Infidelity Case Study

Study number one:
Jealousy in response to online and offline infidelity: the role of sex and sexual orientation.

Intro overview
• Jealousy has been studied from multiple perspectives, this study focuses on the relation between jealousy and the type of infidelity the partner engages in.
• Mileham (2007) suggests due to the rapid growth of internet usage it has enabled people to enjoy the stability of a committed relationship and the advantages of infidelity at the same time.
• One of the most frequently searched topics on the internet is sex, Supported by multiple ‘chat rooms’ which are geared towards married individuals to participate in online sexual relationships E.g. Yahoos “married and flirting” and MSNs “married but flirting” chat

The victim (mean age 29.1 years), the cheater (mean age 27.7 years) and the interloper. Average length of the victims and cheaters relationship was 3.6 years.
• Shows sequence of events; o The victim contacted the cheaters detective agency (CDA) as they had suspicions regarding their partner. o Then the CDA taped the cheaters actions over several weeks. o The evidence was then shown to the victim and they were able to confront the cheater and interloper who were presently together. o CDA recorded the victim’s confrontation with the cheater and interloper.
• 51 episodes were content analysed by six trained undergrad students. Completing a 45-item coded sheet. They were trained over a period of four sessions, deciding upon what they believed constituted evidence of the victim portraying sexual and emotional jealousy.
• To further stray the coders away from the main focus of the study they also analysed other prompts about each case, such as attractiveness of each couple and the degrees of verbal or physical abuse between the couples.
Results;
• A significant difference between men and women was established. When interrogated common questions included “did you have sex with him?”, “Do you love her?” and “who do you love

 As it would be unethical for researchers to try and recreate these situations, it allows for real life behaviour to be studied without causing harm to anyone involved.

Similarities between studies:

 Both studies support Busses findings.
 Even though the method for each study was very different they Both focused around the same topic of jealousy within relationships, however the first study also included sex and sexual orientation.
 Both somehow incorporated the use of technology and
Effect on buss’ research;
 Both studies support Buss (1992), as they further validate the evolutionary theory that men respond worse to sexual infidelity and women respond worse to emotional infidelity.
 However, Dijkstra et al (2013) conducted further research with additional aspects of interest, sexual orientation and technology, this subsequently added to Buss’ findings and provided more in-depth knowledge surrounding his study.
 Even though Kuhle (2011) originally set it with the intention to challenge Buss’ methods, although the critiques valid, the results also further supported the research, and provided alternate perspectives into the original