Body objectification in men: A comparison between adolescents and emerging adults

Pages: 1774-1779
Priyanka Musalay Thiagaamudhan and Perfidia Pinto (Department of Psychology, St. Francis College, Begumpet, Hyderabad, Telangana)
Vaishali Jain (Delhi Public School, Nacharam, Hyderabad, Telangana)

Body Objectification is when a being is treated merely as a body or a collection of body parts that exist for others’ pleasure, that is, treated as sexual objects rather than as a person. Studies showed that men also experience body consciousness to some extent. The phenomenon of Body Consciousness is generally associated with females hence the objectives of this study is to find out the significant relationship of body consciousness in men, specifically in adolescents and emerging adults. Purposive sampling and snowball sampling techniques were used on 200 men where 100 were adolescents and 100 were emerging adults. Body Consciousness was measured using Objectified Body Consciousness Scale. Analysis of data was done using t-test and ANOVA. The results showed that there was a significant difference between Body shame and Appearance control beliefs for emerging adults and adolescents respectively. It also revealed that there is no significance in terms of dieting with respect to age. The implications and shortcomings are discussed.