Essay about Infidelity and the Science of Cheating by Sharon Begley

For the next part of my research, I consulted some magazines that I had around my house. I found an article in the January 2004 issue of Cosmopolitan that was helpful in explaining one of the theories on why men cheat. According to Shirley Glass, PhD, many men who cheat come from chauvinistic cultures or families where their fathers cheated. Another point brought up by Glass in this article is that men feel that as long as they do not love the other woman, that it is simply a physical thing, then they are not really cheating (Koli). I guess what Glass is saying is that cheating, like abuse or alcoholism, can be a cycle that runs in families. If a man grows up watching his father cheat on his mother, then he is being taught that it is an acceptable practice. Also, men feel that if they do not break their emotional promise to their significant other, then they are not doing anything wrong. While I think the first one is understandable and a valid point, I feel the second is yet another excuse men use to justify an unjustifiable action.

It should be noted this model cites antecedent apprehension concerning commitment as the cause of increased break-ups and

Overall, the author was able to get the message across, but it was not as clear or as broad as I wish it would have been. The second article, by Roseth, was also intriguing and yet again difficult to read. I so feel as though most people are more capable and willing to learn from literature when it is less dry. However, I did find the basic concepts of this article interesting. One of the most interesting parts of this article for me was the concept of “promiscuous” groups versus “family” groups. The author argues that humans are unique in that we tend to divide ourselves into monogamous family structures, but also interact with other humans. Whereas, a lot of animals mate with multiple partners and tend to only interact for sexual reasons. I found this to be mostly true, but would also like to point out that we do not always separate ourselves or stay monogamous. I believe that just by studying college age students along this can be shown to not be that case. It is fairly easy to see that a good majority of people tend to have sexual intercourse with many people before they marry. Also, some who do marry may not stay

A subgroup of men with an avoidant attachment style suffers from a condition known as the Madonna-whore complex ((Brogaard 2015). The avoidant attachment style is characterized by an inability to form long-term committed relationships. It is premised on fear of intimacy, rejection and abandonment that arose in early childhood as explained by Brogaard (2015). Brogaard analyzed that the complex occurs as a result of maltreatment by the mother and fear of incest as interpreted by Freud. “When a mother abandons, neglects, verbally, emotionally or physically abuses or is emotionally distant from her infant or young child, the child feels so hurt that he will eventually repress many of the memories associated with the mother’s behavior.”(Brogaard 2015).

Evolutionary history effects more than just genetic behaviour level. It also effects how society socializes its members. Males –despite having the innate behaviors and perspectives on relationships— experience socialization that, in essence, reinforces gender differences in perspectives and behavior. From early childhood up until adulthood, the individual is bombarded with a plethora of advertisments that portray males as more aggressive (Henslin p. 78). In television male newscasters turn female athletes into sexual objects (78). And socialization is not limited to the media. It begins in the home –within the family. In an experiment performed by Goldberg and Lewis, Mothers were more less likely to keep their boys

There are some common beliefs are at work when examining the admissibility of sexual behaviour. The first common belief is someone who consents to sex with A and B is more like to consent to sex with C. The second is the prejudicing effect of the evidence: most significantly, it can give rise to the belief that sexually experienced women are unreliable and promiscuous. The third consideration of common belief is someone who is ‘promiscuous’ has

Unfortunately, cheating in a relationship is caused by the need for fulfillment. Many of those who cheat, whether they’re happy with their significant other or not, something is inevitably missing. No matter if the reason for marital/romantic infidelity is purely lust-driven, or a craving for love and affection, cheating exists as a psychological, and conscious, decision. In fact, in many of the recorded instances in case studies found online, there were instances of cheating most commonly at a shocking 20% for individuals in their 40’s (PsychologyToday.com). This information shows that cheating causes emotional hurt to anyone, no matter what their

The main conclusions in this article are that Mexican american girls are more disposed to talk about their feeling and experiance about cheating followed by white girls.Mexican american boys are less talkative about expressing their feelings however white boys are last in order to express feeling and talk about cheating. Another result is that adolensces differ from adult about cheating. Adolensces perceive some situations as cheating that an adult would not think that as a cheating. Moreover, adults experience more emotional, financial and social perspectives

Jones and Burdette (1994), asked participants to recall instances of betrayal, and approximately one half of the participants indicated that they were disloyal to at least one member of their social network. The main defining element of infidelity is whether a partner has broken a contract of exclusivity in the relationship. Betrayal is not a new phenomenon when it comes to relationships, but what is defined as betrayal and the severity of that act in romantic relationships seem to vary. Because not all types of infidelity are considered equally serious individuals are likely to respond differently. The five behavioral categories of betrayal, ranked by prevalence, include the following dating or spending time with another, sexual infidelity,

Among individuals who are currently dating presented in this study. This tested the hypothesis regarding the beliefs about infidelity in dating relationships reflect pluralistic ignorance, a misperception in which people mistakenly believe that their own personal attitudes and behavior differ from others' when they do not. Consistent with pluralistic ignorance findings in other domains, undergraduates reported that the average university student (a) saw dating infidelity as more acceptable and (b) engaged in unfaithful acts more frequently than they themselves did. Neither type of infidelity (sexual, emotional, both sexual and emotional, or unspecified; Study 1, N = 176) nor motivated reasoning (i.e., defensiveness; Study 2, N = 359) moderated

Feminism remains a hot button issue within our society. Feminist theory and Evolutionary Psychology (EP) have long been at odds with each other, particularly on issues such as gender equality and rape. One argues from a social standpoint, and the other from a purely scientific understanding. Neither viewpoint is necessarily wrong, but it would be much better if EP and feminist theory could find common ground. Men and women do think and mate differently, as men and women have long had different goals. In today’s society, it is becoming far more acceptable for a woman to freely express her desires for either a long-term or a short-term mate and what mating habits she wants therein. It is also rapidly becoming less and

Part of the evolutionary explanation is Trivers’ parental investment theory which argues that the origin of behavioural differences between men and women lies in the different ways of achieving reproductive success. Trivers

and Brehm’s studies and in turn supports gender stereotypes which is an ethical concern. This means that the opinion of males behaviour to seek out many sexual partners is supported and explains away this behaviour easily. From this, the socio-biological theory seems to generalize animal behaviour to that of humans, and the need for reproduction and does not focus upon the real reasons as to why we form social relationships. It also presumes that sexual attraction and behaviour is ‘about’ reproduction. Many sexual unions are not directed at

Vulnerability plays an important role in any relationship. People need to feel needed. They need to feel they fill a special place in their partner’s lives that no one else can. They want to be missed when they are gone and celebrated when they return. Women forget the men have these feelings and the men forget women have these exact same feelings. One

It created more variety in the woman’s family line, doubled a man’s potential offspring, and served as an insurance policy against spouses death.” (Taverner p. 74) - Gourdeau stating this point supports non monogamous relationships instead of monogamous because it gives an example of why cheating has benefits. Furthermore, she then dives into a study about the difficulties of staying faithful.