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Posttraumatic growth (PTG) may foster skills that allow one to understand traumatic experiences in others. The primary aim of this study is to determine the relationship between an individual’s PTG reports and their ability to relate to two growth types, PTG and illusory growth. The purpose of this study is to elucidate perceptions of illusory growth and PTG so clinicians may more readily identify catalysts for growth and customize treatments. Participants were read two vignettes that detailed the experience of PTG and illusory growth as a result of a specific traumatic event (i.e., car accident). They completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the vignettes. Results revealed that participants with higher PTG were more likely to relate to the PTG vignette than the illusory growth vignette, and when participants had experienced the same event in the vignette (i.e., car accident), this relationship was stronger. Last, participants mostly perceived the PTG vignette as female, and the illusory growth vignette as male. Our results suggest that interventions following traumatic experiences could be best facilitated/supplemented by reflective interactions with others who have experienced similar events. Considering one’s gender may be important in order to ensure that gender stereotypes regarding emotional expression are mitigated.

The circumstances under which infidelity occurs are numerous and several characteristics predict prior and future infidelity (e.g., religiosity, number of lifetime sexual partners, sociosexuality). Evolutionary perspectives inform why steroid hormones that vary across the ovulatory cycle have been associated with both women’s interest in extrapair partners and shifting expressions of men’s anti-infidelity behavior across their partner’s ovulatory cycle. This chapter provides an overview of the ovulatory cycle to establish the physiological basis of the hormonal changes that occur across it. It then provides requisite background on evolutionary theories of human mating, which provide a framework to predict when women should express the most interest in extrapair partnerships, how current partner qualities are associated with desire for extrapair mating opportunities, and the types of qualities women may be seeking in extrapair partners. Evidence that supports and contradicts these accounts of ovulatory phase-dependent changes in extrapair partnerships, as well as research on male anti-infidelity strategies, is then considered. Finally, the chapter reviews evidence that hormonal contraceptives may alter partner preference patterns established in naturally cycling women and their opposite-sex partners. It concludes by identifying current gaps in hormone-linked shifts in women’s infidelity desires and behavior, and makes recommendations for future research.

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