Inside the paid dim lights of red alert areas: An investigation of the psychological constructs of female sex workers in Punjab

Pages: 187-193
Gonika Bhatia and Niti Shukla (Department of Psychology, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab)

There are several million of females worldwide who are working as prostitutes to earn for their survival. The number of prostitutes is escalating day by day. The previous studies are mostly engaged into finding the after-effects of entering into the prostitution, but no one has shown the interest in knowing the factors that might have contributed in the selection of this profession. Being a student of Psychology, the researcher felt the need to find out the intrinsic, psychological factors contributing in the final choice of entering into the practice of prostitution by a woman. Thus, this study is intended to find out the psychological constructs of the prostitution which casts some light on the factors like personality, role of sexual abuse and motivation behind choosing a profession like prostitution. For the same purpose, three different psychometric tools were being used which include NEO PI-R, i.e., Neuroticism, Extroversion, Openness, Personality Inventory (Revised), Work Extrinsic, Intrinsic Motivation scale and Sexual abuse check list. The sample size in the study was 33 (N=33). The statistical tools used to analyze the collected data included t-test and chi-square. The results concluded that there were insignificant differences in the personalities of the two groups under study, i.e., the females who chose to be in the occupation of prostitution and the females who were forced into it. The motivation levels of the two groups did show some differences but again were not significant enough. The overall motivation in the prostitutes came out to be extrinsic in nature. It was found that the females who choose to be a sex worker score higher on the incidences of sexual abuse. The results also concluded empirically that the females who are into the profession of prostitution are significantly higher on the incidence of sexual abuse.