College students' attitudes on the causes of infidelity

Infidelity is a problem in today’s society associated with instability in relationships and the high divorce rates. The study consisted of 23 male and female students at a Midwestern university. It was hypothesized that males would perceive sexual attraction as a primary cause of infidelity while females would perceive relationship dissatisfaction as a primary cause. Survey data was statistically analyzed using frequencies, cross-tabulations and a reliability analysis. Findings supported the literature and hypothesis in that more males viewed sexual attraction as a primary cause of infidelity and more females viewed relationship dissatisfaction as a primary cause. It is important for practitioners to be aware of the problems infidelity causes in relationships and further researchers could investigate root causes for preventative and proactive actions. Introduction Roughly 50% of individuals in married relationships engage in some form of infidelity at some point in their marriage (Drigotas, Safstrom, & Gentilia, 1999). It is no wonder researchers are studying this serious relationship transgression more to better understand the root of the problem. In several studies, more than fifty percent of both men and women in college dating relationships have been involved in some form of infidelity behavior (Lewandowski & Ackerman, 2006). Infidelity can be portrayed differently in society and between men and women. It causes a great deal of distress, turmoil, and often termination of the relationship. Society’s high rate of divorce and infidelity in the relationship indicates the need for this problem to be more widely researched and addressed. In this study infidelity refers to a violation in trust or a breaking of understanding about the sexual monogamy of the relationship (Pittman & Pittman Wagners, 1995). Male and female college students were surveyed on their attitudes on the causes of infidelity in committed relationships. Literature Review It was found that there are definite differences and similarities between males and females regarding their attitudes towards causes of infidelity. Predicting infidelity has various components such as composite, physical, and emotional infidelity. It was found that when there is commitment, satisfaction, fewer alternatives, and a strong investment in the relationship, there are considerably fewer infidelity behaviors. Females were found to view emotional infidelity as more upsetting and males found sexual infidelity to be more upsetting. Jealousy is found to be a key result and trigger of infidelity. One study found that the plausible reasoning for causes of infidelity varied among genders. Legitimacy, seduction, sexuality, sensation seeking, normalization, and social background make up the six component model of infidelity, used to measure such behavior in this study. Males were found to view seduction as the major cause College Students’ Attitudes on the Causes of Infidelity while women were found to view social background as a major cause of betrayal. Cross-cultural research is important in finding similarities and differences. When need-fulfillment and selfexpansion were looked into they found that lower levels of each of these pieces led to higher susceptibility for infidelity. Very little research was found on the causes of infidelity according to the views of each gender. All the information found regarding infidelity is supportive in regards to linking gender differences with infidelity (Drigotas et al., 1999; Harris, 2003; Yeneceri & Kokdemir, 2006; Lewandowski & Ackerman, 2006). When predicting infidelity behavior, three main types were found: composite infidelity, physical infidelity, and emotional infidelity (Drigotas et al., 1999). Within those three topics, the researchers measured commitment, satisfaction, alternative quality and investment. Those individuals that were studied who were more satisfied and committed, had fewer alternatives, and were invested in their relationships more were less likely to have infidelity behaviors. The findings of this article suggested that women were more likely to engage in such behaviors. Overall, individuals who engaged in infidelity behaviors reported less satisfaction and commitment. When looking at infidelity in relationships, undoubtedly jealousy comes to mind as an outcome of this behavior. Harris (2003) has taken a closer look at gender differences in jealousy as a result of infidelity. Social-Cognitive Theory was used to look into these differences of male and female variables comparing emotional infidelity and sexual infidelity. A survey was administered to assess college students’ attitudes towards actual infidelity, hypothetical infidelity, which type of infidelity would be worse: emotional infidelity or sexual infidelity, as well as the relationship experiences of the participants. The results of the study showed that forced-choice hypothetical infidelity supported the notion that women view emotional infidelity as the worse form of infidelity. Another discovery to the study was that men placed higher importance on sex which was a stronger predictor for sexual jealousy over women. A trigger to jealousy for males was the perception that females sexual act is driven by love. However a woman’s trigger was shown to be emotional involvement. More females were found to believe that if a male is either emotionally involved or in love with another, then sex would also be involved. Jealousy is a significant component to infidelity in relationships especially when viewed via a social-cognitive perspective. Jealousy as looked at in this study is a major component of both the causes and results of infidelity. Emotional and sexual infidelities are the two types that decipher between the two genders. Yeniceri and Kokdemir (2006) conducted a cross–cultural study investigating possible reasons for infidelity behavior, broken into six components. This study concluded that males rated seduction as the primary cause of infidelity more so than females did. Females perceived social background as a major cause more often than men did. Seduction was viewed as the major cause of infidelity when it was the male partaking in the behavior. Conversely, if the female is to blame for infidelity then legitimacy was perceived as a more reasonable cause. Lewandowski and Ackerman (2006) reported that the lack of need fulfillment and selfexpansion were additional predictors of susceptibility of infidelity. A group of college students were surveyed on five types of need-fulfillment (intimacy, companionship, sex, security, and emotional involvement). Three types of self-expansion were assessed such as self-expansion, inclusion of the other in the self, and potential for self-expansion. Susceptibility to infidelity was the last variable in the study to be evaluated connecting with need fulfillment and self-expansion. Their hypothesis predicted that gender, relationship length, need fulfillment, and self expansion will contribute a major increase to the overall variance in susceptibility to infidelity. The results College Students’ Attitudes on the Causes of Infidelity to their study supported their hypothesis. In fact, lower satisfaction in need fulfillment and lower levels of self-expansion lead to higher susceptibility to infidelity. A significant finding to the research was that gender plays a large role in susceptibility to infidelity. The results showed that males are more susceptible to infidelity than women. This study focused on the prediction of infidelity as well as the beliefs of college students on the sole causes of infidelity. It has been found across studies that there are definite variables among the two genders regarding the reasons for and views toward infidelity (Yeniceri & Kokdemir, 2006). Research has discovered differences between males and females regarding emotional and sexual infidelity (Harris, 2003). It also has defined some possible reasons for such behaviors. Models have been created to measure infidelity amongst couples and theories have been made regarding the susceptibility (Lewandowski & Ackerman, 2006). Most of the research that has been conducted addresses many forms of infidelity, predictions for the relationship as well as socialization components (Drigotas et al., 1999). While many studies on infidelity were found, only the study conducted in Turkey pertained directly to our topic. The Social Learning Theory was used as a framework for the causes of infidelity. There is little research that has related this theory to the two genders’ views on the causes of betrayal within a relationship; this is the gap in the family social science literature that we hope to fill. Theoretical Framework Bandura’s Social Learning Theory indicates that by observing behaviors that are modeled one tends to then imitate or match performances (Mihalic & Elliott, 2005). Humans learn and comprehend attitudes and behaviors as a result of the social interactions they have with other people (Strong, DeVault, Cohen, 2005). Bandura said that human nature is formed by the connections between the individual. Bandura further stressed the importance of learning by observation of others instead of solely from oneself. As applied to our study, this theory would predict that by observing infidelity behavior by one’s peers, media, or family, one would deem such actions as acceptable in their dating relationships. Purpose Statement The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of a group of Midwestern University male and female students’ perceptions on the causes of infidelity. The central research question in this study was, “What are the comparable attitudes of a Midwestern state university sample of male and female students regarding the causes of infidelity behavior in committed relationships? ” It was hypothesized that the males would rate sexual attraction as the primary cause for infidelity and females would rate relationship dissatisfact