculino y deseo de infidelidad sexual e infidelidad emocional.
This study explores how Irish gay fathers, who married heterosexually in a heteronormative culture, assumed a settled gay identity in the Republic of Ireland. A purposive sample of nine men reflected on their experiences of marriage and separation, assuming a gay identity, and social and familial connectivity. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) indicated the suppression of gay sexual desires before marriage as a result of cultural homophobia. The coming-out process continued during the participants’ marriage. Extramarital same-gender sexual desires and/or transgressions co-occurred with existential conflict (remorse) and resulted in marital separation. The marital and family loss was experienced as traumatic, and suicidal ideation occurred for most. All the men assumed an openly gay identity after separating. Many established a family-orientated same-gender repartnership. Results highlight the individuality and significance of the marital and family loss for those who separate after coming out as gay.
The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral marriage enrichment program to decrease the level of the dysfunctional attitudes of the couples. Forty participants with dysfunctional attitudes determined by The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale were randomly chosen as experimental and control groups. The results of the covariance analysis indicate that there are significant differences between the dysfunctional attitudes levels of the subjects on the experimental and control groups. The cognitive-behavioral marriage enrichment program can be said to decrease the levels of dysfunctional attitude in couples significantly.
According to some evolutionary psychologists, sex-specific evolved jealousy mechanism (EJM) predicts sex differences in responses to the partner’s infidelity. Though the EJM hypothesis has been supported by several evolutionary psychologists, many studies also rejected the hypothesis. A Meta-analysis was conducted using 87 empirical articles (k = 168, N = 125,698) to estimate gender differences in response to infidelity. The mean effect size (φ) in studies using a forced-choice paradigm was .20 (95% CI [.19, .21], k = 100, n = 87,942), indicating a weak association. In the literature using a continuous measure, the mean effect sizes (ds) for gender differences by sexual and emotional infidelities were -0.10 (95% CI [-0.14, -0.06], k = 52, n = 9,794) and 0.41 (95% CI [0.37, 0.45], k = 50, n = 9,571), respectively. Moreover, alternative theories against the EJM hypothesis were discussed, such as the role theory, the social-cognitive theory, the double-shot hypothesis, and the sexual imagination hypothesis. These findings and discussions suggest that even when a forced-choice paradigm or a continuous measure was used, previous research on gender differences in jealousy did not support the EJM hypothesis.
Nearly a century of research has demonstrated a positive association between romanticism—a relationship-type schema that emphasizes idealistic and positive experiences in romantic relationships—and quality of romantic relationships. This investigation examined whether relational maintenance behavior and shared TV viewing mediate that association. The sample contained 202 participants, including college students and older adults. Results demonstrated that relational maintenance behavior mediated the association between romanticism and relationship quality, but shared TV viewing did not. Nevertheless, shared TV viewing independently and positively predicted variance in relationship quality. These results both clarify the mechanism by which romanticism may operate and support shared media use as a maintenance behavior that may be meaningful in close relationships.
Sexual violence prevention programs have been implemented widely and researched extensively; however, few programs have demonstrated effectiveness in preventing sexual violence. Without carefully planned and executed evaluations, there is a risk that ineffective programs will be promoted and resources wasted. Measuring the effectiveness of sexual violence prevention programs presents several challenges: official reports grossly underestimate the incidence of sexual violence, and self-reported sexual aggression may be unreliable due to socially desirable responding and/or fear of legal consequences. Moreover, many commonly used scales rely on assessing participants’ attitudes, which may not translate into behavioral changes. In this chapter, we address these and related challenges in selecting appropriate outcome measures in the evaluation of sexual violence prevention programs. A comprehensive literature review identified more than 50 pen-and-paper questionnaires that assess relevant outcome variables including sexual violence victimization, perpetration and bystander behavior. Validity of the most promising (i.e., showing adequate reliability across independent samples) and commonly used measures is discussed. The chapter concludes with a set of recommendations for assessing sexual violence perpetration and victimization across diverse populations.
For individuals in exclusive romantic relationships, the dynamics of sexual experimentation are nuanced. Extradyadic behavior outside of a relationship may be perceived as cheating or infidelity, with much of those perceptions driven by the biological sex of the perceiver. This study significantly reframes seminal research on perceptions of cheating with third-party friends by Kruger et al. (2013), in order to further nuance an evolutionary threat-based model. In doing so, this furthers our understanding of the associated perceptions of individuals in heterosexual relationships when confronted by partners’ cheating with their same-sex cross-orientation friends. Results indicate that perceptions of same-sex infidelity vary widely depending on the nature of the behaviors, with decreasing attribution given to sexual and erotic behaviors, close relational behaviors, and casual social interaction behaviors, respectively. Implications are discussed for a variety of sexual communities, as well as the impact of gender and relational status on perceptions of infidelity.
The effect of marital education on marital and sexual satisfaction.
Introduction This chapter is concerned with people's emotional responses to extradyadic relationships and in particular the hurt that is experienced when they occur. Given the enormous interest in popular culture about such relationships and the potential impact they have on family dynamics, including of course separation and divorce, surprisingly little research has been concerned directly with understanding the patterning and consequences of different forms of extrapartnership involvement. Some related topics have been researched more than others. For example, the incidence of extramarital sex has been examined in a number of studies (Haavio-Mannila & Kontula, 2003; Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994; Treas & Giesen, 2000; Wellings, Fields, Johnson, & Wadsworth, 1994; Wiederman, 1997), as have feelings of jealousy in response to the discovery of a partner's infidelity (e.g., Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992; Buunk & Dijkstra, 2006; Harris, 2003). But there has been limited research explicitly examining the social or psychological impact of extrapartnership involvement, particularly outside clinical settings (Olson, Russell, Higgins-Kessler, & Miller, 2002). Perhaps this is not surprising given the secret as well as sensitive nature of the topic, but as a consequence extensive or detailed information about people's actual experiences of extrapartnership involvement, including the hurt they experience, is not readily available.
Fifty women gathered in June 2003 at a television news conference to announce they had all been duped by a man they had met online: US Army Col. Kassem Saleh, a military officer whom each had met via an online dating site, had been wooing all 50 women simultaneously, even going so far as to propose to many of them, despite the fact that he was already married to another woman. At least two of the unwitting women had already bought wedding gowns before discovering the ruse. One woman called Colonel Saleh’s email love letters ‘intoxicating’ and another said they were ‘more romantic than the works of poets William Butler Yeats or Robert Browning’ (Kleinfeld, 2003). ‘You are my world, my life, my love and my universe’, Saleh allegedly wrote in an email love note to one of his many mistresses (Kleinfield, 2003).
In species with internal female fertilization, males risk both lowered paternity probability and investment in rival gametes if their mates have sexual contact with other males. Females of such species do not risk lowered maternity probability through partner infidelity, but they do risk the diversion of their mates' commitment and resources to rival females. Three studies tested the hypothesis that sex differences in jealousy emerged in humans as solutions to the respective adaptive problems faced by each sex. In Study 1, men and women selected which event would upset them more—a partner's sexual infidelity or emotional infidelity. Study 2 recorded physiological responses (heart rate, electrodermal response, corrugator supercilii contraction) while subjects imagined separately the two types of partner infidelity. Study 3 tested the effect of being in a committed sexual relationship on the activation of jealousy. All studies showed large sex differences, confirming hypothesized sex linkages in jealousy activation.
The different adaptive problems faced by men and women over evolutionary history led evolutionary psychologists to hypothesize and discover sex differences in jealousy as a function of infidelity type. An alternative hypothesis proposes that beliefs about the conditional probabilities of sexual and emotional infidelity account for these sex differences. Four studies tested these hypotheses. Study 1 tested the hypotheses in an American sample (N = 1,122) by rendering the types of infidelity mutually exclusive. Study 2 tested the hypotheses in an American sample (N = 234) by asking participants to identify which aspect of infidelity was more upsetting when both forms occurred, and by using regression to identify the unique contributions of sex and beliefs. Study 3 replicated Study 2 in a Korean sample (N = 190). Study 4 replicated Study 2 in a Japanese sample (N = 316). Across the studies, the evolutionary hypothesis, but not the belief hypothesis, accounted for sex differences in jealousy when the types of infidelity are rendered mutually exclusive; sex differences in which aspect of infidelity is more upsetting when both occur; significant variance attributable to sex, after controlling for beliefs; sex-differentiated patterns of beliefs; and the cross-cultural prevalence of all these sex differences.
This article advances the view that love is a story. The article discusses relationships as stories, what our stories are like, kinds of stories, where stories come from, how stories control the development of relationships, the difficulty of changing stories, the role of ideal stories, the cultural matrix of stories and relations to theories of love.
Through a program of research, a scale was developed to measure beliefs that have been identified in the literature as constituting an ideology of romanticism. The final scale items were selected and subjected to several reliability and validity tests in a survey study conducted with 730 undergraduate students. The results provided strong support for the validity and reliability of the Romantic Beliefs Scale as well as for the four beliefs comprising the scale: Love Finds a Way, One and Only, Idealization, and Love at First Sight. Furthermore, romanticism was found to be related to gender and gender-role orientation. Men were generally more romantic than women, and femininity was a stronger predictor of romanticism than was masculinity. These findings are discussed as a function of both social structure and personal predispositions.
As predicted by models derived from evohttionary psychology. men within the United States have been shown to exhibit greater psychological and physiological distress to sex- ual than to emotional infidelity of their partner, and wotnen have been shown to exhibit more distress lo emotional than to sexual infidelity. Because cross-cultural tests are critical for evolutionary hypotheses, we examined these sex differences in three parallel studies conducted in the Netherlands fN = 207j, Germany fN = 200), and the United States fN = 224). Two key findings emerged. First, the sex differences in sexual jealousy are robust across these cultures, providing support for the ev- olutionary psychological model. Second, the magnitude of the sex differences varies somewhat across cultures—large for the United States, medium for Germany and the Netherlands. Dis- cussion focuses an the evolutionary psychology of jealousy and on the sensitivity of sex differences in the sexual sphere to cultural input. tionship (Daly & Wilson, 1988). Given an emotion powerful enough to provoke violent and sometimes lethal reactions, sex- ual jealousy can hardly be considered to be a peripheral emo- tion from the perspectives of the magnitude of arousal, the co- herence of events that trigger its activation, and the magnitude of impact on people's lives. Indeed, from these perspectives, a compelling case can be made for the primacy of sexual jealousy as a basic human emotion and for the urgency of understanding its nature and functioning.
What does it mean to love someone? In particular, does it mean the same thing across time and space, or does its meaning change with context? Is the emotional experience of love, regardless of how people define love, always the same, or does the experience of love vary with context? In this article, we argue for a social-constructionist view of love, according to which both the definition and the emotional experience of love are contextually bound. We review both the social history and the psychological backdrop of love, concluding that we can understand love only in terms of cultural conceptions of (a) the beloved, (b) the feelings that accompany love, (c) the thoughts that accompany love, and (d) the actions, or the relations one has with the beloved.
More than a decade before there were systematic etnpirical tests of the proposition, evolutionary psychologists hypothesized that men and women would differ psychologically in the weighting given to the cues that trigger sexual jealousy (Daly, Wilson, & Weghorst, 1982: Symons, 1979). Because fertilization occurs internally within women, over hutnan evolutionary history men have recurrently faced an adaptive problem not faced by women—the problem of uncertainty in their genetic parentage of offspring. Sexual infidelities by a man's mate would have compromised his paternity, threatening the loss of his investments, commitments, and mating effort, as well as his partner's parental effort—all of which risked getting channeled to another man's children. Men's jealousy, therefore, has been hypothesized to be triggered by cues to .sexual infidelity. Over human evolutionary history women did not face the adaptive problem of maternity uncertainty. The internal fertilization of a woman's own eggs meant that the certainty in her genetic parentage did not deviate from 1009?. From an ancestral woman's perspective, however, infidelities by her regular mate could have been enormously damaging. The man's time, energy, commitment, parental investment, and resources could get channeled to another woman and her children. For these reasons, evolutionary psychologists have hypothesized that women's jealousy would be triggered by cues to the long-term diversion of such commitments, such as a man's emotional involvement with another woman (Daly et al., 1982; Symons, 1979). Emotional involvement and sexual infidelity are clearly correlated events in everyday life, and hence both sexes are predicted to be attuned to both sources of strategic interference (Buss, 1989; Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992). But these events can and do occur without one another: A casual sexual encounter need not entail emotional involvement, and deep emotional involvement can occur in the absence of sexual intercourse. The sexes are predicted to differ in the weighting of the cues to these two kinds of infidelity, with men more intensely focused on sexual and women on emotional infidelity. DeSteno and Salovey (DS, this issue) have proposed an alternative explanation, the "double-shot hypothesis," to account for empirically discovered sex differences corresponding to the evolutionary predictions. Harris and Christenfeld's (HC, this issue) "logical belief hypothesis" is a variant of this alternative. The double-shot hypothesis proposes that the obtained sex differences are due not to evolved psychological differences, but rather to different beliefs (in some groups of men and
Evolutionary psychology has become a popular framework for studying jealousy. Much of this popularity can be attributed to work by Buss and his colleagues showing an apparent relation between an individual's sex and jealousy for certain types of infidelity (i.e., sexual vs. emotional) that is consistent with evolutionary theory (Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992). In two studies, we take issue with these findings and argue that the relation between sex and jealousy reported by Buss and his colleagues is more properly explained by considering individuals' beliefs concerning the covariation between sexual and emotional infidelity.
In four studies, we used the Sexual Attitudes Scale, a new multidimensional instrument, and (a) concluded final construction of the scale, (b) assessed the relationships between the scale and three criterion measures, and (c) provided initial construct validation of the instrument through demonstrated relationships with several relevant psychosocial variables and personality/attitude measures. The instrument was initially administered to a large sample (N = 807); the scores were factor analyzed, and scales were defined. A refined version was cross validated on another large sample (N = 567), with results that mostly replicated earlier results. The Sexual Attitudes Scale was then given to another sample (N = 105), along with the Sexual Opinion Survey, the Reiss Male and Female Premarital Permissiveness Scales, and the sex‐guilt subscale of the Revised Mosher Guilt Inventory. Results showed the Sexual Attitudes Scale to have moderate and conceptually consistent correlations with these other scales. Additional results from three studies revealed significant relationships between subjects' sexual attitudes and relevant demographic/psychosocial variables (e.g., gender, love experience) and demonstrated substantial links between the Sexual Attitudes Scale and measures of related concepts such as sensation seeking and love attitudes. The Sexual Attitudes Scale is a psychometrically sound new scale assessing Sexual Permissiveness, Sexual Practices, Communion, and Instrumentality.
Research has suggested that men are especially bothered by evidence of their partner's sexual infidelity, whereas women are troubled more by evidence of emotional infidelity. One evolutionary account (Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992) argues that this is an innate difference, arising from men's need for paternity certainty and women's need for male investment in their offspring. We suggest that the difference may instead be based on reasonable differences between the sexes in how they interpret evidence of infidelity. A man, thinking that women have sex only when in love, has reason to believe that if his male has sex with another man, she is in love with that other. A,woman, thinking that men can have sex without love, should still be bother ed by sexual infidelity, but less so because it does not imply that her mate has fallen in love as well. A survey of 137 subjects confirmed that men and women do differ in the predicted direction in how much they think each form of infidelity implies the other; proposing innate emotional differences may, therefore, be gratuitous.
It has often been speculated, and some evidence suggests, that men and women differ in the elicitation of jealousy: Men appear to be more likely than women to become upset over threats to sexual exclusivity; whereas women are more likely than men to react negatively to potential loss of partner time and attention. Both adaptionist and traditional social learning theories have been used to explain these apparent gender differences. In the present article we outline both explanations and review the relevant psychological literature on gender differences in the elicitation of jealousy. We propose that the difference in men's and women's psychological mechanisms for elicitation of jealousy is best characterized (at least in this culture) as a greater sensitivity among men to cues indicative of possible sexual infidelity rather than greater emotional upset in response to the occurence of extradyadic sex on the part of one's mate. We also provide data testing a traditional social learning explanation for the elicitation of jealousy. Results of a survey administered to college students (N = 223) demonstrate the subtle nature of gender differences in the elicitation of jealousy within this culture. Men and women were most likely to differ (in the hypothesized directions) when items pertained to concern over a partner's potential extradyadic sex rather than to reactions to sexual infidelity that is suspected to have already occurred. Although men reported placing more value on sexual activity within dating relationships and women reported placing more value on emotional intimacy, these ratings of relationship rewards did not explain the gender differences in reported jealousy. Results failed to support a traditional social learning explanation of jealousy and are discussed with regard to evolutionary theory and directions for future research.
Patterns in the data on human sexuality support the hypothesis that the bases of sexual emotions are products of natural selection. Most generally, the universal existence of laws, rules, and gossip about sex, the pervasive interest in other people's sex lives, the widespread seeking of privacy for sexual intercourse, and the secrecy that normally permeates sexual conduct imply a history of reproductive competition. More specifically, the typical differences between men and women in sexual feelings can be explained most parsimoniously as resulting from the extraordinarily different reproductive opportunities and constraints males and females normally encountered during the course of evolutionary history. Men are more likely than women to desire multiple mates; to desire a variety of sexual partners; to experience sexual jealousy of a spouse irrespective of specific circumstances; to be sexually aroused by the sight of a member of the other sex; to experience an autonomous desire for sexual intercourse; and to evaluate sexual desirability primarily on the bases of physical appearance and youth.
The evolutionary causes of human sexuality have been obscured by attempts to find harmony in natural creative processes and human social life and to view sex differences as complementary. The human female's capacity for orgasm and the loss of estrus, for example, have been persistently interpreted as marriage-maintaining adaptations. Available evidence is more consistent with the view that few sex differences in sexuality are complementary, that many aspects of sexuality undermine marriage, and that sexuality is less a unifying than a divisive force in human affairs.
Individual differences in willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations were investigated in 6 studies. In Study 1, a 5-item Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI) was developed. Studies 2, 3, and 4 provided convergent validity evidence for the SOI, revealing that persons who have an unrestricted sociosexual orientation tend to (a) engage in sex at an earlier point in their relationships, (b) engage in sex with more than 1 partner at a time, and (c) be involved in relationships characterized by less investment, commitment, love, and dependency. Study 5 provided discriminant validity for the SOI, revealing that it does not covary appreciably with a good marker of sex drive. Study 6 demonstrated that the SOI correlates negligibly with measures of sexual satisfaction, anxiety, and guilt. The possible stability of, origins of, and motivational bases underlying individual differences in sociosexuality are discussed.