Objectification theory provides an important framework for understanding, researching, and intervening to improve women’s lives in a sociocultural context that sexually objectifies the female body and equates a woman’s worth with her body’s appearance and sexual functions. The purpose of this Major Contribution is to advance theory, research, practice, and training related to the sexual objectification of women. The purpose of this article is to introduce readers to objectification theory and related research, extend objectification theory to our understanding of women’s substance use and/or abuse and immersed forms of sexual objectification via sexually objectifying environments, and provide an overview of this Major Contribution on Sexual Objectification of Women.

Personality traits were examined in relation to job satisfaction and career satisfaction for 1059 information technology (IT) professionals. As hypothesized, eight traits were significantly related to both job and career satisfaction: Assertiveness, Emotional Resilience, Extraversion, Openness, Teamwork Disposition, Customer Service Orientation, Optimism, and Work Drive. Regression analyses indicated that sets of three and four traits accounted for 17 and 25%, respectively, of job and career satisfaction variance. As expected, career satisfaction correlations were of generally higher magnitude than corresponding job satisfaction correlations. Results were interpreted in terms of IT research and theorizing. The findings that Extraversion and Teamwork Disposition were related to job and career satisfaction contravenes job descriptions and career planning advice, suggesting that independent introverts are better suited for IT work. Given that adult personality is antecedent to work experiences, it was suggested that future research proposing to show the effects of work-related factors such as pay and challenge on job or career satisfaction should first control for personality traits. Other practical and theoretical implications were noted.

Graduate students experience significant amounts of stress and anxiety, and their suicidal behavior is strongly characterized by depression, hopelessness, desperation, lack of control, and eating problems. Future work with this population should focus on the development and evaluation of mental health and wellness interventions and on ways to promote help-seeking, especially among male students.

Research examining the tenets of objectification theory has given little attention to increasing scholars’ understanding of specific environments and subcultures, such as beauty pageants, cheerleading, and cocktail waitressing, that exist within U.S. culture where sexual objectification of women is encouraged, promoted, and socially sanctioned. The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide an in-depth, descriptive contextual understanding of the experiences of 11 women who work in a sexually objectifying restaurant environment. Data classification via the constant comparative method resulted in nine themes: reasons for involvement, ambivalence, counterfeit intimacy, sexual objectification, resistance strategies, power, negative relationships with women, changes over time, and judgment. Corresponding subthemes are also described, and interpretation is provided in light of the relevant literature.

This article focuses on the implications of theory and empirical research on the sexual objectification of women. Drawing largely from the American Psychological Association’s 2007 Guidelines for Psychological Practice With Girls and Women, the 2007 Report of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, key feminist therapy texts, and the findings from empirical research on Fredrickson and Robert’s (1997) objectification theory, the authors provide suggestions for practice with female clients struggling with issues related to sexual objectification and ideas for the training of psychologists.