Publication Date

4-25-2003

Abstract

Objectification is any action that separates a woman's body, body parts, or sexual functions from her person, or regards her as if her body were capable of representing her. This study aimed to develop a measure of men's objectifying attitudes and behaviors towards women. Based on research in areas of sexual harassment and self-objectification, items for this measure were developed across six categories: exclusion of face and emphasis on body, independence from attraction, disempathy/ disrespect, anonymity, surveillance, and social behaviors. Sixty items were created across these categories, and the measure was distributed to 93 Illinois Wesleyan University male students. Internal consistencies were high for the original 60 items (a=.89), the refined 44-item pool (a=.92), and the 25 items extracted from a factor analysis (a=.89). A factor analysis with 4 factors produced the most interpretable groupings of items. The item groups produced by the factor analysis supported 3 of the proposed categories of objectification: exclusion of face and emphasis of body, independence from attraction, and disempathy. The development of this measure should be continued in other studies by examining the factors identified by this study, as well as testing the measure's reliability over time and its construct validity.

Disciplines

Psychology

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS