Female Questionnaire of Trait Self-Objectification: Initial Development and Validation in China

Validation of the Chinese Version of the Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale

“…In the two decades after Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) proposed the construct of self-objectification, five self-report scales were devised to assess it, namely, the Self-Objectification Questionnaire (SOQ; Fredrickson et al, 1998), the Body Surveillance Subscale of the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (OBC-Surveillance; McKinley and Hyde, 1996), the Self-Objectification Scale (SOS; Talmon and Ginzburg, 2016), the Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale (SOBBS; Lindner and Tantleff-Dunn, 2017), and the Female Questionnaire of Trait Self-Objectification (FQSO; Wu and Lang, 2019).…”

“…First, the item ranking method forces participants to put physical competence in direct opposition to physical appearance (Hill and Fischer, 2008;Calogero, 2011); however, as a stable trait, at least two other situations may also exist: valuing both physical competence and physical appearance, and valuing neither physical competence nor physical appearance (Wu and Lang, 2019). Second, the item rating method makes it difficult for participants to complete the SOQ correctly; therefore, many questionnaires are unsuitable for data analysis (Calogero, 2011;Lindner and Tantleff-Dunn, 2017;Wu and Lang, 2019). Third, the SOQ's internal consistency coefficient cannot be calculated because of its rank-order format and scoring system (Hill and Fischer, 2008).…”

“…Therefore, the SOBBS can measure both the internalized observer's perspective (as was done in OBC-Surveillance), the value of physical appearance over physical competence (as was done in the SOQ), and treating the body as if it is the sole representation of the self (as is highlighted by the definition of sexual objectification). Second, each item of the SOBBS is a statement; this form is better understood than the body attributes used by the SOQ (Wu and Lang, 2019). Third, Lindner and Tantleff-Dunn (2017) found that the SOBBS can better predict physical shame and appearance anxiety than the SOQ and OBC-Surveillance.…”

“…Based on the SOQ, Wu and Lang (2019) designed the FQSO specifically to measure self-objectification in Chinese women. It includes 17 items, 10 about body-appearance attributes (e.g., facial features and facial shape) and 7 bodycompetence attributes (e.g., body flexibility).…”

“…However, there are still some shortcomings. For example, some participants thought the test was unnecessary because they believed that all body attributes were important (Wu and Lang, 2019). Some believed that certain items (e.g., health) were important to all people, and some participants found it confusing to use words as items.…”