PSY20016: Social Psychology- Emotional & Sexual Infidelity- Research Report Assignment Help

Internal Code: 1GIEF

Research Report Assignment Help:

Task: BACKGROUND Infidelity is the act of being unfaithful to one’s spouse or sexual partner, and it can involve sexual activity, emotional intimacy, or both. While sexual activity and emotional intimacy frequently co-occur in cases of infidelity, sexual activity with another may occur in the absence of emotional intimacy, and emotional intimacy with another may develop in the absence of sexual activity. These aspects of infidelity are referred to as sexual and emotional infidelity respectively. Emotional infidelity, like sexual infidelity, can be extremely upsetting and damaging to a relationship. However, the two types of infidelity may not be equally upsetting to (heterosexual) males and females. It has been reported that females are more distressed by emotional infidelity than males, while males are more distressed by sexual infidelity than females. One explanation for this sex difference, the one originally proposed by Buss and colleagues, is based on evolutionary adaptation. According to this theory, males and females faced different adaptive challenges, which lead to the development of different jealousy systems. The challenge for females was to ensure their partner remained invested in their offspring, to help maximise their chances of survival. Therefore, females developed a jealousy system that is most sensitive to their partner forming an emotional attachment to another person. For males, the challenge was to ensure they were indeed the biological father of any child they invested in. Evolutionarily, it would be pointless to invest their energies in raising a child that was not genetically related. Therefore, males have developed a jealousy system that is most sensitive to sexual infidelity. According to this theory, sex differences in responses to emotional and sexual infidelity are due to males and females having different biologically evolved jealousy systems. In other words, males and females are ‘hardwired’ to respond differently to each type of infidelity. Further research has examined how stable this sex difference is across a range of groups and variables, including different cultural groups, sexual orientations, relationship status, previous experiences of infidelity, age, attachment style, and personality. Empirical findings have been mixed, with some studies finding the predicted sex difference across a range of groups and variables, and others finding no sex differences within certain groups. Aims: The aims of this study are to investigate whether men and women differ in their responses to sexual and emotional infidelity and, if so, whether any sex differences are moderated by relationship status. Design and IVs: Infidelity In the survey participants were presented with two hypothetical scenarios describing an act of infidelity. One of these involved sexual infidelity but no emotional infidelity. The other involved emotional infidelity but no sexual infidelity. After reading the scenario participants were asked to indicate which scenario they would find most upsetting. Relationship status To measure relationship status, participants were asked to indicate whether they were currently in a relationship or not currently in a relationship. Participant sex1 The sex of participants was measured with a single self-report question asking “What is your sex?”, with response options of “male”, “female”, “other” and “prefer not to say”. An “other” option was included to accommodate any intersex participants. Design The study was conducted as a 2 (participant sex: male vs. female) by 2 (relationship status: currently in a relationship vs. not in a relationship) experimental design. It is a 2 x 2 design because there are two independent variables, each with two levels. Additionally, it was a between subjects design because the sex and relationship status variables were between-subjects (each participant was either male or female2, and either in a relationship or not in a relationship). Dependent variable: The dependent variable was which type of infidelity participants think would be most upsetting. Participants were asked: If you had to choose, which of the two scenarios you read about would you find most upsetting? Response options were the sexual infidelity scenario or the emotional infidelity scenario. In this research report, you will be asking the following questions: 1. Do males and females differ in the frequency of which type of infidelity they find most upsetting? 2. Do males and females currently in a relationship differ in the frequency of which type of infidelity they find most upsetting? 3. Do males and females not currently in a relationship differ in the frequency of which type of infidelity they find most upsetting? The first thing you will need to do is construct hypotheses that reflect these questions. They are what you think the answers to the above questions will be as shown by the data. You should review the relevant literature, and from that literature, derive logical predictions about what we will find in this study in relation to the Research Questions outlined above. Remember, when stating your hypotheses, you need to specify the direction of any predicted differences.