Personality and Social Contexts Commons^™

“You Can Catch More Flies With Honey Than Vinegar”: Objectification Valence Interacts With Women’S Enjoyment Of Sexualization To Influence Social Perceptions, Abigail R. Riemer, Jill Allen, Marco Gullickson, Sarah Gervais

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Although objectification is a common experience for women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), little is understood about how women perceive sources of objectifying commentary and behaviors. The current work provides a novel integration of objectification and consistency theories to understand how valence of sexual objectification and women’s feelings about sexual attention interact to predict perceptions of objectifying sources. In two online vignette studies with 121 and 110 U.S. women recruited through MTurk, female participants were asked to recall an experience of complimentary or critical objectification and report perceptions of source warmth, approach behavioral intentions, perceived overlap between the self and the …

Renaming Me: Assessing The Influence Of Gender Identity On Name Selection, Sharon Obasi, Richard Mocarski, Natalie Holt, Debra Hope, Nathan Woodruff

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Our identity is our name connected with a specific face and body. Yet, our name, a critical aspect of the “names-body-identity” nexus is rarely selfselected. The naming of a newborn is often the purview of family and the name selected is often linked to the sex assigned to the child. Assigned sex, however, may differ from gender identity. Renaming, the process of selecting and using a new name, can be instrumental in expressing an authentic gender identity. Thus, gender identity and renaming were examined among transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) adults using an online survey. Participants indicated that the recognition …

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beer Holder: An Initial Investigation Of The Effects Of Alcohol, Attractiveness, Warmth, And Competence On The Objectifying Gaze In Men, Abigail R. Riemer, Michelle Haikalis, Molly R. Franz, Michael Dodd, David Dilillo, Sarah Gervais

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Despite literature revealing the adverse consequences of objectifying gazes for women, little work has empirically examined origins of objectifying gazes by perceivers. Integrating alcohol myopia and objectification theories, we examined the effects of alcohol as well as perceived female attractiveness, warmth, and competence on objectifying gazes. Specifically, male undergraduates (n = 49) from a large U.S. Midwestern university were administered either an alcoholic or placebo beverage. After consumption, participants were asked to focus on the appearance or personality (counterbalanced) of pictured women who were previously rated as high, average, or low in attractiveness, warmth, and competence. Replicating previous work, appearance …

From Sex Objects To Human Beings: Masking Sexual Body Parts And Humanization As Moderators To Women’S Objectification, Philippe Bernard, Sarah Gervais, Jill Allen, Alice Delmée, Olivier Klein

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Recent studies have shown that sexualized female bodies are objectified at a cognitive level. Research using the body-inversion recognition task, a robust indicator of configural (vs. analytic processing) within cognitive psychology, shows that for sexualized female bodies, people recognize upright and inverted bodies similarly rather than recognizing upright bodies better than inverted bodies (i.e., an inversion effect). This finding suggests that sexualized female bodies, like objects, are recognized analytically (rather than configurally). Nonetheless, it remains unclear when and why sexualized female bodies are objectified at a basic cognitive level. Grounded in objectification theory, the present experiments examine moderating factors that …

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Of Social Anxiety Disorder And Comorbid Paranoid Schizophrenia, Monnica T. Williams, Michelle C. Capozzoli, Erica V. Buckner, David Yuska

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

We report on the cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) of a patient with comorbid social anxiety disorder (SAD), schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder, complicated by alcohol abuse. Symptoms included auditory hallucinations that commented on the patient’s behavior and paranoid thoughts. The paranoid symptoms affected his social interactions as this included the fear that his thoughts may be heard and judged by others. Therapeutic activities raised awareness as to how avoidance interferes with and perpetuates the cycle of depression and psychosis while maintaining symptoms of SAD. Psychoeducation was provided about factors that maintain social anxiety and increase social isolation. New skills were obtained …

Problematic Alcohol Use And Sexual Assault Among Male College Students: The Moderating And Mediating Roles Of Alcohol Outcome Expectancies, Antover P. Tuliao, Dennis E. Mcchargue

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives: Extant research shows a strong relationship between alcohol use problems and sexual aggression. However, less is known about the effect of intermediary factors (eg, alcohol expectations) that may increase the likelihood of and/or explain sexual aggression during alcohol-related incidents. The present study examined alcohol outcome expectancies’ (OE) mediating and/or moderating influence on the relationship between problematic alcohol use severity and sexual aggression among male college students.

Methods and Result: One hundred and forty eight (n = 148) male college students volunteered for the study. Seventyseven males self-reported committing at least one act of sexual aggression in …

Child Maltreatment And Adult Criminal Behavior: Does Criminal Thinking Explain The Association?, Lorraine E. Cuadra, Anna E. Jaffe, Renu Thomas, David Dilillo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Criminal thinking styles were examined as mediational links between different forms of child maltreatment (i.e., sexual abuse, physical abuse, and physical neglect) and adult criminal behaviors in 338 recently adjudicated men. Analyses revealed positive associations between child sexual abuse and sexual offenses as an adult, and between child physical abuse/neglect and endorsing proactive and reactive criminal thinking styles. Mediation analyses showed that associations between overall maltreatment history and adult criminal behaviors were accounted for by general criminal thinking styles and both proactive and reactive criminal thinking. These findings suggest a potential psychological pathway to criminal behavior associated with child maltreatment. …

Peer Victimization And Child Physical Health: The Moderating Role Of Pessimism, Tori R. Van Dyk, Timothy D. Nelson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objective—Involvement in peer victimization has been associated with numerous negative consequences, including poor physical health. The purpose of this study is to improve on previous research evaluating the victimization– health relationship by examining the health (i.e., health-related quality of life [HRQoL], medical service utilization) of both victims and aggressors and examining individual variation in this relationship through the moderating effect of pessimism.

Method—Sample included 125 ethnically diverse youth aged 8–11 years recruited from a low-income medical practice. Child-report of involvement in peer victimization and pessimism was assessed along with parent-report of HRQoL. 2-year medical service utilization was extracted from medical …

A Preliminary Investigation Of Worry Content In Sexual Minorities, Brandon J. Weiss, Debra A. Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This preliminary study examined the nature of worry content of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals and the relationship between worry related to sexual orientation and mental health. A community sample of 54 individuals identifying as sexual minorities was recruited from two cities in the Great Plains to complete a packet of questionaires, including a modified Worry Domains Questionnaire (WDQ; Tallis, Eysenck, & Mathews, 1992) with additional items constructed to assess worry over discrimination related to sexual orientation, and participate in a worry induction and verbalization task. The content of self-reported worries was consistent with those reported in prior investigations …