Sociosexual Orientation, Commitment, and Infidelity: A Mediation Analysis

Mattingly, Brent A.; Clark, Eddie M.; Weidler, Daniel J.; Bullock, Melinda; Hackathorn, Jana; Blankmeyer, Katheryn

doi:10.1080/00224540903536162

Cited by 69 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…However, relationships are also prone to negative outcomes. For instance, between 24% and 34% of married couples and 68% and 75% of college students report engaging in some form of infidelity (Tafoya & Spitzberg, 2007;Wiederman & Hurd, 1999), and infidelity is associated with lower satisfaction and commitment in the primary relationship (Mattingly et al, 2011;Treas & Giesen, 2000). Additionally, relationships that lack self-expansion are associated with greater susceptibility to infidelity (Lewandowski & Ackerman, 2006), suggesting that the selfchange provided by relationships may make individuals more or less prone to negative relational outcomes.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“You make me a better/worse person”: A two‐dimensional model of relationship self‐change

Mattingly

Lewandowski

McIntyre

2014

Personal Relationships

Self Cite

113

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For better or worse, relationships have the potential to affect individuals' self-concepts; however, currently no integrative model exists to explain the variety of these self-concept changes. We propose that self-concept changes occur along two independent dimensions: direction (increase vs. decrease in content) and valence (positivity vs. negativity of content). These two dimensions combine to create four processes of relationship-induced self-concept change: self-expansion (increasing positive content), self-contraction (decreasing positive content), self-pruning (decreasing negative content), and self-adulteration (increasing negative content). Using community and university samples, we developed a measure of self-concept change (Study 1) and examined how the four self-processes were associated with love (Study 1), relationship quality (Studies 2 and 3), and infidelity (Study 3). The self-concept improvement processes (i.e., self-expansion and self-pruning) were associated with greater love and relationship quality, whereas in Study 3 self-concept degradation processes (i.e., self-contraction and self-adulteration) predicted infidelity.Individuals in satisfying romantic relationships often report experiencing positive changes to their self-concepts as a result of their relationship partners. For example, it is common to hear someone speak glowingly of their romantic partner by stating, "He makes me a better person" or "I like the person I am when I'm around her." However, not all relationship partners positively affect individuals' self-concepts. In fact, some romantic partners

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Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“You make me a better/worse person”: A two‐dimensional model of relationship self‐change

Mattingly

Lewandowski

McIntyre

2014

Personal Relationships

Self Cite

113

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“…If a self-motivated behavior is likely to harm the stability of the relationship (e.g., a behavior that leads to infidelity), greater commitment levels serve to transform self-motivations into relational-motivations in order to protect the stability of the relationship [3,25]. For example, sexually unrestricted individuals are less likely to consider engaging in infidelity when highly committed to their relationship [26], and highly committed individuals are less likely to have engaged in sexual infidelity in their current relationship [27,28]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The “I” in us, or the eye on us? Regulatory focus, commitment and derogation of an attractive alternative person

Rodrigues

Kumashiro

2017

PLoS ONE

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When individuals are highly committed to their romantic relationship, they are more likely to engage in pro-relationship maintenance mechanisms. The present research expanded on the notion that commitment redirects self-oriented goals to consider broader relational goals and examined whether commitment interacts with a promotion and prevention focus to activate derogation of attractive alternatives. Three studies used cross-sectional and experimental approaches. Study 1 showed that romantically involved individuals predominantly focused on promotion, but not prevention, reported less initial attraction to an attractive target than single individuals, especially when highly committed to their relationship. Study 2 showed that romantically involved individuals induced in a promotion focus, compared to those in prevention focus, reported less initial attraction, but only when more committed to their relationship. Regardless of regulatory focus manipulation, more committed individuals were also less likely to perceive quality among alternative scenarios and to be attentive to alternative others in general. Finally, Study 3 showed that romantically involved individuals induced in promotion focus and primed with high commitment reported less initial attraction, than those primed with low commitment, or than those induced in prevention focus. Once again, for these latter no differences occurred according to commitment prime. Together, the findings suggest that highly committed promotion focused individuals consider broader relationship goals and activate relationship maintenance behaviors such as derogation of attractive alternatives to promote their relationship.

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“…First, narcissists tend to be oriented toward sexual relationships (Hurlbert, Apt, Gasar, Wilson, & Murphy, 1994; Wryobeck & Wiederman,1999), an orientation that may lead them to seek sex from people other than their primary partners. Second, narcissism is positively associated with having an unrestricted sociosexuality (Jonason, Li, Webster, & Schmitt, 2009)—i.e., having more permissive attitudes toward casual sex (Simpson & Gangestad, 1991), which itself is associated with increased likelihood of infidelity (e.g., Mattingly et al, 2011). Third, narcissists hold relatively positive beliefs regarding their skills and abilities (Campbell, Bosson, Goheen, Lakey, & Kernis,2007; Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001), beliefs that may lead them to think alternative partners will accept and benefit from their sexual advances.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual Narcissism and Infidelity in Early Marriage

McNulty

Widman

2014

Arch Sex Behav

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There is theoretical reason to believe that narcissism is associated with infidelity. Yet, studies that have examined this association have yielded inconsistent results. Given that these inconsistencies may have emerged because prior studies used global assessments of narcissism that do not capture the extent to which the components of narcissism are activated in the sexual domain, the current research drew from two longitudinal studies of 123 married couples to examine the extent to which sexual narcissism predicted marital infidelity. Consistent with the idea that narcissism predicts sexual behavior when activated in the sexual domain, own sexual narcissism was positively associated with infidelity, controlling for own marital and sexual satisfaction, own globally-assessed narcissism, partner globally-assessed narcissism, and partner sexual narcissism. Helping to explain why this association emerged, further analyses demonstrated that it was driven by all four facets of sexual narcissism—sexual exploitation, grandiose sense of sexual skill, sexual entitlement (Study 1 only), and lack of sexual empathy (husbands only). Additionally, although partner sexual narcissism was unrelated to infidelity on average, partners’ grandiose sense of sexual skill and partners’ sexual entitlement (Study 2 only) were positively associated with infidelity, and partners’ lack of sexual empathy was negatively associated with infidelity (Study 2 only). These findings highlight the benefits of using domain-specific measures of sexual narcissism in research on sexual behavior and the benefits of using domain-specific measures of personality more generally.

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Sociosexual Orientation, Commitment, and Infidelity: A Mediation Analysis

Cited by 69 publications

References 12 publications

“You make me a better/worse person”: A two‐dimensional model of relationship self‐change

“You make me a better/worse person”: A two‐dimensional model of relationship self‐change

The “I” in us, or the eye on us? Regulatory focus, commitment and derogation of an attractive alternative person

Sexual Narcissism and Infidelity in Early Marriage

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