Trait self-objectification in women: Affective and personality correlates

Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) predicts that taking an observer's perspective on one's body (known as self-objectification) leads to negative mental health outcomes. In this study, 98 college-aged women completed measures of trait self-objectification, body shame, Neuroticism, and depression to test these predictions. Participants also completed a measure of Big Five personality traits. Trait self-objectification showed significant positive correlations with each of the measures of negative affect. Trait self-objectification was also negatively correlated with the personality traits Agreeableness and Intellect. There were no significant correlations between trait self-objectification and Extraversion or Conscientiousness. Regression analysis demonstrated that trait self-objectification accounts for a significant amount of variance in negative affectivity above and beyond other personality influences. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).