Can you understand infidelity? What are the psychological motivations that lead us to this situation in a couple’s relationship? Many relationships have been truncated by infidelity and, therefore, psychology studies have been delving into this psychosocial behavior for years to know why they are committed in such a common way.
We will discover the relationship between infidelity and psychology knowing the different types of infidelity that exist, as well as their most common causes. In this way, we will learn more deeply about this very common human behavior.
Types of Infidelity:
Infidelity occurs in a couple when one of the two members tricks the other into a relationship with a third person. It is important to highlight a concept: there is a deception, a lie, a betrayal. We highlight this idea because, at present, there are polyamorous relationships in which the two members accept that their partners may have sex with other people. In these cases, we do not speak of infidelity because infidelity implies lies or deception.
Depending on the type of deception or relationship that remains behind the couple’s back, we can find different types of infidelity. Here we list the most common.
– Direct infidelity. It is when the unfaithful person wants to deceive his partner, that is, he has planned the meeting with the other person, and he has plotted everything so that infidelity can be carried out. If one person is secretly left with another who likes behind his partner’s back to have a relationship, we are facing a direct, sought-after, desired, and organized infidelity.
– Indirect. Other infidelities are not planned and simply arise. But they are infidelities, after all. They are known as indirect and can happen because of a glider, because they have drunk more than the count, for an uncontrolled feeling of passion and desire, etc. The main difference with the previous one is that this is not sought or organized, it only happens.
– Infidelity online. In recent times, another type of infidelity has emerged that must also be known because it is very abundant. It’s about having a virtual relationship with someone else behind your partner’s back. The digital world allows people around the world to connect, talk, see, and have sex at a distance; therefore, it is a kind of infidelity that is easy to commit and that is becoming more abundant.
– Affective. Not all infidelities have to be sexual. Some people have parallel relationships and are in love (or think they are) with more than one person at the same time. It is affective infidelities and that is when there is not only a deception on a sexual level, but it is on a loving and affective level.
Causes of Infidelity
Now that we’ve known the most common types of infidelity, we must try to answer a question: why are people unfaithful? The truth is that the key is usually in the type of partner relationship you are having, also in your self-esteem or your little self-control. Here we are going to analyze the causes of infidelity that are more common so you can understand why, sometimes, we human beings commit this disrespect:
Crisis in the couple. One of the main causes of infidelities is that it is not well with the couple. It may be that you are experiencing a time of crisis, distancing, or coldness and, this can cause a member of the couple to look out of the house for what is missing, both on a sexual and emotional level.
– Sexual Routine. Another of the most common causes is that in the relationship of the couple, the passion and creativity in bed have been lost. This can cause you, in the long run, to look for that spark and that passion that you always have in your first encounters.
– Heartbreak. It is also very common for the relationship no longer to work, for the couple to be together for monotony or by custom, but that love, passion, and connection between the two members is missing. All this can cause infidelities to be committed because it feels that it is no longer part of anything.
Insecurity. But not always the causes must be sought within the couple, but sometimes we must look for them within a person. A member of the couple may feel insecure, with low self-esteem, with a lack of self-love… and that infidelity will serve as a security injection, as a reaffirmation of his strength and power.