WHO Fredrickson & Roberts
WHAT Gender differences across swimsuit objectification and math performance
WHEN 1998
WHERE Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE Women feel the effects of objectification wayyyyyy more than men.
One of the reasons I’ve always been interested in psychology is because of my mom. She majored in psychology undergrad, received her Ph.D. in psychology, and is now a professor of psychology at Salem State University. One of her favorite studies is Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts’s 1998 “That Swimsuit Becomes You: Sex Differences in Self Objectification, Restrained Eating, and Math Performance.”
This study was comprised of two experiments where Fredrickson and Roberts had participants try on either a sweater or a swimsuit. The dependent variable (the thing that Fredrickson and Roberts were manipulating) was the participant’s level of self-objectification.
In a broad sense, objectification can be thought of as the process by which individuals are treated as an object defined by its physical properties. In the lens of this study, self-objectification refers to the degree to which individuals internalize this treatment and subsequently turn that perspective on themselves.
Participants tried on either the sweater or swimsuit alone in front of a full-length mirror and, while still wearing their randomly assigned garment, filled out a survey measuring body shame. The two experiments are broken down below...
WHAT Gender differences across swimsuit objectification and math performance
WHEN 1998
WHERE Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE Women feel the effects of objectification wayyyyyy more than men.
One of the reasons I’ve always been interested in psychology is because of my mom. She majored in psychology undergrad, received her Ph.D. in psychology, and is now a professor of psychology at Salem State University. One of her favorite studies is Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts’s 1998 “That Swimsuit Becomes You: Sex Differences in Self Objectification, Restrained Eating, and Math Performance.”
This study was comprised of two experiments where Fredrickson and Roberts had participants try on either a sweater or a swimsuit. The dependent variable (the thing that Fredrickson and Roberts were manipulating) was the participant’s level of self-objectification.
In a broad sense, objectification can be thought of as the process by which individuals are treated as an object defined by its physical properties. In the lens of this study, self-objectification refers to the degree to which individuals internalize this treatment and subsequently turn that perspective on themselves.
Participants tried on either the sweater or swimsuit alone in front of a full-length mirror and, while still wearing their randomly assigned garment, filled out a survey measuring body shame. The two experiments are broken down below...