Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This study is available via the UK Data Service QualiBank, an online tool for browsing, searching and citing the content of selected qualitative data collections held at the UK Data Service. This qualitative study is a detailed examination of the views, motivations and experiences of respondents involved in, or affected by, extra-marital affairs. What stories do people tell about their extra-marital affairs and what does this mean to them and to others? What are the cultural myths surrounding the concept of romantic love? What “counts” as adultery, and what implications does it have for relations of power and control within or outside of a marriage? What does loyalty and betrayal mean in a relationship? In the initial stages of this project in the early 1980s, Lawson gave several interviews about adultery to various newspapers and one radio station, through which she invited letters of response from readers. The response was unexpectedly overwhelming receiving 579 replies. These letters often took the form of very personal accounts of adulterous affairs and their individual consequences. Two thirds of the replies came from women and the remainder of the sample was either from men or couples who wrote a joint letter. The sample was mainly middle-class women and men, aged between 22 and 83 years old, either married or involved in long-term live-in relationships. Given this distribution she sampled all the men, all the couples and one in three of the women. A postal survey was sent to all those who had replied and then this was followed up with in-depth tape recorded interviews and small-group discussions with about 100 respondents. The collection includes 364 questionnaires, 67 audio-cassette recordings, 34 interviews and group discussion transcripts, and related documentation including selected additional transcribed quotes, letters, newspaper clippings, correspondence, notes and draft...