Fidelity & Personality Disorders

(Lifespan)

Student choice

Relationship Fidelity

• Fidelity- "faithfulness"
  • Historically tied to marriage vows
• Cultural and individual variations
  • True monogamy
  • Serial monogamy
  • Polyamory (consensual non-monogamy)
    • Polygamy (sometimes excluded)
    • Open relationships
    • Polyfidelity

Polyamorous norms

• "Ethical non-monogamy"
• Compersion over jealousy
• Relationship hierarchy (~30%)
• Infidelity still possible!

• Est. 5% of Americans are polyamorous
  • 49.5% are women
  • 35.4% are men
  • 15.1% third or agendered
  • Tend to be higher educated
  • Small bump to happiness
• Acceptance of polyamory from 7% to 16% since 2001

Infidelity

Difficulties of research

• Definitional issues ("Does a kiss count?")
  • Consensuality often unspecificied
• Limited cross-cultural studies
• Stigma can create a reporting bias
• Often cross-sectional and retrospective
• Dearth of research and old data.

Infidelity

• Self-reports: when partner does not meet emotional or sexual needs
  • Women- Emotional reasons primarily
  • Men - Sexual reasons primarily
  • typically both
• Today, similar prevalence across most gender/sexuality.
  • women independence
  • minority stress among gay men
  • Generational (Millennial)
    • Wait longer
    • Less societal pressure
    • More aware of alternatives

Developmental lense

What determines a preference of monogamy v non-monogamy?

• Biological?
  • Bonobo Chimp
• Psychoanalysis?
• Attachment ?
• Media/Social norms?
  • Gender expectations?

Infidelity in media

• femme fatale
  • Seductive woman who exists to facilitate conflict
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl
  • Vivacious woman who exists to facilitate growth

All just Borderline Personality Disorder?

BPD

• Marked 9 traits:
  1. Fear of abandonment.
  2. Unstable relationships.
  3. Unstable self-image.
  4. Impulsive
  5. Self-harming
  6. Extreme emotional swings
  7. Chronic feelings of emptiness
  8. Explosive anger
  9. Suspicious or out of touch with reality.
• Over-diagnosed in women
• Very stigmatized, even among psychologists

• Emerges by early adulthood typically
  • 30% early as age 12

Child/Adol Psychopathology Risks

• 1 in 3 children in US & Canada will be "poor" at some point
• 1 in 3 US children will face physical/sexual abuse
• Verbal abuse
• Barriers to treatment among PoC and ethnic minorities
• Family members with psychopathology
  • unclear genetic link

Personality Disorders

• Cluster A (Odd, bizarre, eccentric)
  • Paranoid PD, Schizoid PD, Schizotypal PD
• Cluster B (Dramatic, erratic)
  • Antisocial PD, Borderline PD, Histrionic PD, Narcissistic PD
• Cluster C (Anxious, fearful)
  • Avoidant PD, Dependent PD, Obsessive-compulsive PD

Personality Disorders

• Cluster A (Odd, bizarre, eccentric)
  • Paranoid PD, Schizoid PD, Schizotypal PD
• Cluster B (Dramatic, erratic)
  • Antisocial PD, Borderline PD, Histrionic PD, Narcissistic PD
• Cluster C (Anxious, fearful)
  • Avoidant PD, Dependent PD, Obsessive-compulsive PD