Recent Perspectives on Sex and Sexuality- A Review of Contemporary Research

Recent Perspectives on Sex and Sexuality- A Review of Contemporary Research

Extra-Marital Affairs

Article 1

The article by Khorramabadi et al. (2019) discussed a study whose objective was to propound the structural model of extra-marital relationships and executive functions with marital commitment playing the mediating role. The authors collected samples by convenience sampling method; the participants took computerized exams to assess the executive function in the experimental situation, including the Whaltely, Rusbult, N-Back test, Go-No-Go test, Wisconsin, and Stroop tests. The data obtained was analyzed using structural equation and regression analysis modeling. The results of the study showed that executive functions, including commitment, working memory, task switching, and inhibition, directly impact extra-marital relationships through commitment mediation. Executive functions of flexibility, working memory, and inhibition are associated directly with a tendency toward having an extra-marital relationship and indirectly through marital commitment’s mediating role. The executive functions can also predict extra-marital relationships, and as the executive functions decrease, there is an increase in extra-marital relationship tendency. Also, there is a negative relationship between marital commitment and extra-marital relationships; hence, extra-marital relationship decreases with increased marital commitment.

Article 2

The article by Fincham & May (2017) stated that 2-4 percent of spouses reported having sexual intercourse with a secondary partner in the 12 preceding months. Both males and females engage in infidelity at the same rate. Additionally, seasonal peaks and variations were observed during the summer. Approximately 50% of persons who engage in sexual relations with a secondary partner do so using condoms, with infidelity being the most cited cause of divorce. The decrease in the gap between male and female infidelity rates can be attributed to an increased presence of women in the workplace. This is because it creates opportunities for infidelity and increased financial means. The authors also identified three opportunity and structural factors. The first is the number of days a person is engaged in traveling, which is linked directly to infidelity. The second is that infidelity increases when the job requires a lot of personal contact with colleagues of the opposite sex. Thirdly, where a fraction of the workforce comprises largely one sex, the rates of infidelity are also high. Lastly, when one spouse is working while the other stays at home, the possibility of infidelity also increases, while when both spouses are employed, this reduces infidelity rates. Furthermore, the authors stated that religion is constantly related to decreased possibility of infidelity. A self-perceived closeness to God and a lack of attendance at religious events predict high rates of infidelity. Infidelity also reduces where a person views the Bible as God’s literal word and makes prayers that focus specifically on protection against infidelity.

Article 3

The article by Brewer et al. (2015) looked at the Dark Triad traits of psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism, which are characterized by a lack of empathy, emotional coldness, and manipulation. The study investigated how Dark Triad traits influence romantic revenge and infidelity with reference to women. The findings from the study showed that Dark Triad traits could predict previous infidelity experiences, a person’s intentions to get involved with infidelity, and a partner’s perceived susceptibility to becoming unfaithful to their partner. The Dark Triad traits were able to predict the type of revenge assessed, with the exception of the willingness of a person to end the relationship. The study showed that it is possible to use the Dark Triad traits to predict women’s infidelity, the perceived vulnerability to a partner’s infidelity, and revenge against the infidelity.

Article 4

The article by Onaylı, Erdur-Baker, & Kordoutis (2016) was on a study where 72 participants from Turkey had reported being victims of infidelity from their partners. The authors used the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule to measure the victims’ reactions to infidelity. The Ruminative Response Scale was used in measuring rumination. The Canonical correlation analyzed the determination between canonical variable rumination, namely Reflection and Brooding, and people’s emotional reactions toward infidelity with the canonical variable of participants’ Positive and Negative Affect. Results show an interrelation between reflecting and brooding and positive and negative effects. Thus, the study showed a positive relation between rumination and negative effects and is negatively related to positive effects on a person’s reaction to infidelity.

Article 5

In the article by DeWall et al. (2011), the authors hypothesized that people who are avoidantly attached had lesser resistance to temptations of becoming unfaithful because of lower commitment levels in romantic relationships. A total of 8 studies confirmed this hypothesis. Persons with elevated dispositional avoidance attachment compared to those with a low one tend to have a more permissive attitude toward infidelity. The study showed that these individuals had attention bias for attractive alternative partners; showed increased interest in daily meetings of their alternatives to the current partners; had a positive perception of their alternative partners, and with time, engaged in more infidelity. The lower commitment levels mediated the effect. The avoidant attachment also predicted the responses at a wide spectrum, which indicated an interest in the alternative partners and the possibility of engaging in infidelity; and the low commitment levels mediated.

Article 6

The article by Leeker & Carlozzi (2014) purposed to look into the influence that love, expectations of infidelity, sexual orientation, and sex of the participants have on the emotional responses to sexuality and emotional infidelity. Commitment and intimacy, sexual orientation, and sex among partners were significant predictors of emotional infidelity and sexual infidelity to different emotional responses. On the other hand, the passion between partners and the expectation of the likelihood of a partner committing infidelity were not significant emotional reactions predictors of infidelity. The study also showed that sexual infidelity elicited feelings of more disinterest than was the case of emotional infidelity. Furthermore, women responded with emotions that were stronger to sexual and emotional infidelity compared to men; heterosexuals also rated sexual and emotional infidelity as being more emotionally distressing in comparison to gay and lesbian individuals.

Article 7

The article by Russell, Baker, & McNulty (2013) in their research showed no relation between attachment anxiety among dating couples. Newlyweds that participated showed from their responses that their own or their partner’s attachment anxiety interactions predicted marital infidelity, so the partners had a higher propensity to perpetrate infidelity when they or their partner was high against low as regards attachment anxiety. In contrast to the study, an individual’s attachment anxiety was not linked to infidelity, whereas there was a negative association between partner attachment avoidance and infidelity. This is an indication that spouses had a lesser likelihood to perpetrate infidelity where the partner had a higher compared to a lower attachment avoidance. The effects were seen when personality, sexual frequency, and marital satisfaction were controlled, were not different between wives and husbands, and differed only where there was a negative link between own infidelity and attachment avoidance.

Article 8

The article by Knopp et al. (2017) reported on their study involving participants who admitted to their own extra-dyadic sexual involvement (ESI) and those with suspected and known ESI on their partners in romantic relationships. Logistic regression results showed that persons who had engaged in ESI in the first relationship had a 3 times the likelihood of reporting ESI in the next relationship compared to those who failed to report engaging in ESI in the first relationship. Similarly, compared to those who said their partners in the first relationship had not reported engaging in ESI, individuals who were aware of their partner’s engagement in ESI in the first relationship were twice as likely to report similar behavior in the partners in their next relationship. Persons suspicious of their partners in the first relationship were four times more likely to suspect that their current partners were engaged in ESI with or without the evidence to warrant suspicion. Hence, prior infidelity was a risk factor for future infidelity.

Article 9

The article by Kruger, Fisher, & Fitzgerald (2015) was based partly on the theory of evolution, where the authors anticipated 9 potential types of influences or domains on the likelihood of exposing or protecting persons that were unfaithful. This included strong social alliances, kinship, previous relationship behaviors such as abuse and infidelity, financial support, potential transitions in the relationship, stronger emotional and sexual aspects of the other relationship, and risk of disease. These predictions were supported by the results’ patterns. Further, partners were biased when offered additional information, resulting in their choosing to report infidelity.

Article 10

In their study, the article by Beltrán-Morillas, Valor-Segura, & Expósito (2019) sought a deeper understanding of the aspect of forgiveness when it comes to extradyadic behaviors. The authors conducted two studies where the said behaviors were an indication of infidelity. The result of this first study showed that sexual behaviors compared to solitary, emotional/affective, and technological behaviors were deemed more unfaithful. The second study looked at extradyadic behaviors’ influence on unforgiving tendencies, anxious attachment, and negative affect. The results of the second study showed that technological and sexual behaviors were forgiven less and resulted in a negative effect that was more intense; anxious attachment predicted forgiveness toward technological and sexual behaviors, and the relationship between un-forgiveness and anxious attachment was mediated by negative effects for technological and sexual behaviors.

Compare and Contrast the Information Presented in the Articles With the Content Presented in Class

Infidelity in a relationship always has negative consequences even when the aggrieved partner forgives the perpetrating partner. The aggrieved partner feels betrayed and may choose to be unforgiving and end the marriage in a divorce. On the other hand, a person may choose to forgive but not forget, and this is displayed in adopting certain behaviors such as anxious attachment or revenge.

The Bible teaches that a Christian should forgive a person every time they are wronged, and this includes infidelity (Balswick & Balswick, 2008). However, there is a caveat when it comes to marital unfaithfulness; the Bible allows for a marriage to be dissolved, where a person can choose to divorce the cheater. Suppose this is the decision that a couple takes. In that case, the Bible also says that the two should not remarry until one of them is deceased (Mathew 5:32). Additionally, God makes it known that He hates divorce and unfaithfulness (Malachi 2:16). Whenever the Israelites were unfaithful and chose to worship other gods, He would send pestilence their way until they turned back to Him. He would forgive them and bless them as before. Hence, when a couple is faced with infidelity, the victim should remember God’s undying love for them as individuals and portray the same to the cheater. If it becomes a habitual thing, where the cheater takes advantage of their partner’s forgiveness, then divorce is a viable option.

Explain How a Therapist May Use This Information on Your Topic to Help a Client Define Healthy Sexuality and How Having That Understanding Can Help the Client Make Wise Decisions in Their Relationships

A therapist should explain to a person the negative effects of extra-marital affairs. A person who has cheated before in a romantic relationship is likely to do so in the future. A person who is technologically and sexually unfaithful is more than likely to cause a drift or imminent break–up in the marriage. Even when the person chooses to break a marriage for a relationship with the other partner, it is highly likely that the new relationship will also be characterized by infidelity as well. Hence, cheating on a partner becomes a vicious cycle.

It is, therefore, a therapist’s duty to make a person aware that getting into a marriage without resolving the issue of potential infidelity is an unwise move. A couple wanting to get married should discuss with a therapist any past history of cheating and how that can affect their marriage. A married couple that is already facing infidelity issues should discuss how the infidelity affects them as individuals and as a couple, what triggered the infidelity, and how to avoid the same in the future by remedying the present causal factors. It is also the responsibility of the therapist to be honest with a couple that reports a repeated cycle of infidelity. In such a case, the therapist should let the victim know whether or not the partner has any intentions of stopping the behavior; if real change is likely or not; and advise the victim to leave the marriage if the therapist deems that the victim’s life is in danger or the relationship is damaging to the victim.

References

Balswick, J., & Balswick, J. (2008). Authentic human sexuality: An integrated Christian approach (2nd ed.). Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press.

Beltrán-Morillas, A. M., Valor-Segura, I., & Expósito, F. (2019). Unforgiveness motivations in romantic relationships experiencing infidelity: negative affect and anxious attachment to the partner as predictors. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 434.

Brewer, G., Hunt, D., James, G., & Abell, L. (2015). Dark triad traits, infidelity, and romantic revenge. Personality and Individual Differences, 83, 122-127.

DeWall, C. N., Lambert, N. M., Slotter, E. B., Pond Jr, R. S., Deckman, T., Finkel, E. J., … & Fincham, F. D. (2011). So far away from one’s partner, yet so close to romantic alternatives: Avoidant attachment, interest in alternatives, and infidelity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(6), 1302.

Fincham, F. D., & May, R. W. (2017). Infidelity in romantic relationships. Current Opinion in Psychology, 13, 70-74

Khorramabadi, R., Sepehri Shamloo, Z., Salehi Fadardi, J., & Bigdeli, I. (2019). Prediction of Extramarital Relationships Based on Executive Functions With the Mediatory Role of Marital Commitment

Knopp, K., Scott, S., Ritchie, L., Rhoades, G. K., Markman, H. J., & Stanley, S. M. (2017). Once a cheater, always a cheater? Serial infidelity across subsequent relationships. Archives of sexual behavior, 46(8), 2301-2311.

Kruger, D. J., Fisher, M. L., & Fitzgerald, C. J. (2015). Factors influencing the intended likelihood of exposing sexual infidelity. Archives of sexual behavior, 44(6), 1697-1704

Leeker, O., & Carlozzi, A. (2014). Effects of sex, sexual orientation, infidelity expectations, and love on distress related to emotional and sexual infidelity. Journal of marital and family therapy, 40(1), 68-91.

Onaylı, S., Erdur-Baker, O., & Kordoutis, P. (2016). The Relation between Rumination and Emotional Reactions to Infidelity in Romantic Relationships. Athens Journal of Social Sciences, 3(1), 53-64.

Russell, V. M., Baker, L. R., & McNulty, J. K. (2013). Attachment insecurity and infidelity in marriage: Do studies of dating relationships really inform us about marriage?. Journal of Family Psychology, 27(2), 242.

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Extra-Marital Affairs

The purpose of this assignment is to research one of the topics you have covered in this course. You will collect 10 articles (published within the last 10 years) on a particular topic related to sex and sexuality

TOPIC ASSIGNED: extramarital affairs

Articles should come from peer-reviewed/ scholarly sources. You will then write and submit a 6-8-page paper with the following 3 main sections relevant to these articles:

1. Article Summaries: Summarize the main points of the selected articles in one paragraph per article.
2. Compare and contrast the information presented in the articles with the content presented in class (course text and presentations).
3. Explain how a therapist may use this information on your topic to help a client define healthy sexuality and how having that understanding can help the client make wise decisions in their relationships.

Papers will be written in the current APA format and should include a title page and a reference page. The paper should be 6-8 full pages of content (this does not include the title page and reference page).

The textbook is: Balswick, J., & Balswick, J. (2008). Authentic human sexuality: An integrated Christian approach (2nd ed.). Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press.