Smile pretty and watch your back: Personal safety anxiety and vigilance in objectification theory.

Smile pretty and watch your back: Personal safety anxiety and vigilance in objectification theory. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2020 Sep 17;: Authors: Calogero RM, Tylka TL, Siegel JA, Pina A, Roberts TA Abstract Objectification Theory posits that everyday encounters with sexual objectification carry a diffuse nonspecific sense of threat that engenders personal safety anxiety in women. In this article, we provide direct evidence for this tenet across 5 studies and 1,665 participants using multiple methods. Study 1 (N = 207) and Study 2 (N = 161) explored and confirmed the factor structure of the Personal Safety Anxiety and Vigilance Scale (PSAVS), a measure of personal safety anxiety, and provided evidence for the reliability and construct validity of its scores. Study 3 (N = 363) showed that personal safety anxiety is a conceptually different construct for women and men, and differentially mediated the relation between sexual objectification and restricted freedom of movement and the relation between self-objectification and restricted freedom of movement for women and men. Study 4 (N = 460) included a comprehensive test of personal safety anxiety within an expanded Objectification Theory model, which supported personal safety anxiety as a mediator of the links from sexual and self-objectification to women's restricted freedom of movement. Study 5 (N = 474) replicated these results while also adjusting for specific fears of crime and rape. O...
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: J Pers Soc Psychol Source Type: research