Investigating the attachment styles and infidelity tendencies in married people in terms of dominant ego-states in transactional analysis theory

The main purpose of this study was to determine whether the infidelity tendencies and attachment styles of married individuals differ in terms of the dominant self-state. This study also examined whether attachment styles and infidelity tendencies differ in terms of different demographic variables. In the study, the descriptive scanning model was used because the main objective was to examine whether dependent variables (attachment styles and infidelity tendency) differed according to the independent variables (dominant ego-states).The data was collected from couples who had been married for at least a year. Demographic Information Form, Infidelity Tendency Scale, Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R) and Ego States Scale were used to collect the data. The data was analyzed using SPSS.25 program and independent sample t test and one-way ANOVA were conducted to analyzed the data.Regarding the results of the infidelity tendency in terms of demographic variables, men's infidelity tendency was found to be significantly higher than women. However, infidelity tendency did not differ significantly in terms of the duration of marriage, the married patterns and the circumstances of having children. Regarding differences of attachment styles, both anxious attachment and avoiding attachment style did not differ significantly in terms of gender, duration of marriage, and marriage pattern variables. However, the avoiding attachment style scores differed significantly in terms of the state of having children. Avoiding attachment style scores of married individuals who had children were found to be significantly higher than the ones who did not have children. In terms of findings related to differences in infidelity tendency in terms of dominant self-states, married individuals with the dominant free child self states had a higher infidelity tendency than individuals with dominant nurturing parents and dominant adult ego states. There was no significant difference in infidelity tendency in terms of other self-states. Regarding difference in anxious attachment style based in dominant self-state, the anxious attachment scores of married individuals with dominant critical parent self-state and dominant nurturing parents were found to be higher than the dominant adult ego state. The results also showed that the participants with dominant adapted child ego states had a higher levels of anxious attachment scores than ones with the dominant free child and dominant adult ego state. The findings helped to better understand attachment styles and infidelity tendency and contributed to the understanding differences in terms of dominant ego states. In the light of the literature, the results were discussed along with previous findings. In line with the findings, implications were provided for practice and future studies.