Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Department

Diversity and Community Studies

Additional Departmental Affiliation

Psychology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between self-objectification levels, opinions on the impact of non-violent stranger sexual harassment on a personal and societal level, and agreement with traditional gender roles in college women. College women at Western Kentucky University were surveyed using the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale, the Social Roles Questionnaire, and original scales to measure views of street harassment. The hypotheses that viewing stranger harassment as both individually direct and complimentary would be positively correlated with self- objectification, and viewing it as innocuous in society were supported with correlation coefficients of r(103) = .211, p = .05, and r(103) = .314, p = .01 respectively. Hypotheses that agreement with traditional sex roles would be related to higher self-objectification levels and to views of harassment as benign to society were not. Possible reasons for these findings are explored, including the need for healthier mediums of empowerment and changing definitions of sex equality.

Advisor(s) or Committee Chair

Dr. Kristi Branham

Disciplines

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Psychology

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