Thou Shalt Not Covet Another Man? Exploring Constructions of Same‐Sex and Different‐Sex Infidelity Using Story Completion

Abstract

This study explores conceptualisations of same‐ versus different‐sex infidelity in the context of a heterosexual marriage using story completion. A convenience sample of 57 female and male participants completed one of four versions of a story stem featuring a husband who is either emotionally or sexually unfaithful with a woman or a man. A social constructionist thematic analysis found that same‐sex infidelity was conceptualised as the ‘worst case scenario’ and was underpinned by a heteronormative framing of repressed homosexuality. By contrast, heterosexual infidelity was understood in terms of relational deficits and the wife assuming responsibility for these. Overall, the analysis shows that in making sense of same‐sex and heterosexual infidelity, the participants drew on familiar discourses of sexuality and gender, suggesting that despite social psychological theorising related to sexual fluidity, essentialist ideas remain firmly in place. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the usefulness of a rarely used tool—the story completion task—for accessing socio‐cultural discourses and dominant meanings surrounding a particular topic. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Editorial Introduction to the Special Issue: Using Story Completion Methods in Qualitative Research

“…We have taught story completion as a qualitative data collection technique to undergraduate and postgraduate students for several years, including using story completion in undergraduate research methods practicals and laboratories. We have supervised numerous student projects using story completionit is a popular method for students conducting their own research, particularly undergraduate students Wooles 2015 andWalsh &Malson 2010 both report on undergraduate student research projects). This popularity led Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke to include story completion in their qualitative textbook , even though it is a novel technique and textbooks are usually the domain of wellestablished, or "core," techniques.…”

“…Qualitative story completion research still consists of only a handful of studies, mostly conducted by feminist researchers on topics related to gender, sexuality, and relationships, such as infidelity (Kitzinger & Powell 1995;Schnarre & Adam 2018;Whitty 2005), dating a person with physical disabilities (Hunt et al 2018), sexual refusal (Beres et al 2018;Shah-Beckley & Clarke 2018), sexual experimentation (Shah-Beckley & Clarke 2018) and orgasmic absence (Frith 2013) in heterosexual relationships, infidelity in same-sex relationships (Clarke, Braun & Wooles 2015), eating disorders (Walsh & Malson 2010), sexual aggression (Livingston & Testa 2000), child sex offenders (Gavin 2005), and virtual reality pornography (Wood, Wood & Balaam 2017). Some researchers have used story completion in what Kitzinger and Powell (1995) would categorise as an essentialist way, that is, to access psychological meanings or truths.…”

Dating persons with physical disabilities: the perceptions of South Africans without disabilities

“…The extracts were coded not only for semantic content, but also for dynamics within the responses (for instance, noting when respondents changed track half way through their response) and for the manner of responding (how they narrated the end of the story). In each case, the dynamic of responding was examined for what it revealed about the respondents' views concerning dating a person with physical disabilities, and this was coded (as suggested by Clarke, Braun, and Wooles [2015]). The codes, and their associated extracts, were then examined by the first author and themes developed, which were then discussed as a team.…”

Story Completion: Storying as a Method of Meaning-Making and Discursive Discovery

“…Data analysis. Researchers have predominantly employed a thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to analyzing story completion data (e.g., Clarke, Braun, & Wooles, 2015;Frith, 2013). Discourse analysis is another method that has also been used effectively (Walsh & Malson, 2010).…”