Personality marital satisfaction and the probability infidelity

Abstract The theory of investment model of dating infidelity maintains that loyalty is an essential power within romantic relationships. Loyalty signifies both a motivation and psychological attachment to maintain a relationship. This study examined the relationship between the Big Five personality factors (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness), marital satisfaction and probability of marital infidelity. The participants completed NEO-FFI, ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Inventory and INFQ (infidelity

questionnaire) . The results demonstrated that extraversion and agreeableness traits were significant predictors for the probability of infidelity and risk of divorce. In addition, conscientiousness predicted the probability of infidelity, while neuroticism predicted the risk of divorce. Keywords: Five Factor Personality, Marital Satisfaction, Infidelity 1. Introduction

Infidelity influences the function of a relationship and stability of a marriage. In addition, infidelity is the main cause of marital termination and displeasure(Cann, Mangum et al. 2001). There are different kinds of infidelity such as sexual, emotional, and on-line infidelity(Blow and Hartnett 2005). Some studies have shown that men seem to be more sexually unfaithful whereas women seem to be more likely to get involved in an emotional infidelity (Schtzwohl and Koch 2004; Schtzwohl 2005; Sagarin, Martin et al. 2012). Wifely infidelity also can cause men show violence against their wives (Stieglitz, Gurven et al. 2012) Infidelity is a common phenomenon around the world, especially in some middle-

eastern countries like Iran in which 50% of people in close relationships report having hadan affair(Brown 2001). A related question centres on the likelihoodthat many people do not

have affairs as a result of lack of opportunity to do so, or fear of consequences, rather than a feeling of loyalty to their partners. Eight out of ten divorces in Iran are because of infidelity (Mehr News, 2008). Divorce (or the termination of marriage) is the last dissolution of a marriage, cancelling the responsibilities of marriage and permissible duties and disbanding the bonds of matrimony between the partners. In many countries, divorce needs authorization of a court or other power in a lawful procedure. The officially authorized procedure for divorce may engage matters of child support, child's safekeeping , the division of debt, distribution of property and spousal support(Connell 2002). In the current study, the risk of divorce, as a probability of terminating the permissible responsibilities and duties of marriage and breaking up the bonds of the married state between partners, is measured by Oral History Interview (OHI) in which partners were asked to mention the story of their relationships from the time they got engaged until the current day(Buehlman, Gottman et al. 1992). The spouses were also asked about the good and challenging times in their marriage, in addition to their viewpoint about marriage. The question determined the spouse's insights by focusing on the negative or positive values of the relationships that dominated in the telling of the story. Personality may help to explain the possibility of infidelity in a marriage and risk of divorce. Some studies show that personality traits may help to explain which marriages are probable to contain unfaithfulness and which are likely to stay loyal (Shackelford, Besser et al. 2008). Personality is identified as consistent behavioral differences between individuals over time and across situations(Gosling 2001; Sih, Bell et al. 2004). Costa & McCrae (1992)

classified

personality

through

the

Five

Factor-Model

(FFM)

which

includes

conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, and agreeableness. The FFM explains five magnitudes that show important individual differences. These bipolar aspects are agreeableness (cold, suspicious vs. warm, trusting), assurgency (gentleness introversion vs. dominance extraversion), conscientiousness (undependable, disorganized vs. reliable, well-organized), openness /intellect (imperceptive, incurious vs. perceptive, curious) and emotional stability (nervous temperamental vs. secure, even-tempered) (Musek 2007). Previous studies indicate that wifes low conscientiousness is the best spousal personality trait by which husband can estimate whether his partner was unfaithful (Shackelford and Buss 2000). Also, higher levels of infidelity were linked to low conscientiousness for both women and men in all cultures. Extraverts are considered as more probable to be unfaithful in their marriage or romantic relationship than introverts (Schmitt, Shackelford et al. 2001). Neuroticism has been related to several types of sexual problems , including marital infidelity and sexual dissatisfaction. Some investigators have shown that couples who achieve high scores in neuroticism are involved in more sexual adventuresome behaviour (Schmitt 2004). Perhaps the most important personality trait that assossicates with infidelity is impulsive sensation-seeking (Hoyle, Fejfar et al. 2000; Mashegoane, Moalusi et al. 2002). The impulsive sensationseeking, among big five personality traits , is most strongly linked to low conscientiousness and low agreeableness(Zuckerman and Kuhlman 2000). Several studies have found a strong relation between conscientiousness , agreeableness, and

infidelity (Hoyle, Fejfar et al. 2000; Mashegoane, Moalusi et al. 2002). For instance, Schmitt (2004) found high levels of unfaithful relationship was related to low agreeableness. In addition , the trait of openness to experiences was not constantly related to infidelity crossculturally (Schmitt 2004).

Furthermore, Orzeck(2005) investigated the difference between the big five personality factors of faithful spouse and big five personality factors of unfaithful spouse . The findings exposed significant diversities differences between unfaitful spouse and faitful spouse on the big five personality traits. For example unfithful spouse rated themselves significantly higher than faithful spouse on extraversion self report scale .vic versa, faithful parntener were high on aggreblenecces and conscientiousness scale (Orzeck and Lung 2005). Cross-culturally, a womans sexual unfaithfulness, real or suspected, is the leading reason for her being battered or killed.. In spite of the devastative costs involved in divorce, many spouses do divorce after finding about their partners infidelity (Weekes-Shackelford and Shackelford 2004). From an investment model perspective(Impett, Beals et al. 2001), infidelity shows lack of dedications to a relationship. It can be argued from each of this viewpoints that the decision to divorce as a result of infidelity depends on costs and benefits investigated by the betrayed partner (Shackelford and Goetz 2007). This study was conducted to examine personality traits that would influence an individuals probability of marital infidelity and risk of divorce among Iranian couples. The reason why this study considered Iranian couples is because of the recent increasing rate of divorce in Iran. According to the report of State Birth Registration Organization, the number of marriages in 1986 was 340,342 and divorce 35,211, in 1996 the number of marriage was 479,263 and divorce was 37,817, and in 2002, 650,960 cases of marriage and 67,256 cases of divorce were reported. However, the accurate data showing the number of divorces are not available but according to Mehr News Agency (2009), infidelity is the main reason for eight out of ten divorces in Iran. Also, State Birth Registration Organization reported 51,192 divorces in the first five months of 2009 .

Accordingly this study investigates two research questions: (1) Do people with particular personality tend to become extramaritaly involved and have high risk of divorce? (2) Do people with specific personality tend to get divorce? In addition acording the literature revirwes it was hypotheses:1-Individuals self-rated as low in agreeableness are more likely to become involved in extramarital affairs and got divorce. 2- Individuals selfrated high in extraversion are more likely to commite infidelity in their marriage and terminate their marriage.3- Individuals self-rated as low in conscientiousness are more likely to become involved in extramarital affairs and have a high risk to divorce .