The Importance Of Infidelity

When two people decide to get married or to date, they engage in a commitment that requires loyalty, faith and trust. Despite of the promise of being together for the rest of their lives, some people end up by divorcing or breaking up. Infidelity is one of the most common reasons for divorces and breakups. Infidelity could be defined as “a violation of the marital agreement, a betrayal of one’s trust, and a threat to the marital bond” (Mao & Raguram, 2009, p.302). Infidelity is not limited to marital relationships, for instance, “infidelity is experienced in many relationships” (Jackman, 2014, p.72). This paper is an overview of Mahalia Jackman’s, Understanding the Cheating Heart: What Determines Infidelity Intentions?, which examines

Jackman (2014) concluded that gender is important in the prediction of infidelity as men and women have a different opinion on monogamy (p.79). Women view monogamy positively while men view it negatively. In addition, her findings showed that “married persons have more invested in their unions and face higher exit costs and so, are more likely to be faithful” (Jackman, 2014, p.80). However, it is important to know that marriage is not directly associated with fidelity; some people may be married but still commit unfaithful actions. When it comes to religion, findings showed that religious people tend to be more faithful compared to the nonreligious. For religious people, fidelity is an important moral value that must be respected, thus religious people are more likely “to disapprove deviant behaviours, such as infidelity” (Jackman, 2014, p.81). Furthermore, “persons who have been unfaithful in the past hold more favourable attitudes towards cheating while persons who have been victims of infidelity hold more negatives attitudes toward infidelity” (Jackman, 2014, p.81). Therefore, with this entire information one can conclude that nonreligious men who have cheated in the past, have a positive attitudes towards infidelity and who have an entourage supportive of their unfaithful actions have “greater infidelity intentions” (Jackman, 2014,

Marital therapy aims to deal with issues that contribute to online infidelity (Mao & Raguram, 2009, p.303-4). Mao and Raguram (2009) concluded that the husband was involved in online infidelity due to “underlying problems” prior to the infidelity (p.304). For instance, their findings showed that underlying problems existing in a married couple often are the primary causes that lead to cyber affairs. Examples of those “marital problems” are poor communication, sexual dissatisfaction, and boredom with the relationship. These problems may increase the risk of online infidelity, yet online infidelity could also occur without the presence of “marital problems” mentioned before (Mao & Raguram, 2009, p.304). The use of marital therapy demonstrated that online infidelity could “deteriorate” a marriage. Furthermore, online infidelity could lead to mental health problems. For instance, in this specific case, the wife had moderate depression and cyber affair had a negative impact on her mental health (Mao & Raguram, 2009, p.304). On a positive note, this case study shows that marital therapy “is an effective and valid approach in dealing with online infidelity and should be considered while planning treatment strategies” (Mao & Raguram, 2009,